The American Soul
The American Soul
The Last Stand for Liberty in a World Without Refuge
Your daily calendar reveals the truth about your priorities more honestly than your words ever could. In this thought-provoking exploration of authentic living, Jesse Cope challenges us to confront the gap between what we say matters to us and how we actually spend our time and resources. Are we becoming more like Christ or drifting away from Him? There's no neutral ground.
Drawing from Titus 2, we examine God's counter-cultural instructions for men and women of all ages—standards that differ radically from modern social messaging. These biblical principles reveal why Christian witness diminishes when believers' lives mirror those of non-believers. "If we look just the same inside the church as people outside the church," Cope observes, "then we're not really offering anything."
The conversation shifts to America's cultural crossroads, borrowing wisdom from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" alongside historical American voices. Prescott, Bancroft, and even P.T. Barnum demonstrate how thoroughly Christian principles once permeated American education, politics, and culture. This historical perspective frames our current moment as potentially America's "last stand for liberty," with nowhere else to flee if freedom fails here.
Most powerfully, we're reminded that each of us may be "the only piece of Jesus Christ that somebody gets to see." Your representation of faith matters tremendously to those who may never encounter Christianity elsewhere. How will your calendar reflect your true priorities today? Listen now to realign your actions with your deepest values and join the vital work of reclaiming America's soul.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American soul podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are and whatever part of the day. You're. In here to appreciate y'all joining me and giving me a little bit of your time, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we just said in the Marine Corps, and hopefully it will help us all draw a little closer to God and Jesus Christ, both as individuals and as a nation. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who pray for me and for the podcast, thank you very, very much. Definitely need the prayers and I'm grateful for them.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, your Son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love, your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of our sins. Thank you for your love, your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of our sins. Thank you that your son was willing to come and that you were willing to send him. Thank you for all the many blessings you bestow upon us, father, ones we take for granted and ones we don't. Thank you for food to eat, water, to drink, clothes, to wear, cars that run, safe place to sleep at night. For those of us that have those things, father, be with those who don't Help us that do to help them. Help us to help those that have less than we do. Father, forgive us our sins. Forgive us our greed and our selfishness, our pride, arrogance, judgment of others, lust, sexual immorality, idolatry. Forgive us for making gods of other things, ourselves included, besides you, father, be with those who are listening to the podcast right now, wherever they are across the nation, around the world. Comfort them, give them peace, wisdom, clear mind. Help them to feel your joy, your love. Guide our steps, father, in all things. Be with our leaders. Be with those who stand for justice. Be with those who lead in fear of you, father. Around them with your angels. Protect them from evil. Be with those men who lead in our pulpits across the nation pastors, priests. Be with their families, be with their wives and God. My words here Father, please, in your son's name, we pray Amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray? How did you spend today or yesterday? How much time did you give to your phone? How much time did you give to TV, to sports? How much time did you give to working out? How much time did you give to God, to your spouse?
Speaker 1:No matter what we think folks, no matter what we say, who we try and convince ourselves or others, what we spend our time and our energy, our efforts on including our money right, because we have to give our time and energy and effort to make money. What we give those things to shows the world and it should show us, if we're willing to pay attention to it what our priorities really are. And so, if our actions don't line up with our priorities, there's two possibilities, two things we can do. We can either change our actions to align with those priorities that we espouse, or we can admit that those really aren't our priorities and change what we say. Those are the only two real, honest options. So yesterday, at the end of the day, if somebody came up to you and asked you what are your priorities? And let's go with the second option, because you can't change what you did yesterday, which is important to note folks. Every day that goes by, we're either becoming a little more like God and Jesus Christ, right or a little more like the devil and hell, one way or the other values neutral. That's not there. That's a pipe dream. That's a straw man argument that people have used in education in particular, politics, institutions, right. It's not there.
Speaker 1:So if we looked at our day yesterday and we had to tell what our priorities were based on how we spent our actions, what would our priorities be? What would yours be? What would you have to admit was really important to you? Does it line up with what you want it to? It doesn't matter whether you're in junior high or high school college, right, junior high or high school, college, right. What would your priorities, what would your actions say about your priorities? And if you're married, especially for your closest neighbor, your spouse, what's the tally there? What's the scoreboard? Not against them, but against yourself, how did your actions line up towards your spouse yesterday? And then, if you really are serious about making sure your priorities are in the right order, look back over the last week, last month, last year. Maybe you have to go farther back. Maybe you got to go five years, 10 years.
