Tim Barton, Ep. 10. It's time to rebuild.

In this episode, Tim Barton delivers a powerful speech about what it will take to rebuild America. Drawing from the nation’s founding principles, Tim challenges leaders to return to the moral, constitutional, and historical foundations that shaped the United States.

Through stories from early American history and insights from the Founding Fathers, Tim outlines practical steps for restoring strong leadership, protecting liberty, and renewing the values that once made the nation thrive. This speech is both a reminder of where America came from and a call to rebuild.

If you care about faith, history, and the future of the nation, this is a message you won’t want to miss.

Learn more at: 
WallBuilders.com
Profamily.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Welcome to the American Story Podcast. This week we are tuning in actually to a talk I gave to a group of legislators back in November, talking about the foundation of America. And certainly as we are approaching the 250th anniversary of the nation, there's a lot of important concepts, some that we'll probably revisit a lot this year to make sure that we have a really good grasp of. We want to give you a head start this week by tuning into that talk I gave at the legislators' conference in November. You guys check it out. I think it's unquestionable that God is on the move. I think there's a lot of things we could point to, thinking not only is there something in the essence of a revival, it could be an awakening. And I think what Brother Dave just encouraged and challenged, man, when Benjamin Franklin is like, it's kind of cool, and all these people are singing these songs and hymns, and you can't go anywhere, that's pretty encouraging. It's a great thought and challenge. Uh, I I want to finish with tying some of these thoughts together. Uh, we we've encouraged a lot of different ideas. You've heard from a lot of speakers, you've heard from some pastors, and as we get ready to celebrate, and if we can put those, you guys are great. If if we are looking at the 250th, one of the things that is very clear is as we are wanting to celebrate and we should celebrate America, there will be a move, just like when the 1619 project came out, there will be a move saying, wait a second, we can't celebrate. Do you know how many bad things America's done, et cetera, et cetera, right? We we at this point know the pushback in general. And so I want to give you some thoughts, some ammunition maybe to explain and tell the story of America, but also seeing the Christian connection, uh, big picture, the reason, one of many reasons America should be celebrated. Uh, as we are looking at our nation in general, for 250 years, there has been no nation where there's been more freedom, stability, or prosperity than in America. And it's not even close. Well, that seems like a really good deal. Well, how have we enjoyed that? One of the things that uh happened, there was a group of professors who wanted to do a research project, and they went they basically asked a very simple question. It is, what is the average length of a constitution in the history of the world? And they went through uh there's about 6,000 years of recorded human history approximately. It's it's between five and six thousand years. But they went back and they said, okay, so for for the history of the world, what is the average length of constitution? You actually can look this study up. It was done at the the law school, the University of Chicago, and what they concluded for all the thousand years of human existence is the length of an average constitution, the history of the world, is 17 to 19 years, depending on a couple factors. Right, but but 17 years? On September 17th, we celebrated 239 years living under the same governing document. We are the longest-lasting ongoing constitutional republic in the history of the world. That's a pretty big thing and worth celebrating. A few years before that, and and again, I'm just giving you context as we should be celebrating the 250th. There's lots of reasons why. I just want to show you some of those evidences that you can utilize in conversations. Uh, one of the other things, if you back up a few years before this study, there was a group of professors, actually, one professor led it, but he worked with other professors, Donald Lutz from the University of Houston. He wanted to know, and this was actually back in the 1970s and 1980s, because 1987 was the 200th anniversary. And so he said, built leading into this, we want to go back and explore the Constitution lasting 200 years, even back then, they knew that's kind of special, that's not normal. Why did the constitution work so well? Where did the ideas come from that's made this document so successful? And so this was his idea for his research project. Again, he worked with many other professors in doing this. They wanted to go back and look at the founding fathers to explore where these ideas come from. And what they decided they would do is to understand it. The premise was if we know where the founding fathers got their ideas, then we'll know what influenced them to put things in the constitution. And so they said, if we go back and let's say that they picked a number, 15,000 representative writings. So we'll go through early state constitutions, we'll go through their written letters, we'll go through whatever we can find. Let's see from what the founding fathers wrote, let's see if they quote people. Because if they quoted people, then we can make a list and we'll track and categorize in that list. And if we know who they quoted, then we'll see who really influenced them. This was their idea. So they went through 15,000 representative writings. In doing that, they found 3,154 quotes. And it's worth pointing out they started this project in the 1970s for the buildup to 1987. Now, why in the world would you have to start in the 1970s to do research building up to 1987? Because for many of you remember, research used to be a little different than it is today. Right? Today, where you have incredible technology and right at that just at your fingertips. In fact, with even AI right now, with ChatGPT and Groc, like it's incredible. Some of the resources out there. Well, back then, if you were reading a George Washington letter and you found something in quotation marks, and you're like, Well, I wonder what he's quoting right now. What Donald Lutz and these professors and their grad students would do is they'd say, Okay, well, let's just go to the library. Let's go to the section it sounds like this quote came from, right? Whether it's history or political or science or whatever it is, and everybody get a book. And let's just read until we find this quote. That is one of I am of many things I am grateful for, for indoor plumbing, for electricity, right? But as a researcher, I'm just telling you, I am so grateful that we don't have to go read and catalog the whole library to find where these things came from anymore. But what they did in finding these 3,154 quotes, it took them 10 years to do this. As they put this together, their book came out. It was called The Origins of American Constitutionalism. And in this, they actually document where the ideas came from, and they actually go back to cite the people who the founding fathers quoted, and they do make a list. And this is a great resource to add to your repertoire for lots of reasons. But when when people talk about the influence of the founding fathers, this is considered one of the most authoritative works to this point. Now, there's a couple of professors we know that are going to redo this uh in the modern era, and I'm super excited about that. But what is worth noting about this, it it there's several sections where they kind of list different categories and different topics, and you can go and it's charted. So it's super easy to navigate and go through. They identified the number one quoted individual by the founding fathers was Charles Montesquieu. He did Spirit of the Laws. He was a Christian guy in the Enlightenment era. The second most quoted was William Blackstone. William Blackstone did Blackstone's commentaries on the laws of England. Uh very foundational for all of the legal code in America. The founding fathers referenced Blackstone a lot. Then John Locke was the third most quoted. Now, they did even identify in this work. John Locke was the most quoted during the American Revolution, but they're steady. They started from a little before the Revolution, through the Revolution, all the way up to the Constitution Convention, through the Bill of Rights, the first couple presidents. They looked at about a 45-year period as they're drawing this research, and they said these are the top three most quoted individuals, and then it just goes down from there. So those voices are the most influential on the founding fathers as far as this context is concerned. But even though those are the most cited individuals, they were not the most cited source. The most cited source was the Bible. 