The American Soul
The American Soul
Faith, Patience, and the Christian Republic
What if we could check our heavenly bank account balance with an app? How differently would we live if we could see our eternal rewards accumulating—or diminishing—in real time? This provocative thought experiment forms the heart of our exploration into priorities, faith, and America's Christian heritage.
Jesse Cope challenges listeners to examine whether God truly comes first in their actions rather than just their words. "Have you made time for God today? Is He at the top of your list?" These questions reveal the gap between what we claim to value and how we actually spend our time. We often disguise our excuses as legitimate reasons, particularly when it comes to spiritual disciplines and relationships.
The podcast takes a deep dive into James Chapter 5, examining warnings against unrighteous wealth and the call to patience in suffering. This scriptural guidance provides a powerful framework for understanding what truly matters in both our personal lives and our national identity.
Speaking of national identity, Jesse presents compelling evidence from the 1892 Supreme Court case Holy Trinity Church v. United States, where Justice Josiah Brewer methodically documented America's Christian foundations. From Columbus's voyage (undertaken "by God's assistance") to the Mayflower Compact (created "for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith"), these historical documents clearly demonstrate that America's roots are firmly planted in Christian soil—contrary to revisionist histories that portray our founding as purely secular.
Whether you're struggling with priorities, curious about America's spiritual heritage, or seeking to defend your faith more effectively, this episode provides both inspiration and practical tools. Join us as we explore what it means to live as if Christ might return at any moment, with our priorities properly aligned.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast.
Speaker 2:Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time, attention and effort, a little piece of your day time, attention and effort, a little piece of your day. I know y'all have probably at least a dozen other things that you could be doing, maybe should be doing, so I'm glad that you're here. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank you so much, incredibly grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast even more grateful for your prayers.
Speaker 1:Definitely need them, cherish them. So thank you so much.
Speaker 2:And if you're new to the podcast, glad you're here, hope you enjoy it, hope you get something out of it. Hope you come back.
Speaker 1:So thank you for stopping by.
Speaker 2:Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your Son, Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for all the many blessings that you have bestowed upon us as individuals and as a nation. Forgive us our lack of gratitude. Forgive us. Forgive us our lack of gratitude. Forgive us when we forget or choose to forget all the many blessings that you have given us, father. Forgive us our lack of repentance when we are not heartily sorry for our sins.
Speaker 2:Thank you for the time to record this podcast and the people that listen to it.
Speaker 1:Be with them and their families. Please bless the marriages of those you're married. Guide us in all that we do, father. Guide our thoughts and our words and our actions. Surround us with your angels. Be with our students.
Speaker 1:Father across the nation elementary middle schools, junior high schools, colleges, universities, community colleges, trade schools, wherever they are, public school, public school, private school. Father, be with our children of our nation, public school, private school. Father, be with our children and our nation. Come for them. Help them to feel your presence, help them to see your presence, help us to be a light, just a little bit. Help us to lay down to your Son Jesus Christ Amen. Please, god, my words here. I hope you'll lead them to your son Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:I do I please God, my words here.
Speaker 1:Your son's name is right.
Speaker 2:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word?
Speaker 1:Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk to him?
Speaker 2:Is he at the top of your list?
Speaker 1:Is he the first thing you do in the morning, the last thing you do at night, both Somewhere shoved in between? If you have time that day, and if you're married, does your spouse know? Do you act like it? Do they go to bed each night knowing that they are your second priority, above everything and everyone else except God, jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, or do they?
Speaker 2:wonder, do we make excuses, folks? There was a great sermon Maybe I'll read a little bit of it at another point and they were talking about this Pastor was talking about the difference between reasons and excuses, and so often we make excuses and we pretend that they're legitimate reasons.
Speaker 2:And one of the examples he gave and I probably will read a segment of this, but it was a great example he was saying you say you're tired in the morning. You're just too tired. You get up and you try and read your Bible and you fall asleep. Well, you're too tired because you stayed up binge-watching Netflix or YouTube videos or Instagram videos right, that's why you're tired, so you're just making excuses. Or Instagram videos right, that's why you're tired, so you're just making excuses.