Speaker 1:Folks, at some point we're going to leave this world and all the land and the money and the cars that we gathered together are going to go to somebody else. It doesn't matter whether it's our kids, our spouse or the government just comes in and takes it all. We can't take it with us, but the one thing we can take with us, and leave here too, is our character, right, what people saw. There's a quote. I'm probably going to get it wrong. I've heard it a few times over the last few years. I think it goes something like people won't remember what you say. They'll just remember how you made them feel, or maybe it's people won't remember what you do. They'll just remember how you made them feel, and it's. It's a. It's a good quote and, depending on how you read it, it's absolutely true.
Speaker 1:But what makes you feel something about somebody? I've told this on the podcast before when I've had the privilege of working with kids and I asked them you know, how do you know that your parents actually care about you? I get a bunch of different answers, but they all basically revolve around Well, because they actually spend time with me and do stuff with me, not do stuff at the same time, like sitting in the stands while I'm playing sports, but actually interact with me, like talk to me, listen to me, play games, go for a walk, like really interacting together. Well, that's what makes us feel. However, we feel right If, if, if our parents pay a lot of attention to us and we feel we know that we're loved. And if they don't right, if you don't get a lot of attention and us and we feel we know that we're loved. And if they don't right, if you don't get a lot of attention and I'm not talking about a parent that's like a crazy parent like we have so many of today, that's psychotic about sports or whatever extracurricular academics, and the only attention that kid gets is because the parent's hammering them to do better, is because the parent's hammering them to do better, but being involved, you know, and a lot of times, as kids, we don't really care what we're doing, so much as long as we're doing something together. And I would argue the same is true with your spouse. If you've got a spouse that really loves you, they don't really care too much. I mean, there's something that they need from you each day, but they just want to spend time with you. Anyway, we're going to jump around quite a bit today. I'm going to go ahead and read. We're going to go back into Titus 2.
Speaker 1:Duties of the older and younger. But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith and love and perseverance. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible In all things. Show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.
Speaker 1:Urge, bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that they will adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior in every respect. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. The glory of our great God and Savior, jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. So, every once in a while, when we do for those of y'all that have been around the podcast, let no one disregard you. So, every once in a while, when we do for those of y'all that have been around the podcast for a while, we do a marriage podcast we're not going to today.
Speaker 1:This just happened to be the text that was read, which we read often because it has instructions. You go back and you read verses two all the way down to verse eight, and it gives instructions for older men, younger men, older women, younger women. And when you go through and read that one, I would recommend you compare it to your own actions at whatever stage in life you're in. And then two, as you're reading it, you'll notice that it is not lined up at all with what the world tells us, particularly culture and education, in America in particular again, but in Western civilization really as a whole.
Speaker 1:You look at some of these right Older men temperate, dignified, sound in faith and love. Right. How many older men do you know that are not temperate, that don't act in a dignified manner, that are not sound in faith? Right. You look at the younger men sensible, an example of good deeds, sound in speech how about that? I probably. I don't even want to think about how many times I failed that one. How many of us know young men that are actually sound and speech, that are sensible? Right, kind of not necessarily calm but steady? Right? You look at the older women not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to a lot of wine, teaching what is good, teaching the younger women. How many older women do you know like that? Younger women love their husbands, love their children, work at home, being subject to their own husbands? How many younger women do you know that fit that model or that even strive to?
Speaker 1:How many of us have ever talked to our children about verses in the Bible that regard their actions as a young man or young woman, as a husband or a wife? This is an old stat from a few years back and I'm not really sure I didn't take the time to look it up. I have no idea what the divorce rate is inside versus outside the marriage, but a few years ago it was about 50% of all first marriages ended in divorce and the sad thing was, from what I remember, the numbers inside the church weren't a whole lot better than outside the church. I don't remember the percentages, folks, and if you really want to know, I'd go, I'd recommend going and looking up fresh statistics. We haven't done that on the podcast in a while.