34% of all the quotes they found came out of the Bible. But let me give you a caveat with this. Donald Lutz, the head of this project, acknowledged we only included what was in quotation marks. Had we included the obvious Bible references in their letter that were not in quotation marks, because as someone who reads a lot of their letters, the majority of their citations and quoting of the Bible, it's not in quotation marks, he said, had we included all of the obvious references, he said that number would have been far higher than 50%. Yep. In fact, I could argue over 60% for that matter, but here's why it matters. Because even in the parameters of the steady, and you have to have parameters out on the steady, right, to be able to have some kind of scientific analysis that you're doing, even on those parameters, the most influential source on the founding fathers was the Bible. And again, 34% is the low end of what that reality is. But even there, that's four times more than second place. What they realize is the Bible was the most influential source in the founding fathers. And I know that as we have this conversation, uh I have the opportunity at times to go speak on different college campuses, and I love talking about some of the faith foundation of the nation. And most people, and this is not just unique on college campuses, most Americans, they would be very skeptical of the idea that the founding fathers were largely influenced by the Bible, because we have this idea the founding fathers were secular, they were atheist, agnostics, deist, they wanted separation of church and state. And what I would point out is you really can only come to that conclusion if you haven't studied the founding fathers very much. If you're not very familiar with them, and I say that with grace, because if you are of the position that you think they really weren't religious or they're atheist, agnostic, and deist, I would just say I want to walk you through some details real quick. Because as an example, John Adams in 1813 wrote Thomas Jefferson, and if you remember some of the dynamic of their relationship during the revolution, they're working together. They're on the committee of five when they draft the declaration. When uh and actually they're both diplomats together, they're both doing things through the revolution trying to find peace. Uh at the end of the revolution, they're actually both still doing diplomatic things. When George Washington is president, John Adams becomes the first vice president, Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of State, they work together. Then, after Washington's, at the end of Washington's presidency, they start having a falling out, which actually much of Washington's cabinet begins breaking up at the end of his second term for lots of political reasons. But not uh well, probably the most significant one was there was a lot of fallout of kind of a federalism thought, and then of Great Britain and France were at war again, and whose side are we gonna be on? And Washington's like, let's leave it all alone, right? Fair of stress, don't get involved in foreign entanglements. There's a lot of conflict happening, and at this point, John Adams and Jefferson both run for the presidency to be the second president. As they run to be the second president, uh, they are opponents, but the way it worked back then, and you guys probably remember this from history, you didn't used to run as a president vice presidential ticket, right? Early on, whoever got the most votes was president, whoever got the second most votes was vice president. And so literally, these are opponents who then become president and vice president, which I even though I know it's a terrible idea, I kind of would like to have seen that happen in this last election. Because can you imagine Kamala Harris being the vice president? I would tune into that show every day. That would be so great, right? Now, Thomas Jefferson, way more competent, had a better heart for America, and and so he actually didn't try to bring friction to the dynamic of Adam's presidency. However, they're very disagreed. At the end of Adam's first term when he runs for re-election, Jefferson again runs for president. Jefferson beats him, and at that point, their divide is so great, they never talk again for over a decade. Until one of the other founding fathers, name is Benjamin Rush. He actually I don't have time to tell the whole story, but he works this really tricky uh deal where he goes to both of them and is like, hey, you and you know, our friend Jefferson, our friend Adams, y'all are too important to the cause. We can't let the relationship in like this, right? We got to get you guys back together. In fact, I heard Adams tell me, if you would send him a letter, he'd totally write you one back. To Adams, he's like, you know what? I was just with Jefferson. He said he really wanted to be friends, but he wanted you to make the first move. You'd write him a letter. Like it's it's really funny, but he works it back together. And so when they start writing, they actually write a lot of letters at the end of their life back and forth to each other. And actually at this point, it's it's also worth noting that they both kind of became grumpy old men. Um, now, maybe also in a little fairness, like Jefferson had a very hard life. His wife died, most of his kids died. Uh, his faith was very uncertain as he's navigating what's going on. Uh, and so he writes actually almost every critical thing Thomas Jefferson ever said about Bible doctrine or Christianity, he said in one of these letters to John Adams, John Adams right back, and sometimes he's like, I don't think that's right. Sometimes he's like, I agree with you on this point, because those ministers are crazy. So both of them have some letters at the end of their life that are critical. Now, this is also worth noting. This is the end of their life. And at this point, this is what people point to and they're like, see, that's what they believed. And I would say, well, that's certainly what they wrote then, but if you back up and read earlier letters, they wrote very different things early on. And by the way, neither one of them denied the Bible, neither one of them denied that there was a God or Jesus was real, etc. But they did have some questions about doctrine. Both of them weren't sure if Jesus was truly divine, if he's truly the Son of God. So there were some significant things we could get into about their faith and whether or not they're Christians. That's an honest conversation you can have. But the point is, even with their criticisms, they never came to the point where they said, you know what, we don't want the Bible, we don't want God, we don't want Jesus in America. They were still very supportive of those ideas. They just had questions about doctrine or theology, which is a different conversation. But with that being said, people point today and