Speaker 1:You don't really have a legitimate reason for not getting up and spending time with God.
Speaker 2:And it all goes into this crazy worldview that we have created of self-help and self-care. I got to focus on myself. I really need some me time. You know it's a bunch of nonsense, folks especially for Christians. This is we didn't come into this world to serve ourselves, right, jesus Christ, the example that we're supposed to look at what does he say to his own disciples?
Speaker 1:For the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve.
Speaker 2:He's our example, right, and so this idea about well, I need some me time, I need to do what.
Speaker 1:I need to do. I need to chase my dreams first, my aspirations.
Speaker 2:That's a long conversation, folks.
Speaker 1:We try and have a little bit of it each day on the podcast, but there's nothing except your spouse, except God and Jesus Christ that should come before your spouse. Nothing, that's it, end of discussion. There's no whatever.
Speaker 2:I wish I was better at the English language to give you. There's no if, ands or buts, it's just each day, once you get married, and if you don't want that, if you don't want your spouse to be your top priority, second only to God, and Jesus Christ, don't get married folks.
Speaker 2:Have the decency, the courage, the honesty, the integrity. If you don't want somebody to cleave to, right, I get so sick of people saying I don't want, my spouse is too clingy, or this person that I'm dating that I think might be a spouse, they're too clingy. Well then, don't get married, because the Bible tells us to cleave, and cleaving sounds a heck of a lot more intense than clinging. If you don't want to cleave to your spouse, don't get married. Don't be a coward, don't marry somebody out of selfish desires, just so you get what you want. So there's a paper that I talk about, often real quick before we get going, and that paper is the epic times. If you're a big newspaper fan, highly recommend it. Phenomenal newspaper. It's once a week and they've had a number of really good articles lately and I'll probably talk about a couple of them and I may mention them more than once. But one of the articles they were talking about particularly the shipbuilding capabilities of China and how far ahead they had gotten in front of the United States, and I can't remember the way that the author worded it, but he made it clear that this was concerning and the clock was sticking right and it made me think, folks, I'm afraid, based on a lot of the comments that I see and I know a lot of them are online, but even some of the talking heads that there's a lot of people on the conservative patriot side that really feel like and this this election last year, ok, now we're good. You know, trump, musk, department of Government Efficiency, they're going to get it all squared away. We're good now, we got it all figured out. We're good, now, we got it all figured out.
Speaker 2:Folks, I can't even begin to help tell you how not true that is. I wish I had a better memory often, but there was a point in our history where one of our great leaders made the comment along the lines of well, we won this battle, this really important battle. We'll see, though, how much use our politicians make out of it. We've been given just a little bit of a reprieve, folks, and there's no guarantee it's even going to be that big a reprieve. We have a responsibility to push like crazy ahead, not to sit back on our laurels, not to rest on the achievements of those who have come before us, and one of the ways I cannot emphasize this enough, folks, the left is not going to go quietly into the night. And if you think that, let me go ahead and dissuade you from that opinion. They're just not Every conservative town, village and I know I've said this recently and I'm going to say it again folks, every city, community, state where there's people that even remotely love our nation and therefore the principles because you can't love a nation without loving the principles it's founded on folks. We ought to be doing everything that we can to be pushing to dramatically add to police, firefighters, ems, law enforcement at all the different levels, the militia at the state levels and those institutions as we add folks. We have to be strengthening the morality and the virtue of those institutions. And how do you do that? You imbue that's not the right word, but you make sure that those principles of Christ are fundamental to those organizations. And we, just we ought to be doing everything we can to do that. We, we have no idea how much time we have left, and the more time we give to the left or the longer this goes on, the more chance that the closer we get to a civil war, folks, the stronger Islam and the left are going to get. How much strength are we giving them right now? How much strength are they Again, you can't think that citizens that support the evil of the left or Islam are going to go quietly into the night.