Speaker 1:But the point is, if and I've had quite a few pastors over the years and they'll talk about the fact that if we don't look different inside the church than the world, then why would people be interested in coming into the church? If we look just the same inside the church and our actions as people outside the church, then we're not really offering anything. Right, like as a business. If you're talking about a business, right, you have to offer something that your competitors aren't. You're a car dealership, particular car company. You're trying to offer something better, right, you don't want to offer. You're never going to make a commercial as a business and say, well, our product is exactly the same as our competitors, so come see us. I mean, you're not going to sell anything. The competitor, in the sense of the church, is the world, the devil.
Speaker 1:And so if we're inside the church, we're doing the same things right, we're not following these, right? Older men and women, younger men and women we're doing the exact same things as they are outside the church. Then why would they come? And if they do come, what's the point? It's just more like a social club, just to be a member. Right, you just want to be a member of the club. You don't want to actually change the way that you act. You don't want to actually change the way that you act.
Speaker 1:And if you do try and follow this folks, you're going to notice that there's a lot of people that really don't want to be around you anymore. Right, guarantee, if you really start talking to young men and tell them they need to be sensible and sound in speech, right, and you really start to hammer that, you're going to lose some of your friends and you'll notice this. I've heard a bunch of people say this in the past, over the years. If you really start trying to follow Jesus Christ, there's going to be a lot of experiences and a lot of people probably in your life that just aren't attractive anymore. It's just not something you want to do. You don't want to hang out with the same people that you used to. You don't want to watch the same things, read the same things, go to the same movies or places to eat. Right, because Changes you. Christ changes what you want to do, what you look forward to, what you feel comfortable with, right, what feeds you. It changes you Same thing. I mean probably the easiest one here to say, and I'm not necessarily picking on the younger women more but if you go out and start to hammer younger women about loving their husbands and one translation says love your husbands first, I think Love your children, work at home, be subject to your own husbands, you're going to turn off a lot of young women really quickly today and maybe that's changing depending on some of the polls and surveys and statistics you look at. But that's that's probably one of the easier examples.
Speaker 1:Verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior, christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. You don't need a. I saw this again. I see this so often and I know it's social media folks, but I saw it on X again.
Speaker 1:If you're folks, if somebody's telling you that you have to be part of their denomination in order to be saved, they're teaching you something, they're preaching something, but it's not the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they're telling you that there's something else required besides Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross for you to be saved, they are not preaching you the gospel of Jesus Christ. If they're telling you that you have to have somebody else to mediate between you and God, they're not preaching you the gospel of Jesus Christ. Right, it doesn't matter whatever it is Protestant, orthodox, catholic if they're telling you you can only be saved if you're part of their denomination, they're adding things on and basically what they're saying is that Jesus Christ wasn't enough. He wasn't enough and so we've got to do a little bit more to help you get across that finish line, because Christ, he just wasn't quite good enough, wasn't quite strong enough.
Speaker 1:Who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, jesus Christ, and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, jesus Christ. Doesn't say anything in there about any other denomination Catholic, orthodox, protestant. Doesn't say anything in there about any particular Pope or priest or pastor, bishop, cardinal. Nothing about Mary or Joseph, paul, peter, thomas. Just Christ, just Christ and every, redeem us from every lawless deed, the ones we've committed, the ones we commit today, the ones we're going to commit a year from now and now. That's not an excuse, folks, to go out and do whatever the heck you want to do every day. Please don't misunderstand me, but also have the comfort in knowing that you are human. You're going to fail, but he's already paid that price.