they're like, Yeah, but you know, Jefferson wrote a letter where he said that reading through the epistles, the Apostle Paul, is like searching through a dunghill trying to find a diamond. He was not a fan of the Apostle Paul, Thomas Jefferson. Okay, he thought that guy's crazy. He said that. That's true. However, this was the end of his life. Nobody is like, I just went to the nursing home, you're not gonna believe what Grandpa said. Yeah, when people get older, they just start saying stuff. Right? In fairness, some of you know, like, there comes a point when you're like, my filter's broken, and I'm just gonna tell you what I think. Right? Like, that I'm done with this. Right. But again, part of why that matters is because there is some nuance even to understanding some of the dynamic of these guys. Now, with that being said, this is there, there's a letter from Jefferson or uh from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 1813. It's one of the early letters when they're becoming friends again. And and John Adams, and writing this letter, he is reflecting back. And John Adams says, look, I was at this college and there are all these kids around, and I was watching, and it kind of reminded me of us. When we got together, it was nearly 40 years prior to this when they first got together. He said, It reminded me of when we got together and we were so divided on sentiment, and we had all these ideas, and and we were trying to figure out where we could come together, and he talked about where for them they found common ground. And here's what he told Thomas Jefferson. He said, The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. Now, I would encourage you to read the whole letter. It is a long letter, several pages, but he actually goes on and says, What were the principles that united us? It wasn't the principles of the Anglicans or the Presbyterians, and he goes through all these lists. He said, No, it was the principles upon which we could all agree. And what were those principles? Those were the principles of Christianity. So he literally lays this out in several paragraphs, but the reason again it matters is today, if we're talking about John Adams saying that what unified the founding fathers, they found common ground. And where they found common ground were the principles of Christianity, those principles coming out of the Bible. Well, this is something that for modern culture seems a little unusual, but this was something actually accepted as a very well-known fact in earlier generations. In fact, there's a really great book. Alice Baldwin was a professor at Duke University. She started the woman's program back in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, but in 1928, she wrote a book called The New England Clergy and the American Revolution. You can find this book online. I would encourage you to, and they're reprinted this as well. I would encourage you to get this and add it to your repertoire as well. She actually goes in this book to, well, let me back up. She starts off in this book saying, there's a concern. This is 1928. She says, there's a concern, because these modern professors, now this is like the progressive movement, they're taking over academia. And she's like, these modern professors are leaving out one of the most important parts of the story of America. And what was one of the most important parts? She says it's the influence of the pastors on the founding fathers. And actually, in this book, if you don't have time to read the whole book, that's fine. It's like 170 something pages. But the last five pages is a conclusion where she wraps up all these thoughts together. You can get this again, I'll find it online on Google Books. Just go to the conclusion, read the last five pages. In the last five pages, one of the things she lays out, she says, when you look at the Declaration of Independence, she's, and this is a quote, literal quote from her conclusion. She says, There is not a single clause in the Declaration which had not been first preached in American pulpits prior to 1763. She actually goes on to explain that when the Founding Fathers came together, they did not come up with a single unique idea. Instead, they repeated all the things they'd been learning from their pastors for several decades leading up into that moment. And remember, my dad talked about in the first great awakening, part of what made awakenings different is they were preaching sermons that were so relevant to daily culture, what was going on. And this is what she points out is like, this is what happened. Now, here's what's also worth getting the book for. Because at the end of the conclusion, she has appendices. Guess what's in her appendix? The sermons that have all the clauses from the declaration. She literally puts the receipts in it. And she's like, Here's where this pastor, this sermon, this pastor, this like it's incredible, but why does that matter? Because when most people today look at the founding fathers, we often think, well, those were really secular guys, right? These are guys that didn't really believe in faith or got my. Now, my dad walked through some of this already. I just want to remind you of a few of these thoughts, and then there's a lot more direction we're gonna go. The very first time the founding fathers came together, right? September 6, 1774, the very first motion was to open with prayer. Now, remember, John Adams is the one who wrote Abigail about this, and John Adams says it was Thomas Cushing who made the very first motion. And when he made the motion, there was some debate because we weren't sure that we could all agree together. Then Sam Adams stood up and he said, He's no bigot. And as long as we choose a man who fears God and loves his nation, then that man could lead us in prayer. And he's suggesting the Reverend Jacob Duche. And and actually, the painting you're looking at, September 6th was the first meeting. But they have this is when they have the discussion, the debate. So they send for the Reverend Jacob Duche. He doesn't show up till the next morning. So this painting is depicting what happened the next morning, September 7th, but it's known as the opening prayer of Congress. And the records of Congress, and by the way, the guys who were there all kept journals, including John Adams, and the records of Congress indicate that that opening prayer lasted for two hours. Now I don't know how spiritual you feel, but I would sure like to know before I showed up at a two-hour prayer meeting. I love Jesus a lot. I would just like to mentally prepare myself for two hours of prayer. Like, this is this is a big deal. And let's also point out the men who were in that room were not chosen because of their spiritual prowess. They were chosen because of their political understanding and their voice. And they said, these are the ones we want to lead us in this political opposition, what's going on, and these guys show up. And I'm saying this again, this is not the most spiritual guys in America, but this is how much the tone was that this opening prayer goes on for two hours, and actually, this is when they identified. They also had they they read from four chapters of the Bible, and and what what John Adams points out to Abigail, he says that they read from the Book of Common Prayer. The Book of Common Prayer was an Anglican prayer book written back uh in the 1600s, nearly a hundred years before this, but it had assigned chapters to be read every day. So it's a Bible reading plan. So they read the ascribed chapters, and John Adams says, Abigail, it was as if God himself had ordained those passages to be read, or specifically one he pointed to. Now, I'm telling you all this. I would encourage you, you can go look up this letter. It's September 16, 1774. It's about a week after it happened. You can go read, and there's lots of these John and Abigail Adams I'm gonna reference. So you can find them in the writings of John and Abigail Adams. But here's part of what he told