Speaker 2:They're not. Hitler didn't, stalin didn't, mao didn't. Pol Hitler didn't. Stalin didn't, mao didn't, pol Pot didn't, the leaders in Iran haven't, the Muslim leaders of all these terrorist organizations haven't. And that's another thing, folks. And then we will move on for today real quick.
Speaker 2:But this idea that the people out burning Teslas are far left, right, or that Muslim terrorists are extremists, they're far. Whatever you want to say, that's not far anything. That's middle of the road, smack dab in the middle, mainstream, average left or average Muslim. And the reason is the way you can tell that right, because a lot of people would say, oh, it's not true, I don't believe in that stuff, yeah, but they don't stand against it. You don't see outrage from the majority of the left when there's Tesla's burning or when a healthcare CEO gets assassinated or when a person of a particular race gets killed by stabbing or shooting. You don't see that outrage. There's just not. There's no pushback. Same thing in Muslim nations when just the population across the world. You don't see this outrage every time a Muslim rapes a little girl because they're not Muslim, or murders an entire village or blows people up, you don't see the outrage. And so that tells you that, even if they're not willing to say it out. Like what do people say today? Right, they say the quiet part out loud, or something like that the quiet part is the out loud part, out loud part. The fact that there's no outrage against these atrocities from the left or from Islam, when they happen consistently, year in and year out, that tells you that, even if it's not overt, deep down they're okay with it, because if they weren't, they would be making a huge fuss about it. They'd be demanding that those people be held accountable, and they're not. They're not.
Speaker 2:All right, we're going to get into James, and I think we're in five, maybe, hopefully. Yeah, rich oppressors will be judged. Come now, you rich weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of the Sabbath.
Speaker 2:You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury. You have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just. He does not resist. You Be patient and persevering. Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed, we count them blessed to endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. But, above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no no, lest you fall into judgment.
Speaker 2:Meeting Specific Needs. Is anyone among you suffering. Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
Speaker 2:The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit. And the earth produced its fruit. Bring back the erring one, Brethren. If anyone among you wonders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
Speaker 2:So there's a whole bunch here, folks. As is so often the case, I think this. So this first section right, verses one through six. You look at verse three. Your gold and silver corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days, talking about also these people who, you know, kept the wages of the laborers by fraud and lived on earth in pleasure and luxury while these others were it wasn't just a matter of by fraud and lived on earth in pleasure and luxury while these others were. It wasn't just a matter of them being hungry, it was a matter of these people immorally keeping what was owed to them, somebody that had come and worked in their field, and instead of paying them, they cheated them.
Speaker 2:But I go back to verse three and that analogy that I've used on here before talking about. You know what, if we had an app that showed us our bank account in heaven for eternity, how much would that change? It would change my actions, I'm pretty sure dramatically, and I would be checking that app constantly, every day. How much treasure have I put up for myself today in heaven Versus? How much treasure have I tried to hoard for myself here? And there's nothing wrong with you know. Proverbs tells us that a wise man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. There's nothing wrong with trying to provide for your family, your spouse right, your wife, your children, your grandchildren. But there's something very wrong with greed and hoarding, and again, it just. Can you imagine how different we would act? And I'm just talking about just inside the church right now, although you would hope that it would change a lot of things outside the church too church right now, although you would hope that it would change a lot of things outside the church too if there was an app that God had made that would show us our eternal bank account, where the gold and the silver up there they don't corrode, where the garments aren't eaten by moths.
Speaker 2:I wish, I wish, I wish Verse 6,. You have condemned, you have murdered the just, and he does not resist you. People that were hungry or people that were hurting. It was a matter of treating them unjustly, these people that had worked for you, these just people, even murdering them. I think about. We haven't done this in a while. Maybe we will. We'll go back and read through some of our Medal of Honor winners and some of the martyrs out of that Fox book of the martyrs, but the men who were burned at the stake by the church and the state combined, simply for trying to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Be patient. How many of us are patient? See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. How many of us wait for the coming of Jesus Christ each day? How many of us are patient? I am not patient. That is one of the virtues that I have to work on quite a bit. Well, at any rate, that is definitely not one of my virtues.