Speaker 1:Every lawless deed, and then the last zealous for good deeds there, how many of us are really zealous for good deeds? How many of us? That's really our focus. How many of us are zealous? How many of us really want to do good deeds and want to encourage good deeds in others? Want to do good deeds and want to encourage good deeds in others? Cannot remember. Maybe, if I'm lucky here, I can find it. Oh, come on, I love technology, except when it doesn't work or when I can't figure it out. Right, let's see. Yeah, matthew, chapter five, the Sermon on the Mount the Beatitudes. Blessed are those. This is verse six. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. How many of us hunger and thirst for righteousness? How many of us are zealous for good deeds? A couple little comments from the last few days. I think I said this one recently. I just want to say it again folks, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:If you're a lawyer, plumber, teacher, garbage man, just dentist, just pick a profession, it doesn't matter. Carpenter in the military, police officer, firefighter, remember, you have no idea what other people around you are going through. Just by looking at them, you have no idea what is going on in their life. You have no idea what has happened to them that morning, that week, that month, their whole life no clue. That week, that month, their whole life, no clue. You don't know if it's a young kid, if they go home every day to a house with an alcoholic mother or father, or a mother that's a prostitute, or a father that beats them. You have no idea if that guy that you feel was so rude in front of you is watching his wife die from cancer, or is married to a woman who doesn't love him and doesn't care about him or who just lost his job. You have no idea if you're talking to a woman who desperately wants, or watching the actions of a woman who desperately wants to have kids and who's just had her. Pick a number, miscarriage. Pick a number miscarriage.
Speaker 1:There's going to be days where we're not kind. There's going to be days where we fail, fall short, right, goes back to lawless deeds, to sin. But as often as we can we ought to be kind, even when others aren't. You just have no idea what struggles those people are going through, aren't? You just have no idea what struggles those people are going through. And maybe I've got a good friend of mine that I've talked to often. He happens to work with some young kids that have been in and out of prison at different times, juby, and he's a pretty good man. Folks, as far as men go right, jesus tells none of us are good, but from a human point of view he's what we would consider a good man, and we've talked about the fact and I've told him. I said you know, you may be the only Bible that those kids ever see. You may be the only decent man that a lot of those kids have ever met.
Speaker 1:I used to tell my Marines that when they were checking out I said look, you don't have to keep a high and tight for the rest of your life. You don't have to wear a Marine Corps emblem on every piece of clothing rest of your life. You don't have to wear a Marine Corps emblem on every piece of clothing. You don't have to come back to reunions or anything like that. But I said but remember, you may be the only Marine that anybody ever sees. You may be the only Christian folks that anybody, the only piece of Jesus Christ that somebody gets to see. We need to try and make sure that we give them a good representation of Christ so that they can go looking for him, so that they're encouraged to seek him, not discouraged Folks. We really likely have a fight coming I've said this for a long time and it's not going to be romantic.
Speaker 1:You know a lot of the movies, especially the World War II movies, which is one of the last wars that we really clearly, decisively won with an ending, so to speak. The movies they like to make it romantic, especially even the older ones that are really good. You look at Casablanca. You look at Sound of Music, which wasn't really a war movie in the sense, but it had to do with the Nazis, right, but a lot of the modern ones, if they're not just focused on gore and death and killing and rape and trying to score whatever they call it, points shock value. They kind of make it out to be romantic and it's not Living through. It's not living through, it's not. But the option of refusing folks or the result of failure is going to be a thousand years of darkness, going back into the dark ages, just like when the Roman Empire fell and, historically speaking, guaranteed the slaughter of tens, if not hundreds, of millions.
Speaker 1:If you look at the 20th century folks and some of y'all that are history buffs, you can check me on this but without exception, not one single exception, have I heard of a truly socialist, communist, what we would call leftist today, country where slaughter did not come along with it? You look at China. You look at the Soviet Union. You look at North Korea, you look at Cambodia. You look at just the list goes on and on. You look at just the list goes on and on. Every single socialist, communist right, the Nazis, who had socialism in their party name Always associated with slaughter. And so if we go down that path in America, if we refuse to fight or if we fail in a fight and leftism takes over, which again, constantly after a mind, goes hand in hand with hand in glove with Islam, the result isn't it's not a matter of if there's going to be slaughter, it's just a matter of how much. And you need to remember that.
Speaker 1:And so I've been reading off and on again, sun Tzu, the Art of War. We had to read it in the Marine Corps. It was one of the books, and this is this particular edition or version, I guess, is the better way. Let me see if I can find it again. This was the edition written by Lionel Giles, and there's some commentary by Dallas Galvin, but there's some quotes in here that I wanted to read through. Some of this is from Sun Tzu and some of this is commentary by the editor.