Abigail. He said, Abigail, I must beg you to read that Psalm, read the 35th Psalm to your friends, read it to your father. To remind you, Psalm 35 is one of the Psalms that David wrote while King Saul was chasing him, right, trying to kill him. And David says, God, I've done nothing, and he seeks my destruction, Lord. You rise up, be my shield, my buckler, my strong right arm. On he goes for 28 verses. And this is what they read that morning. And here's what's cool in the letter, John says, Abigail, you must remember that we had just gotten word that the British Navy had surrounded Boston Harbor and they were bombarding Boston Harbor. And so as we read this, it was as if God Himself had ordained it to be read. Now, again, like this is so cool because this is John Adams literally laying out. Not only did they pray, they read the Bible, and God spoke to them specifically from the Bible, and they were so encouraged from it. And this is why he says, I must beg you to read that Psalm. And we want everybody to read it. Read it to your friends, read it to your father. He writes her another letter. And in this other letter, he tells her something else Congress did. He says, Abigail, we've appointed a continental fast. Millions will be upon their knees at once before their great creator, imploring his forgiveness and blessings, his smiles on American Council and Arms. Now, again, he's telling her one of the decisions and actions Congress took, and he says, We've appointed a day of prayer and fasting. And when he says this section, it's almost like I can see him like almost excited. Abigail, millions of people are gonna be praying. This is incredible. Now, there's only about three million Americans at that time. So for him to think millions are praying, he's assuming everybody's going to pray, which might be a little naive, right? That might be a little over-assessing the situation. However, it does, it does give us an indication of what he thought about their culture at that time. That no, Abigail, like if it's time to pray, we know we're everybody's gonna be praying for this. What's interesting is as you track this idea of the Continental Congress calling the people, the government, calling the people to pray, this seems unusual for most people, but I would point out this was a very common thing in early America. By 1815, there'd been more than 1,400 official government-issued prayer proclamations. Now, this is a really good thing to note as well. And by the way, those are from the New England states alone, not even including some of the southern states, because there's not as good of historical records to know how many they did on different years. So this is the New England states alone, but here's what's worth noting. People today often say, well, the founding fathers weren't really religious, or they were atheists, agnostics, deists, all these thoughts and arguments that are there. This is one of the easiest things you can point to and just ask a few questions. Because remember, an atheist is someone who says there is no God. An agnostic says, well, there's no way to know if there's a God. And a deist says, Well, there is a God, but he's not really involved in our world anymore. If you're an atheist, agnostic, and deist, you know what you're never gonna do? That you you wouldn't do it one time, much less 1400 times. So here's my question. If someone's like, well, we know I mean, they were, you know, secular guys, separation churches say they atheist, agnostic, deist, my question is, then why did they pray all the time? Right? Because if you're people who, if you don't know if there's a God, or if you believe there isn't a God, or if you think, well, we don't need God a part of what we're doing, then why were they always having days of prayer? And just to note this, if you look just during the American Revolution, the Continental Congress issued 15 prayer proclamations during the American Revolution. There were two kinds of proclamations, one was for prayer and fasting, one was for prayer and thanksgiving. And these are actually kind of logical. The first one was for prayer and fasting because they recognized we're going to war with the most powerful military in the whole world right now. We need God's help. Let's have a day of prayer and fasting, asking for God to involve on our behalf and what's going on. And so they have a day of prayer and fasting. And it actually wasn't very long after that that they recognize I think God's actually helping us. Well, what is the appropriate response if God has helped you do something? You need to go back and tell God thank you. So they had a day of prayer and thanksgiving. And it wasn't very long after that. They're like, we really need some help. They had a day of prayer and fasting. It went back and forth 15 times during the American Revolution. The very first one, as I mentioned, was a day of prayer and fasting. And what's also really cool about this is again, go back to the letters of John and Abigail Adams. It wasn't very long after this day of prayer and fasting that John writes to Abigail and he says, Abigail, it's incredible the things that are going on. Now, this letter is October 26, 1777, if you want to look this up. Because in this letter says to Abigail, there's so many things happening right now. He says, Colonel Green, uh, the British were coming to town, and his militia actually repelled them. And then Colonel Smith, he went and they attacked the British fort. We we took the British fort from them, and he's just going through these things that don't really make sense. And they really don't make sense if you understand that he said militia on the first one. Now, the Continental Army wasn't very good yet. Really wasn't very good. Militias were less, right? The militias were like, hey, has anybody got a gun? Okay, cool, bring your gun and let's get together. That was a militia, right? Like these were not professional, trained. A lot of times there's some faulty logic in this because as a country boy, I got a lot of my friends, and then like it's like the redneck patrol, and we're like, boys, we'll get our guns. We're gonna solve all these problems. It's like I I appreciate the heart behind this. I'm just telling you, if you're going up against the Navy SEALs, we're all dead. Right? Like, if you're going up against professionals, your redneck savagery ain't gonna work. Okay? This is this is their militia. They're going up against the number one military in the world. Well, well, then John Adams in this letter says, Abigail, it's amazing. He says, we just destroyed a 64-gun British man of warship and a 20-gun British man of warship. Now, this is way more impressive because we did not have an official Navy yet. Great Britain was the number one military power in the world because they had the number one Navy in the world. They controlled the seas. And when we were British colonies, that was our Navy. When we separate from Great Britain, all of the naval vessels, the warships go with them. Right? We don't have any warships. Once we separate, we start trying to build them. But early on, what happened is because we had business owners in America, they did have some shipping vessels for their business. So we took whatever naval vessels we had, we would take whatever cannons we could find, we'd put those on cannons on the shipping vessels or whatever boats they were, and that was how we fought back at the beginning as we're trying to build some of these frigates and some of these bigger things. If you ever go to Washington, D.C., go to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, up on the third floor, they have one of the original ships from the American Navy, it's from 1776. It's called the Gunboat Philadelphia. It looks kind of like a rowboat with some cannons on it. Right? Now, again, perspective. John Adams like Abigail, it's amazing. We just destroyed a British naval vessel with 64 cannons and one with 20 cannons. Now, why is that amazing? Because if this is what your Navy