Speaker 2:Patience and I think a lot of it, for me at least, but I would argue probably for a lot of us has to do with lack of trust in God. We think that we know better, we think that we know what we want and we want it right now because obviously, getting it right now is the best part. And we don't stop to think about the fact that God sees everything, he knows everything, he knows how this is going to turn out. And maybe if we got what we wanted right now, we wouldn't value it or we would waste it, or we're not really prepared for it mentally or physically or spiritually, or maybe we never will be, or maybe the whole goal is for us setting an example to others of carrying our cross each day. I think about that last one more of late and I don't like it at all. Think about that last one more of late and I don't like it at all. I'm not a fan of carrying my cross as an example for those around me.
Speaker 2:And before I go on here, folks remember that you have no idea what somebody else is suffering Just because you see the outside. Maybe they're pretty, maybe they're attractive, maybe they have a lot of money, maybe they always pretty, maybe they're attractive, maybe they have a lot of money, maybe they always seem happy, maybe they are happy often, but you have no idea what kind of burdens those people have. You don't know what they're going through. You don't know if they've lost a loved one. You don't know if they're in financial trouble. You don't know if they've committed some crime that's hanging over their head, whether it's rightly or wrongly accused. You don't know if they're in a marriage to a spouse that looks like they care about them on the outside but in reality doesn't care about them at all. You don't know if their spouse is cheating on them. You have no idea.
Speaker 2:Folks Don't ever assume that just by looking at somebody you can tell what they're suffering. Because think about yourself. Can people tell what you're going through? Do people honestly know? A few months back, talking about the fact that the people in their part of the world, in their town, had no clue what they went through on a day-to-day basis. The town thought that they were just, everything was going good for them, life was just almost perfect, and they had no idea how much pressure this person was under.
Speaker 2:Verse 9,. Do not grumble against another brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Basically, again, folks, we don't know when God's coming back. Do we live each day if he's coming today, like this afternoon, or this morning? Wherever you are, whatever part of the day you're in, do we live like he's coming back in the next 30 minutes or hour? And then do we look back at these prophets and these men and women of faith who have been crucified, burned, cut apart, hunted down, raped, tortured, pillaged, plundered? What have we had to suffer? And some of us have had to suffer a lot. Some of us are suffering. Some of y'all have illnesses that are never going to go away or you don't know that they will. Some of y'all have heartache that's just almost overwhelming, to the point of you really appreciate Psalm, psalms and David's words. Like you get it, that heartache, that level of heartache.
Speaker 2:A lot of times I think we look at David as a king who committed a lot of sins, which is comforting, but we don't realize the amount of heartache that he had in his life. Yeah, he had a lot of money. Yeah, he had power, prestige. Yeah, he had a lot of women wives, however, you want to say it Like whatever part of that you want to look at but he had an immense amount of heartache in his life and maybe that's your burden too, and maybe that's your burden too, I think. Yeah, we're about out, but I wanted to run. I really wanted to run back quite a few more verses, but we'll stop with 12.
Speaker 2:Do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no no. Lest you fall into judgment, how many of us simply say yes and mean it, or say no and mean it? How many of us simply do what we say? I love God, do we act like it? I love my spouse Do we act like it? Because, really, folks, if you don't act like it, the answer is no. You could say whatever you want, but the answer is no, you don't, and there's forgiveness, we can turn to God. But how many of us don't Like when I fail God? Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's not okay just to keep going and not repent of my sin simply because I have Jesus Christ. I need to turn to him and ask forgiveness for that sin. Do we do that with our spouse, with our children? Do we truly? Do we apologize to him? Do we seek forgiveness when it's necessary?