Speaker 1:Sal Kung has the note he who wishes to fight must first count. The cost which prepares us for the discovery of the subject of the chapter is not what we might expect from the cost which prepares us for the discovery of the subject of the chapter is not what we might expect from the title, but it's primarily a consideration of ways and means. But I liked the quote he who wishes to fight must first count the cost. And you ought to count the cost of not fighting too. What's the cost of not fighting? And it reminded me of Luke, chapter 14. I just had it, Luke, chapter 14, and it's verses 28 through 32. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying this man began to build and was not able to finish. Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand, or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace? It just reminded me of that quote. But the point is, you've got to count the cost.
Speaker 1:A war of no war, and so here's some more. This is a comment. This is actually one of the comments by Sun Tzu, when you engage in actual fighting, a victory is long in coming. The men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. There was a quote along with this by Count Helmuth von Uff-Moltke on the nature of war from 1880. The greatest good deed in war is the speedy ending of the war, and every means to that end, so long as it is not reprehensible, must remain open.
Speaker 1:Stonewall Jackson argued, from what I remember of history, for a black flag war meaning just destroy everything in sight, absolutely just demolish it, and he argued that from this point of view, that that was the quickest way to get the war over. There's nothing kind in protracting a war, folks. We just need to remember that if we get into it and I think Reagan said this you know one of the speeches that we read recently. There was a quote of his basically saying if we're not prepared to do absolutely everything to win victory, then we shouldn't go to war. And if we're not prepared, folks, to do whatever we need to end the war as quick as possible, we shouldn't go. And then, in our current condition today, if we're going to say, well, it's just not worth it In our current condition today. If we're going to say, well, it's just not worth it, we need to look at the outcome of the countries that have succumbed to leftism, socialism, communism and gone along with Islam. Make sure you understand what that cost is. Make sure you realize that whatever life condition you're in right now, it's not going to stay if you go that route. They're never going to leave you alone. If you're in a really great spot right now and you're perfectly happy with your little home and piece of land and family, et cetera, know that there's no way. Historically you're never going to be left alone if we go down that path to leftism, socialism, communism and englobe with Islam.
Speaker 1:Thomas Paine, common Sense 1776. Commerce diminishes the spirit both of patriotism and military defense, and history sufficiently informs us that the bravest achievements were always accomplished in the non-age of a nation. The more men have to lose, the less willing they are to venture. The rich are, in general, slaves to fear and submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a spaniel. That's pretty damning folks.
Speaker 1:How many of us would make the comment that it's just not bad enough that we're not willing to go fight here in America to stop the left. It's just not bad enough. We're not willing to give up our home, our money, our land, our cars to lose our family. We would rather, as Thomas Paine puts it here, be slaves to our fear and submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a spaniel. It's pretty condemning folks.
Speaker 1:How many of us have become afraid of losing what we quote-unquote have. And that ties in real well folks to whether we acknowledge that the blessings that we've been given are from God to begin with. It's not saying that our work ethic didn't help earn these things, but god gives them it's. It's a misunderstanding whether we appreciate that fact or not and it kind of ties into our rights. Maybe it ties in a lot. If our rights from God, then there's nothing that we should ever do to let somebody take those from us. If our rights come from men, that's a whole different ballgame, right, it is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
Speaker 1:This is a commentary by Giles, I think that is with rapidity. Only one who knows the disastrous effects of a long war can realize the supreme importance of rapidity and bringing it to a close Once war is declared. He will not waste precious time in waiting for reinforcements, nor will he turn his army back for fresh supplies, but crosses the enemy's frontier without delay. This may seem an audacious policy to recommend, but with all great strategists, from Julius Caesar to Napoleon Bonaparte, the value of time that is, being a little ahead of your opponent, has counted for more than either numerical superiority or the nicest calculations with regard to commiserate food supplies. That's a little bit crass, folks, but this is a quote by General George S Patton, a speech that he gave to the Third Army on the eve of the Allied invasion of France. A speech that he gave to the Third Army on the eve of the Allied invasion of France.
Speaker 1:I don't want to get any messages saying I'm holding my position. We are not holding a goddamn thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding on to anything except the enemy's balls. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing, regardless of whether we have to go over, under or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose.