looks like, right? Like, did you row really fast in their direction? Because like it doesn't make any sense. And this was John Adams' point is that what is happening right now makes no sense at all. So something beyond us is happening. This is a big deal. In fact, that there's another letter that John Adams writes not long after this, where he says, Abigail, I was eating dinner tonight, and there were men at a table eating dinner behind me. And as they were eating dinner, they were talking about all these things going on, and one of the men stood up and he pounded the table, and he said, We can't forget the most important thing. And then he gave his explanation, and this is John writing, says, and I think it's the best explanation of what's actually going on. Here's what John wrote Abigail that he said, I think is the best explanation that that man had said. It appears to me the eternal son of God is operating powerfully against the British nation. Right? And context again, they're at the table and they're trying to figure it out. This guy stands up and says, You can't forget the most important thing. And you're like, Alright, he says, Jesus. Because that's the eternal Son of God who was operating powerfully against the British nation. Now, let's also point out when John Adams says Abigail, I think this is actually the best explanation for what's going on. That doesn't come from someone who thinks we don't need God in government. That came from someone who knew if God doesn't intervene, we will never succeed in what we're trying to do. Let me go further because if the revolution goes on, George Washington, actually, if you read his writings, and you can even just do a get on like uh archive.gov and you can go to the letters of George Washington, and it has just like the thousands upon thousands and tens of thousands, and you can do a keyword search, and you actually can put a parameters around the years that you are searching. And in the American Revolution, look up the word providence from George Washington's writings and see how many times he talks about God's providence directly intervening. And also to get some clarity in this, one of the stupid arguments today is that if the founding fathers use words like providence, this is one of the ways we know they were deists. Because providence is an impersonal word for God, therefore they were deists. Now, that's dumb for lots of reasons. Let me give you two. Number one, the Geneva Bible was the Bible of the Reformation. The Geneva Bible is a Bible that influenced the pilgrims when they come to America. The Geneva Bible is a Bible in America at that time. The Geneva Bible uses the word providence 144 times. So, to suggest someone is a deist for quoting a word that was in a very prominent Bible at that time and in that Bible 144 times, like that just seems crazy. Yeah, let me give you maybe even a better example. George Whitfield, most famous evangelist in the Second Great Awakening, or excuse me, First Great Awakening, we have three of his original sermons in our collection. Super cool. One of the sermons, the actual title of the sermon is Zacchaeus Climbed a Tree to See Providence for himself. Now, if you don't remember, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. Climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord. Jesus! He climbed up to see Jesus. Whitfield says he climbed the tree to see providence for himself. Why does it matter? Because when you have the most noted evangelists, first great awakening, and he's saying that providence and Jesus, like those are synonymous in what we're talking about right now. Providence was not a secular term for God. Okay? But Washington, 1778, in this letter, he writes General Thomas Nelson Jr. a letter. Thomas Nelson Jr. was a signer of the Declaration from Virginia. He joins the Continental Army, ends up becoming a major general in the American Revolution. Washington, and these are these are guys that are friends from Virginia. Washington writes him a letter and he's reminding him of what's going on. Here's what Washington told him. Washington said, the hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. Now, this is Washington saying, God's hand up to this point. Now, this is 1778, so we there are many miracles yet to come that we know in the revolution, but up to this point, he says, God's hand's been so obvious that if someone sees this and they're not acknowledging God's hand, they have to be worse than a non-believer, or they might just be wicked to not acknowledge what God's doing. But his next part is my favorite. He says, but it will be time enough for me to turn preacher when my present appointment ceases, and therefore I shall add no more on the doctrine of providence. When George Washington is like, guys, I've seen enough miracles, I could become a pastor. That's literally what he says, right? He says, but for right now, I'm gonna focus on being the general and try to win this war. This is how obvious God's hand was that George Washington is like, I could become a pastor after all I've seen. Right. God's hand was obvious. When the revolution finally comes to an end, 1783, it's with the Peace Treaty of Paris. The Peace Treaty of Paris is signed by these three Americans. On the left is John Jay, the middle is John Adams, the right is Benjamin Franklin. The document they signed is still on display in Washington, D.C. It's in the State Department, it's in the sixth floor. It's called the John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room on the left. You can see there are four signatures. The one with the blue ribbon, that's David Hartley. He was the British ambassador. Then below it, you have John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay. What is worth noting about this, not only that this document ended the American Revolution, it brought peace between us and Great Britain, and it really kind of formally established America as an independent nation. What is so significant is the title of this document. In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity. When people tell us no, the founding fathers weren't Christian, they weren't religious, let me just tell you. This is first of all the weirdest title for a peace treaty I've ever seen. But when you're saying we're doing this in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who is the Trinity, right? That's what they're talking about. And this is what made America a free, independent nation. Now, let me also throw out that it seems like if this is the document that made America formerly a nation, because now like we peace with Great Britain, we're done, it seems like we would at least show this in one history book somewhere. To none. They're just not historically taught. Right? Very different thoughts. And part of why this matters is because again, go back to what John Adams wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1813, and he said the general principles, though, like the way we pulled this off, it was the principles of Christianity. That's not a crazy thought if you actually know the story. You're like, oh yeah, that's totally what they did. They absolutely did this because of Christianity. And let's go even further, because after they get to the revolution, which is what John Adams is largely talking about, once we get the Constitution, George Washington's our first president. George Washington is one of the most significant names that unfortunately is being slandered very ridiculously in modern standards, but he is the indispensable man. George Washington rightfully is the father of our nation because without George Washington, we don't win the revolution. Without George Washington, we don't have a constitution, because the constitutional convention would have fallen apart. Without George Washington, we don't even know what a peaceful transfer of power looks like, right? Beyond the fact that his military generals wanted to make him the king, and he turns that down. When he's president, he's the one who