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:I think we're going to get in. We're going to start to get into a Supreme Court case that we've covered a couple times on this podcast and that is I think it's been a few months and it's a good case to get into frequently. That is Josiah Brewer, justice Brewer and the Holy Trinity versus the United States, and this case is out of 1892 and Mr Brewer delivered the opinion of the court and we're not going to go through the entire opinion. It's pretty lengthy, but there's a section in here that we're going to talk about and we're just going to read through and y'all will get the idea. But beyond all these matters, no purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people. This is historically true From the discovery of this continent to the present hour. There is a single voice making this affirmation. To the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation. I want y'all to, over the next couple days at least. It'll take us a couple days to get through this.
Speaker 2:When somebody tells you that we're not, that we were not born a Christian republic, when they tell you that we were born as a deist nation, as a secular nation as a pagan republic like Rome, deist nation as a secular nation as a pagan republic like Rome. This is a huge tool for your toolbox, and you may not be I'm not type A, you may not be able to respond immediately, but you can come back to an example like this and there's so many folks, but this is a great kind of cluster of examples you can come back to this and strengthen your faith, not only your faith in Christ, but your faith in the fact that America was born a Christian republic. And in whatever way, whatever sphere of influence you have and you have an influence, folks, every single one of us do Whenever you're able, you can talk about this to anybody that's willing to listen. This is a great tool. Teach kids about it. If you're in a position to teach kids, if you're a parent, talk to your kids about it. If you're a teacher, talk to your students about it. If you see kids at church in some kind of Bible study, talk to them about it. It's important. We've had our history stolen from us by the left and we've allowed it for the last 80 years. Folks, we were not born a secular, deist, pagan republic. We were born a Christian republic.
Speaker 2:You see, in this opening where we're starting here, these first couple sentences we're a religious people. This is historically true. He says, justice Brewer, from the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there's a single voice making this affirmation. And folks, when he says religious, and you'll see in just a second. When he says religious, there's a single voice making this affirmation. And folks, when he says religious, and you'll see in just a second. When he says religious, he's talking Christian, not Muslim, mohammedan, however you want to say it, not Hindu, not Buddhist, not a religion of the Native Americans, not Jewish, not atheist, communist, socialist, leftist, not Satanist.
Speaker 2:Christian to Christopher Columbus, prior to his sail westward is from Ferdinand and Isabella, by the grace of God, king and queen of Castile, etc. And recites that it is hoped that by God's assistance, some of the continents and islands in the ocean will be discovered, etc. Right From Columbus, and we talk about Columbus every year. Right, he's telling us already Huge part, it wasn't rape, pillage and plunder, like the left tries to teach you today. Right, it was God, with God's assistance some of the continents and islands of the ocean will be discovered.
Speaker 2:The first colonial grant made to Sir Walter Riley in 1584 was from Elizabeth, by the grace of God, of England, france and Ireland, queen, defender of the faith, etc. And the grant authorizing him to enact statutes of the government of the proposed colony, provided that they be not against the true Christian faith now professed in the Church of England. So, whatever these statutes of government in 1584, sir Walter Riley, whatever they were, they could not be against the true Christian faith. They were. They could not be against the true Christian faith. Where do you get the true Christian faith? This says from the Church of England here. Right, but where do you get the true Christian faith? Scripture, the Bible. The first charter of Virginia, granted by King James I in 1606, after reciting the application of certain parties for a charter, commenced the grant in these words we greatly commending and graciously accepting of their desires for the furtherance of so noble a work which may, by the providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of His divine majesty in propagating of the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility and to a settled and quiet government. Do by these our letters patents graciously accept of and agree to their humble and well-intended desires Propagating the Christian religion right. First Charter of Virginia granted by King James I in 1606. We just talked about living in darkness and turning toward the light. Right. As yet, live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God. The goal to bring the infidels and savages living in those parts to human civility and to a settled and quiet government, right. Another of these lies often we talk about this when we talk about Columbus each year.