Speaker 1:As I said, folks, a little bit crass there, but we have this idea and it really took hold during COVID. That man, if we can just get back to normal, if we can just get back to the status quo, that's all I want. I want to just get back to normal. I want my kids going back to school. I want to go back to my job. I want to be able to hang out with my friends, folks. Normal is what got us here, holding right, trying to tread water this idea of holding my position.
Speaker 1:It's the same lie that's been sold via the term values, neutral Values, neutral education values, neutral politics values, neutral institutions policy. There is no such thing. We're either getting a little bit closer to Jesus Christ each day or a little bit closer to the devil, and that idea of normal ties into that fear of losing. If you cower before evil men, it's a mistake to think that you're holding your ground. It's a mistake to think that they're going to leave you alone, and history shows that that's just not true.
Speaker 1:The communists in China, they didn't leave the people alone. In Russia, they didn't leave the people alone In Nazi Germany, they didn't leave the people alone In North Korea and Cambodia. They didn't leave the people alone In Syria and Nigeria right now. They're not leaving the people alone. Let's see where we're going to go today. We've got a few more.
Speaker 1:We're going to start with William Prescott Prescott for those of you all who don't know, I think we've read him before, but it's been a while. Prescott was a commander in the colonial militia, the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was a pretty significant part of the battles of Long Island Saratoga. It was a pretty significant part of the battles of Long Island Saratoga In 1774, the British had blockaded Boston Harbor and he wrote to the inhabitants there we heartily sympathize with you and are always ready to do all in our power for your support, comfort and relief, knowing that Providence has placed you where you must stand the first shock. We consider that we are all embarked in the same boat. Thank you made us free and may he of his infinite mercy grant us deliverance of all our troubles. I don't remember who said it, but there's another quote. I think it was the people that signed the Declaration of Independence. One of them maybe Franklin said we're going to all have to hang together or we will certainly hang separately. We're in this thing together.
Speaker 1:Folks, there's nowhere else to go. There's no America left to flee to. You can't go to Antarctica. All the other continents have been discovered, right, they're populated. There's nowhere for the little band of pilgrims to flee to. This is our last stand. This is the last stand for liberty, for freedom. There's nowhere else to go, folks, and you see again and again and again and again how much our founders tied their situation, their future, to God and Jesus Christ. Providence right, let us all be of one heart and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and may he, of his infinite mercy, grant us deliverance of all our troubles. There's nothing without Christ, folks. We have nowhere to go. If we don't have Christ, we're already lost as a nation. If we don't turn back to God and Jesus Christ, it's already over. It may be over anyway, but if it is over, those of us that turn to Christ, we get eternity with God and Jesus Christ, regardless of what happens here. Right, I haven't said that today, on the podcast, I think. But if I can encourage you in anything, folks, anything at all, that is to, if you have not already, to develop that relationship with Jesus Christ, to accept him as your Lord and Savior and guarantee yourself eternal life because of him, not because of you, but because of his God's mercy, right and grace. But so so, prescott, again right, revolutionary War. He was right into the inhabitants of Boston who were being blockaded by the British. We're all in this together, folks. If you love America, we're all in this together. There's nowhere else to go. Let me see. Oh yeah, I've got a couple of people here we're going to talk about. I think we have enough time and I'm just going to read through a couple of these quotes. Time and I'm just going to read through a couple of these quotes.
Speaker 1:George Bancroft he was a historian, diplomat, educator, served as Secretary of the Navy under President Polk. He created or had the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis established, served as a US Minister to Great Britain and Germany. He published a 10-volume history of the United States and for decades it was the best-known and most widely read history of America, from its beginnings to the ratification of the Constitution. This was from Volume 1. Puritanism has exalted the laity. For him, the wonderful counsels of the Almighty had appointed a Savior. For him, the laws of nature had been compelled and consulted, the heavens had opened, the earth had quaked, the sun had veiled his face and Christ had died and risen again. This is a speech he gave on the progress of mankind and he published it in Literary and Historical Miscellaneous. Again, george Bancroft.