said nobody should be president more than two terms because then it would be like they're trying to be a king. So we need to, I'm gonna step down, I'm gonna go back to my farm Mount Vernon. He showed the world what a peaceful transfer, because this is the era of monarchs. There's no peaceful transfer of power from one family to another back then, right? He he's doing something so significant. So he is the indispensable man, the father of America, rightfully called, all these things. At the end of his presidency, he delivered his farewell address, considered the most significant political address any president ever gave. And in the farewell address, it's worth going back and reading for lots of reasons, so much good advice. But one of the things he said in it, of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, now let me just draw your attention to the fact he's talking about political prosperity, which is the success of America as a nation. That's what we're talking about. He says, of all of the things you could do, all the contributions you can make that help America be successful, he said, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In the entire farewell address, there was only one thing he said was indispensable: religion and morality. And then that's interesting. Because there was a lot of things he gave, a lot of advice he gave. He said, This is indispensable. He went so far as to say, in vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars. Anybody that opposes religion and morality politically doesn't love their nation. That's the father of the nation saying that. Why? Because he knew what the foundation of the nation was. In fact, this is why John Adams, the following year when he becomes president, the next year, it's from 1798, he wrote a letter to the militia of Massachusetts. The entire letter is only four or five paragraphs. It's a super easy read. There's a lot of really profound things in it. This is the most famous line from that letter. He says, Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly and adequate to the government of any other. Now, this is one of the most logical things that we misunderstand in culture. He said, our constitution only works with moral and religious people. Why? Because our constitution is built on the premise of giving freedom to the people. But freedom only works if you have a moral foundation. Right? I mean, right now we're seeing it. We're seeing riots in different towns and communities. Like we're seeing freedom doesn't work if you don't have morality. It's why Chicago every weekend has all these shootings and murders. Like it freedom doesn't work if you don't have a moral underpinning. Our constitution, it's only going to survive if we have religion and morality. This is what they're talking about. Because by the way, where do you learn morals? Religion. And when they say religion and morality, if you do a little deeper dive in this and it's not very hard, they actually, all of them in their writings clarify what religion and morality means. Religion is Christianity, morality was the Bible. Because that's where you learned it from. That's a foundation. What they're actually saying is without Christianity in the Bible, this experiment's not really going to work. And to say that today, people would look at the founding fathers, and again, largely people would go, I'm not sure that's really true. Okay, I get it. This is debated today because we don't know the story very well. It didn't used to be debated. If you go back to 19th century historian Stephen Calwell, in the 1850s, he wrote a book about the founding fathers and specifically about the Constitutional Convention and what was going on there. And here was one of the things he said and assessed from their convention. He said it was in the spirit of true Christianity that the hospitality and blessings of the United States were offered to all the world. All were invited to enjoy it. The Christian men of that day intended that the nation should continue to be a Christian nation. They did not place Christianity beneath nor over their political institutions, rather, it was to be the atmosphere which they breathed who administered them. It was the source of their inspiration, and they sought to make the blessings available for human advantage. These institutions and laws were to be the instruments of Christian men for the good of the whole human family. Now, his whole book continues on like this, and I would encourage you again. This is another good resource. Go back and read it. He literally is laying out who they were and what they did. And notice what he said is these were Christian guys with Christian ideas trying to do Christian things. Today people would say, I feel like it's a little extreme, but let me just let me give you an easy connected dot. So he said, Christianity was the atmosphere which they breathed to administer, like who wrote the document. The guys were breathing the atmosphere of Christianity. Now that is an interesting statement saying that like the Christianity was the really significant influence on them. Is that true? How do we know? So this is the painting of the Constitutional Convention. It's the most famous painting of the Constitutional Convention. It actually hangs in the U.S. Capitol building. It's 20 feet tall, it's 30 feet wide. Back in 1937, on the 150th anniversary of the Constitution, Congress determined there was an empty wall on a massive stairwell, actually leading to the floor of the house. And they said, hey, on the 150th, we should commission a painter to paint a painting and we'll hang up there. The painter was Howard Christie. And as they commissioned the painter, Howard Christie was the most famous painter of that time. Howard Christie had done a lot of uh the paintings that were used for war bond posters during World War I. So he like he was a really noted painter of that time. And so Howard Christie is uh hired by Congress, commissioned to come do this painting. And Howard Christie said that he wanted to study the Founding Fathers a little bit before he did this because he wanted to try to represent them and who they were and their thoughts, their attitude, their tone in this painting to give it some life. And he identified, he said, when I started trying to learn more about them and I was reading some of their writings and letters, I noticed how much they quoted the Bible. And and not just quoted the Bible, I also noticed that when they spoke about the Bible, how how valued the Bible was to them, how important the Bible was. And he said, I started thinking that that if guys knew the Bible so well, they're quoting it all the time. And when they talk about the Bible, they spoke with such veneration and respect. He said, I just wondered. So I went and looked to see, is there a list of resources they had available as they're writing the Constitution? Like what do they have in the room? And he said, I couldn't find any list. Now, by the way, to this day, there's still no known list of what books and resources they had in the room as they're doing this. He says, but I thought people who who treasured the Bible and quoted the Bible that much, they they they couldn't have had a meeting this important and not had a Bible with them. So I determined to put a Bible in the painting. I would venture to say every one of us have seen this painting, and most of us had no idea there was a Bible there. Now, if you go to Washington, DC, we actually often will lead tours in the evening, spiritual heritage tours showing some of the Christian connection in the Capitol. Super fun. I was up there just two weeks ago with a group of pastors, and I took them up by this painting because it's 20 feet tall and 30 feet wide. Why does that matter? Because that's a really, really big Bible in that painting. Why does that matter? Because Howard Christie actually wrote words in that Bible. You actually can walk up and you can read what it's open to. It's open to Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount. The most significant book by the most significant faith figure, Jesus, giving the most significant sermon in the Bible at the Constitution Convention. Now, again, he said, I I I just I as I'm studying the Founding Fathers, I'm seeing them do. This and I think, well, that the Bible's so important, it's got to be there now. I understand there are a lot of Christians that we deal with, and I say we because all of us in this room have to navigate this. We deal with people that are like, wait a second, like, are you suggesting we should have the Bible and part of what we do? And this is where for this is for Christians, right? This is not for sexual people, this is for Christians right now. I would say for Christians, I want to remind them when God creates the world, after God made man, God made several institutions. Right? Obviously, God starts off making the family. We then know God gives orders to government, and then we know God makes the church. But who is the central player in all of this? God. The idea that we would say, we know God created something, but God shouldn't be a part of what he created. Like, you understand how dumb of a proposition that is, right? We would never say, well, God made the family, but God shouldn't be part of the family. God made the church, but God shouldn't be part of the church. Right? That's that's dumb. So why do we say that about government? Which, by the way, as a Christian, do you know what your entire Old Testament is about? Government. Right? Now, people might say, Well, yeah, new covenant, like I can go there too, but the point is, the vast majority of the Bible is what God deals with. And there'd be people today, Christian Christians, who would say, no, but we don't want religion and government because we don't think we should be legislating morality. Now, hopefully, all of you in the room already know this. Hopefully, this is not a news flash for you, but for too many Americans it is. I just want to always pause and be like, okay, so let me explain how legislation works. Every single bill that is passed is passed because someone thought something was right or something was wrong. Every single piece of legislation. That means every single piece of legislation is being shaped by someone's morality. It's not a question of do we legislate morality, it's only a question of whose morality are we legislating. And if we are suggesting that we can't influence morality by the greatest moral teacher there's ever been, Jesus, well then whose standard are we gonna use? Like this is where there are some fundamental flaws and problems. And also, by the way, this is why if you go to early America, early America knew this so well, and I want to walk you through just a couple examples as we wrap this up. If you go back, and I'm using this because this is the easiest example that nobody can argue, and it takes no explanation. This is not the only example. I could do this virtually every early colony. But when the Puritans come to America, the pilgrims come 1620 and 1630, the Puritans come, they come with John Winthrop, and actually, John Winthrop, who is their early governor, he actually delivered a sermon to them before they leave, coming over to the New World. The sermon he delivered was a model of Christian charity. If you've never read it, I highly recommend you read it. And the last couple paragraphs, I think, are some of the most profound. I'm gonna show you only part of one of those paragraphs, but this is one that was very noted. He said, For we must consider that we shall be as a city on upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal faulty with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so calls him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world. If you read the whole sermon, he's explaining that what we are doing in this new world is we are making a covenant with God, and we are setting something up. We're telling the whole world, this is what it looks like to do it God's way. We're setting up a community saying, this is people can see God's ways work. This is how God's ways happen. And because we're doing that, we're telling everybody to look at us, and if we don't do it right, we're gonna bring shame on ourselves, on God, we're gonna become a reproach and a byword. But it starts off literally, he's acknowledging we are making a covenant with God, that we're gonna do it God's way, and we know that God blesses people that do it his way. And if we reject it, we're gonna fall under all the judgment that comes from rejecting God's standards. This is that foundation. And the reason, again, I want to lay this out. All of the early colonies were formed in a covenantal fashion. Every single one. Now, we could argue places like Jamestown, they did not follow that very well. Oh, that's for sure, right? That doesn't take away from the fact that Robert Hunt didn't start off saying, we're doing this for the glory of God. Like literally, all of them were started covenantal fashion, but especially when you go to the colonies outside of Jamestown, it's a lot easier to show how they believed in that covenantal fashion far more. Again, why I'm pointing this out because the founding fathers knew their nation's history. That they understood the covenants that had been made. And by the way, when they were birthing things, they continued this on. And a lot of people today they don't see the connection. And again, I'm gonna give you the easiest example that nobody can argue, like it's not confusing what the words are, and I'm gonna point to John Quincy Adams for this. And it's not because he's the only one. This is the easiest example. I'm trying to give you the really easy just walk-through flow to understand this. John Quincy Adams, he not only was a son of John Adams, he grew up during the American Revolution, he actually, at the age of 10, he is a diplomat with his father over in Paris. At the age of 14, he's a diplomat uh with a delegation over in Russia. Like he grows up his entire life, he serves in the government. Actually, he died in Congress. So literally from 10 years on, he's serving the federal government of America. He's not only a president, he was a congressman, he was a senator, he was an ambassador, he was uh the secretary of state, like all these incredible things. On the 63rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he went up to Connecticut, he gave an anniversary speech, and I want to read you just a couple of lines from this. He starts off making a point but asking some rhetorical questions. Here's what he said: why is it that next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? Now, 4th of July. He's talking to a largely Christian audience, and he says, now, obviously Christmas is the big deal because we all celebrate Jesus. Why is Fourth of July your most significant holiday after that? Now, for some of us believers, we might be like, I might put a couple others in there. Like Resurrection Sunday, pretty big one for us Christians, right? Like there might be a few other things I would throw in there, but just he's pointing out, why is it after the birth of Jesus that the Fourth of July is the most important holiday for you? He says, is it not that in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation. Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth, that it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity? None of the founding fathers thought they were creating a secular government. And this is what he's explaining. He said, We know what we were doing is we were walking forward with these Christian principles and ideals. That's what we were doing in this nation. The reason, by the way, part of this matters is because this is what Christians should do. They should promote God in every area of their life. And if God has led you to government, you should promote God where you are. This was the foundation of our nation. This is not a crazy thought or idea, by the way. People point out today and they're like, yeah, but you know, not all the founding fathers believe that. Cool. So let's just take the least religious founding father. Right? And I'm using that by today's definitions. If you actually study Franklin and the writings of Franklin, not like what people wrote about him. No, no, no. Go back and read his writings. Franklin was far more religious than most Christians I know today. Okay? Now, Franklin questioned the divinity of Jesus. There's there were several founding fathers, several minority, like five, that questioned the divinity of Jesus. Franklin says, I'm not sure if Jesus was truly the Son of God or if he's just the greatest prophet sent by God here to show us how to live. Franklin revered the teachings of Jesus, wasn't sure of the character and nature of Jesus. Now, because I believe when Jesus said, no man comes to the Father except through me, right? Like you have to believe in Jesus to get to the Father. So I wouldn't argue Franklin's a Christian. However, thinking that he's anti-Christian, you've misunderstood a lot of things. And there's a lot of reasons I can point you to to show that. But the idea in most people's minds is not only that Franklin was a deist, that Franklin was a secular deist. And I would point out both of those are incredibly faulty thoughts for two reasons. First of all, the Constitution Convention, when we are trying to come up with a Constitution and it's falling apart, right? It's not working. Benjamin Franklin, the old dude there, he stood up. The longest speech he gave during the entire convention was on June 28, 1787. And during this speech, his solution for them to overcome their problems, here's part of what he says. In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? Now, Franklin is suggesting that, guys, why haven't we taken time to pray? Like we we should probably pray. If you are a deist, you do not believe that God gets involved in the affairs of men. So already we got a problem. If you're a secularist, you don't want God involved. So why are you suggesting maybe we should consider prayer? Let me keep going. He said, in the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for divine protection. Now again, I know this is familiar. I'm just walking you through a sequence, but let me just slow down for a second. There were six guys that signed the Declaration and the Constitution. The room they're in now, Franklin knows most of these guys, they weren't here back then. He's giving them a history lesson. He says, guys, I know you don't know this. During the revolution, we were in this room and we prayed when? Every single day. So tell me again about the founding fathers being secular, about them being atheists, agnostic, and deists. This is the least religious guy saying, guys, we used to pray every single day. Like this was normal for us. He said, our prayers were heard and they were graciously answered. Again, that's not a deist. Deists don't believe that God answers and gets involved in these kinds of things. He continued. Or do we imagine and we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. And I also believe without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel, and we shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business. That's the least religious founding father. Okay? Let me give you one other connecting point in this. Professor Donald Lutz, who did the study, Origins of American Constitutionalism, who pointed out, had I included all of the obvious references to the scripture that were in their writings that weren't in quotation marks, the number would have been far higher than 34%. Yeah. I read you 14 sentences. He had one in quotation marks. Were there some other obvious Bible references? Yeah. Sparrow can't fall to the ground, the Tower of Babel. Like, literally, there's 14 verses he references in there, and one of them is in quotation marks. If you just study their writings, and it helps if you know the Bible, you would see how clear and obvious this is because why? What is one of the things he says? Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. This is the challenge I want to give to you coming from the least religious founding father. As you are going back, everything that we are encouraging and we want to help in any way we can, everything that we're encouraging you to do, it can only be done if God's a part of it. And I know you know this, I'm just reminding you. Because the task before you is too great. It is. Some of you in very red states, you're like, well, it's not too great in our state. I I I understand what you're saying, no, but I'm just saying we're doing something bigger than this. And if your vision isn't bigger than what you can accomplish, you're not dreaming big enough. Because the whole nature of God is and this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. This is where, as we look at the nation, now, obviously, all the things I've given you, I we can footnote, document, resource, all of it. We'd encourage you to get some of those resources available. But let me finish with two thoughts on the Bible. The first one, Proverbs 13, 14, 34, righteousness exalts a nation. Why does this matter? Because you have to understand better than anybody else. If we are trying to make America great again, what made her great in the first place is the foundation that has to be restored. The Bible tells us here's what makes a nation great. Doing it God's way. That's what will give you freedom, stability, prosperity, doing it God's way. And you have to understand this because if we're not understanding righteousness, then you're not gonna go to the proper resource to find the right motivation for your legislation. If this is a hot take, I'm just gonna throw this out there. I would suggest, as you're navigating legislation, you ought to be thinking about what Bible verse supports what I'm trying to do right now. Because I want to make sure what I'm promoting is gonna reflect something godly so God can bless what we do. Then I would encourage the challenge of Nehemiah. Our name Wall Builders, we took from the Bible uh story of Nehemiah. And if you remember the story of Nehemiah, the walls have been torn down. And Nehemiah 2.17 is where he gives a challenge where we get our name from, where he says, Come, let us rebuild that we will no longer be disgraced. And so our call is let's, guys, let's be wall builders, let's let's rebuild this thing. And in the midst of it, I would remind you that Nehemiah had this much encouragement from his constituents. He had this much encouragement, right? From his faith leaders. Read a story! They're like, you can't do it, it's too big, it's too hard, it can't be done. Now, it's also interesting. He had one voice encourage him. The highest political leader in the land, who is not a godly man, King Cyrus. King Cyrus gave him cover for him to go do the work God had called him to do. I'm not saying it's a perfect parallel, but it's pretty close. People told Nehemiah, it's too big, you can't do it. Nehemiah started a grassroots campaign. In 52 days, they did what people thought was impossible. There's no doubt, there's giants, there's no doubts, there's gonna be difficult things. But our call and challenge is let's just roll up our sleeves, one stone at a time, let's start rebuilding this thing. Thanks for checking out this week's episode of the American Story Podcast. I want to remind you, as Benjamin Franklin said of the Constitutional Convention, unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain that build it. Meaning, if God's not at the center of what we're doing, we're already messing up. If we're not working to live, to be who God called us to be, to do the things God called us to do, and really to enjoy God's blessings by walking in obedience to his commands, we're already messing this thing up. We want to encourage you. In the midst of whatever you are doing, put God at the center of what you do. And we hope to check us out next week on the American Story Podcast.