Speaker 2:The idea that the Native Americans, that the Indians, lived in this utopic setting that was all peaceful and quiet is just absolute malarkey, not true? That's not to say that we, that those who came over, didn't do some horrendous things, but that's like blaming the entire slave trade in America on the people living here in America, right? Or like blaming the entire drug problem we have in America today on the people living here in America. Oh well, if they didn't want drugs, there wouldn't be any drugs delivered here. Well, that's true, maybe. Well, if the Americans didn't want slaves, there wouldn't be slaves brought here. Well, that's also true, maybe, Except that it's not because there would be people in other parts of the world who would want slaves, as history shows consistently. There would be people in other parts of the world who would want slaves, as history shows consistently. There would be people in other parts of the world who wanted drugs, as history shows consistently. And who makes the drugs? Where are they made? Central South America, china, right, other places? Who gathered the slaves? Other African tribes, right. And so this idea that these people were living here, right, and that to call them infidels and savages was just horrible, not historically accurate, not historically accurate.
Speaker 2:Language of similar import may be found in the subsequent charters of that colony from the same king in 1609 and 1611. And the same is true of the various charters granted to the other colonies. In language more or less emphatic is the establishment of the Christian religion declared to be one of the purposes of the grant. So it's not just Virginia, right, and it's not just in this first charter in 1606. It's subsequent charters, 1609, 1611, and more or less true in charters granted to the other colonies. And the purpose, one of the purposes of these grants was to establish the Christian religion was to establish the Christian religion, faith in Jesus Christ, not Islam, not Judaism, not Hinduism, buddhism, atheism, satanism, right, not just random deism.
Speaker 2:And I keep saying this, folks, because the saying I say this often you know, beating a dead horse, yeah, but the horse isn't dead, we don't know this stuff anymore. Or if we do know, agreeing to, was separation of church and state, with what they were really ruling on was separation of God and state, and it just doesn't mesh with our history. It's out of step with our history. The celebrated compact made by the pilgrims in the Mayflower, 1620, recites having undertaken, for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith and the honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. Do, by these presence, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends of foresaid Love. The Mayflower Compact For the glory of God, undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, honor of king and country, god, jesus Christ country.
Speaker 2:Folks, don't ever, ever let somebody tell you that our nation was founded as some random deist, secular country, even before we were a nation. Our roots are Christian. Yeah, absolutely. Were there other people that came to this country looking for gold, looking for adventure, greedy, lustful 100%. Were there people that claimed to be Christian that didn't act like it? 100% there are today still. We're all fallen. We all fall short.
Speaker 2:The problem is when you start to say, when you move the goalposts right, I mean, that's basically the divide in our country today is the differences between people that acknowledge that they're sinners, that there is a perfect standard, that it was set by one person, jesus Christ, who followed God's laws without fail, with no mistakes. A perfect life, the only one, not the apostles, not Mary or Joseph or anybody else that lived a perfect, sinless life no pope, no pastor, no priest, bishop, cardinal that's lived since then. Life no pope, no pastor, no priest, bishop, cardinal that's lived since then. You listen to this Mayflower Compact again. How many of us? I'm sure that I hope that most students in school still read this, but how many don't? How many teachers refuse to teach it? Or, if they teach it, they make clear that this was some kind of misguided group of really weirdos and that wasn't really the point of coming here. That wasn't really anything important to America. You know we've gotten so far away in a lot of education today from memorization, and the church too. That's boring. We need to entertain kids. We need to play games. You know, we need to play cool math games and all these other things and we don't need this memorization. That's boring and it doesn't work with all kids anyway. And yet, when we've started this idea that we don't need to memorize anymore, what's happened to our education system? And this isn't the only reason, but it's tanked, it's tanked. It's not working. Today, memorization works pretty well and, yeah, some kids do struggle with it, and that's okay. That's okay.