Speaker 1:For the regeneration of the world, it was requisite that the divine being should enter the abodes and hearts of men and dwell there, that a belief in him should be received which would include all truth, respecting his essence, that he should be known not as a distant providence of boundless power and uncertain and inactive will, but as God present in the flesh. Not as random deism folks right, that's kind of what he's getting at Not as just some random deist, but God present in the flesh, jesus Christ. Amid the deep sorrows of humanity during the sad conflict which was protracted during centuries for the overthrow of the past and the reconstruction of society, the consciousness of an incarnate God carried peace into the bosom of humanity. This doctrine, once communicated to man, was not to be eradicated. It spread as widely, as swiftly and as silently as the light, and the idea of God with us dwelt and dwells in every system of thought that can pretend to vitality, in every oppressed people who struggles to be free have the promise of success and every soul that sighs for redemption.
Speaker 1:I had another quote here. Well, I'll read it real quick. This is from Phineas Taylor Barnum right, greatest show on earth. Greatest showman Taylor Barnum right, greatest show on earth, greatest showman Christ was sent into the world by our kind father in heaven to teach that God is love, that love is the fulfilling of the law, and turn us away from our transgressions by showing us that the way of the transgressor is hard. Amen to that. Folks Can't tell you how hard my life has been when I have not followed God and always will be hard as long as we transgress. But charity, unselfishness and a godly life is filled with joy and peace. That, at the last, the Almighty Father being Almighty and being our Father will bring about immediate harmony.
Speaker 1:The Old Bible I believe to be as correct a history as could have been formed in remote ages, containing accounts of various lives and experiences by which we ought to profit. The New Testament abounds in testimony of the undying love, our Savior for all, and especially for the poor, the unfortunate. And we have to be reconciled to him, folks. We have to turn back to him and reconciled. We have to be reconciled to him, folks. We have to turn back to him. The reason I wanted to read these two is Bancroft was a politician in a lot of different ways and Barnum was an entertainer, culture right, and Bancroft also was a historian, an educator.
Speaker 1:Folks, if we have any hope of turning our country around, we have got to take education, politics and culture back from the Antichrist left, and Islam goes right along with that. You cannot have an America that promotes liberty unless you have an America that promotes Christianity, not a particular denomination. This is what the left did 80 years ago. That was so sneaky and so very successful. For them is to conflate, to confuse, to try and make the same separation of God and state with separation of church and state. Separation of church and state is so that no one denomination which there's a lot that did this in the old world and there's sadly still a lot today that want to do this to tell you that their denomination is the only right one, that if you're not part of their denomination you can't be saved, and therefore everybody has to be part of their denomination. Separation of church and state, and therefore everybody has to be part of their denomination. Separation of church and state, separation of God and state.
Speaker 1:What the left really did in that 1947 decision of Everson v Board of Education was to say we don't want God, we don't want Jesus Christ. And you look at these examples from history. Right, bancroft established the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Right, he was a minister to two different countries, secretary of the Navy under President Polk. All these things, this political life just wrote these great histories that were used for decades. Look at how much just in this one quote you see this faith in Christ, this reliance on Christ. You look at Prescott, right, who was around for the very beginning the Revolutionary War, talking to these inhabitants in Boston that were being blockaded, that were being starved out kind of not really, but you know they couldn't, they had no freedom left by the British saying, hey, we're in this with you and we're in it together with Christ. Saying, hey, we're in this with you and we're in it together with Christ. You look at Barnum.
Speaker 1:Some of y'all may have seen that movie in years past the Greatest Showman. You remember anything in that show about God and Jesus Christ? They mention it at all. I saw a movie recently and it was based on a book that I had read. It's a great book. Really enjoyed it. And the book had a lot of relationship between the main couple characters and Jesus Christ. It was so successful they made it into a movie. The movie had nothing. I think it had one line in the entire movie about God. I'm not surprised by that, but that's a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:If we don't take back education and culture, including politics, from those who reject God and Jesus Christ, we're not going to have an America left. And then you go back to Sun Tzu. You need to consider, you need to weigh the consequences of war and of no war, of a fight might win, might lose, or of no fight. And we certainly go into leftism, socialism, communism, working alongside Islam. God bless you all, folks. God bless your families. God bless y'all folks. God bless your families. God bless your marriages, if you're married. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks, looking forward to it.