Speaker 2:Memorization of math tables, memorization of, at some point, every kid right. That ought to be a requirement in some class somewhere between K through 12. And if you get to the point and you've got a kid right that can't memorize, what is this? Even on this small print on my phone, this is only six lines and maybe, just maybe, we don't need to be trying to pretend that every kid is exactly the same, not of equal value, right? Same argument with men and women. Men and women are of equal value, but we're not the same. Not all kids are the same. Not all kids need a high school diploma in order to have a successful life. They certainly don't all need a college degree in order to be successful. Maybe the problem isn't memorization. The problem is we're trying to pretend that all kids are exactly the same and ought to have exactly the same capabilities. Right, hello, entrants of accommodations, if we can't pretend that everybody's exactly the same, we're going to bend the rules and give certain kids advantages that other kids don't have, until we can pretend that they're all the same.
Speaker 2:And inside the church, where's this idea of entertainment? We need to be entertained. Isn't the point of going to church? Praise, part of it? Learning about Scripture, growing closer to God. I don't think entertainment is one of those listed requirements. The other thing and maybe we'll stop here for the day, we might do a little bit more. And maybe we'll stop here for the day. We might do a little bit more.
Speaker 2:The other thing is how many of us Scripture tells us to be prepared to defend our faith? I'm really bad at this. I struggle with this. If somebody came up to me and said why do you have faith, I'd have to sit there and think about it. I have my reasons, but I don't have them ready on the tip of my tongue. I don't feel like I'm ready in season and out of season.
Speaker 2:The same is true with our nation. When somebody says, well, why do you think that, if they're kind enough and honestly, folks, a lot of times the people that are really rabid about this, they don't care about the truth. I would say the vast, vast majority of the time the left isn't interested in the truth. They don't want the truth, they want what they want. Same thing with Islam, but really inside America folks, they're not interested in the truth. Because if they were, they would be interested in Jesus Christ by default. Right, because he is the truth.
Speaker 2:But if you have somebody that actually says on those rare occasions that goes okay, well, tell me, help me, see it. Man, what an opening that is, what an invitation. Are you ready? Can you at least talk to him today about this court case and this opinion from Justice Josiah Brewer, the Holy Trinity Church versus the United States in 1892, and say, hey, look, maybe I don't have all this memorized, but if you've got a few minutes we can look it up and kind of go through some of it together.
Speaker 2:Everybody has a phone. Do you have a PDF of this? We can look it up and kind of go through some of it together. Everybody has a phone. Do you have a PDF of this? Do you have it highlighted, can you? Can you show it to somebody and say, look this, this Supreme court justice went through and highlighted all these things that show that we're a Christian nation. That's a good place to start. I mean you could start to with with the Declaration All men are created equal right by God. Are we ready, and even more important for those of us who are Christian and trust me folks.
Speaker 2:If you feel inadequate, so do I. If you feel like you're going to mess it up, me too, I get it. If you feel like you are just not the one, 100% I understand. I feel that way, which is just as a side note. That's why it's so important to live by example, because then people can look at the way you live and you don't have to tell them words, at the way you live and you don't have to tell them words and I fail often. So I mess that up too, but I feel a lot more comfortable trying to live a Christ-honoring life that other people see than I do talking to them.
Speaker 2:But are we ready in season and out of season? Why do you have faith in Jesus Christ? It doesn't have to be a spectacular moment, you know. It can be.
Speaker 2:A couple things that I feel like are kind of commonplace that I talked to y'all about earlier. Well, I've seen some truth in some verses in my life, from Proverbs in particular, and the more I look at history, the more I see that relationship in America between God and Jesus Christ and our nation, and those things strengthen my faith and, you know, for me. A third comment would be that the requirement to believe that all this is just random. It just takes more faith than I have. I feel like there has to be a creator and I feel like I'm in good company, based on the founding of our nation and some men that were a lot brighter than me. Oh, at any rate, you know, are we prepared? And I feel like we've kind of dropped the ball there for quite a while? We will get back into this Great, great court case.
Speaker 2:Opinion Justice Josiah Brewer, 1892, holy Trinity versus the United States. God bless y'all, god bless your marriages, god bless your families, god bless America, god bless your nation. Folks, wherever you are around the world, listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon, looking forward to it.