The American Soul
The American Soul
Behind Enemy Lines
What are you spending your most precious commodity on? In a world obsessed with accumulation and consumption, there's one resource none of us can create more of – time. Jesse Cope challenges listeners to examine how they allocate this irreplaceable gift, particularly when it comes to relationships with God and family.
The uncomfortable truth is that many of us claim we "don't have time" for meaningful connection while spending hours scrolling, streaming, and consuming content. We prioritize "me time" over the spouse we vowed to cherish and the children who desperately need our attention. This misalignment between stated values and actual behavior creates a template our children will either embrace or reject.
Drawing from 1 Peter, Jesse reminds us that believers are "aliens" in this world – temporary residents behind enemy lines with an urgent mission. The persistent emptiness we feel despite worldly pleasures points to our design for something beyond this temporary existence. Our purpose isn't comfort or assimilation but reclaiming souls before our departure.
The conversation shifts to America's Christian heritage, examining founding documents from the Mayflower Compact to the Constitution. Despite revisionist attempts to secularize our history, over 90% of Constitutional Convention delegates identified as Christians, with biblical references woven throughout our governmental foundation.
How will you spend your remaining moments on this earth? Will your spouse and children want to replicate your example? Will you prioritize eternal values over temporary pleasures? The clock is ticking – what will you do with the time you've been given?
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, whatever part of the day you're in. Sure, do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your day, a little piece of your day, a little time. Don't talk about this. Maybe we'll talk about that in a minute. Yeah, we'll do that, if I can remember it, in a minute. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank y'all so much, very, very grateful for your time.
Speaker 1:I'm just encouraging other people your word to listen to the podcast. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. Very, very grateful for your prayers. And for those of y'all who are new here to the podcast, I'm glad you're here. Hope you enjoy it, hope you get something out of it. Hopefully it gives us all some extra tools for our toolbox and, most importantly, hopefully it draws us all, as individuals and our nation as a whole, closer to God and Jesus Christ, even if just a little bit.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace, your forgiveness of sins, the ones we admit and the ones we don't. Father, please forgive us. Thank you for those who are willing to go out and protect us our military, our law enforcement, firefighters, ems. Thank you for all of those who work in the medical field our doctors, nurses, technicians. Thank you for our educators public school, private school, mothers at home, at home, school. Be with them all, give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Guide our leaders, father. Please Help them to turn to you, to look to you for guidance and wisdom, to look to you for guidance and wisdom.
Speaker 2:And God, my words here, father please and be with those Father who are listening today.
Speaker 1:Be with their families, give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith.
Speaker 2:Comfort them in any anxiety and fears that they may be having and bring us all home to you, father and your Son Jesus Christ, in your timing, in the name of your Son Jesus, Christ, we ask and pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today and have you made time for your spouse? See, I did remember. So often I think of something during the podcast and I can't comment on the podcast and make notes at the same, like it just I can't do all the things at once.
Speaker 1:And I need to. I need some way for my brain to write notes down as I'm talking. That would be a great invention, great invention, but I remember this time and it's time. Folks, time is our most precious commodity. You can earn more money, right, you can do a lot of things, but you cannot get time back. You can't make more of it. You can't make more of it. There's no way for you to add a single second minute hour day to your life. It's impossible, no matter how much you want to. Whatever the end of your life is, whatever point God has when he's going to bring you home one way or the other folks, so that's going to be our home folks either heaven or hell for eternity. There's no more chances after that. There's no take backs, there's no nothing. So this time, this is all we have. How many of us treat it like that? I was talking to a man that I have trained with for years.
Speaker 1:Recently, and he works in a prison Really really good man and he was talking about some of the prisoners there have started to ask him to pray. I don't know if it's over the loudspeaker, the intercom system or whatever, but at night before they go to bed and he made the comment. He said they asked one time recently, last few weeks, and he said I had paperwork to do, I had things to get done that night and somebody came one of the guards that was on the floor and said, hey, they're asking if you'll pray. But I guess when the guard came to him at first, he was like, hey, they're asking for you. And he was like what, what do y'all want? What do you need? And the guard like, hey, they're asking for you. And he was like what, what do y'all want? What do you need? And the guard said, well, they're asking if you'll just come pray real quick, it's lights out.
Speaker 1:And he said that was really humbling. And he said, you know, I didn't need to do that paperwork that badly right then. And I didn't need to do that paperwork that badly right then and I didn't need to do those other things that I was trying to get accomplished right then I needed to go pray, and it reminded me of being a parent right with your kids. How often do we tell them no when we really have the time? We're just being lazy, we really badly. Oh it's so bad it makes me cringe, it just hurts my heart the number of times when I have passed up spending time with my kids so I could do something on my phone or on the TV or the computer. I just you want to talk about being ashamed.
Speaker 1:That's being ashamed and and then even more with our spouse right, Because our spouse is supposed to be our number one, one out of 7 billion.
Speaker 2:How many times I've had time to do something with my spouse that my wife's asked me to. And I've said no, not because of something that was truly important. Not because of something that God needed me to do, but because I wanted to go read a book or play a video game or watch something on TV, or I just needed my own space right, I think I talked about that one the last time.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest lies today in our society is the I need my me time.
Speaker 1:I don't even think we really understand how selfish and pathetic that sounds when we say I need my me time. Like if you need your me time, then you shouldn't have gotten married, then you shouldn't have had kids. Like there's a difference between needing a couple minutes to collect your thoughts and I need to go have a day for me with the girls, or I need to go with the guys and just go fishing or golfing or whatever. I just I need some me time. Really Probably shouldn't have gotten married. Then there's your me time. That ought to be in the marriage contract. Like I give up all my me time. It's sad that you even have to say that, but apparently we do today. And then how often do we do it, especially most of all with God? How often do we say I don't have time for you, god, I'm just, I'm too, I'm too tired, I'm too, whatever, it doesn't even matter. And then we go sit, plop our fat rear ends down on the couch in front of the TV or the computer on our phone. And there's all these memes too. It's great, right, if you're on tiktok or instagram reels or facebook, I'm sure any of those. There's all these aha, funny, funny, like the couple sitting together and they're sending each other like 500 reels and and you got to think, okay, and the amount of time that y'all are having this quote unquote bonding time which you're not bonding. You're staring at a screen, you're not staring at your spouse, you're touching your phone, you're not touching your spouse All this time that we could have given to God or to our spouse and it's like a big joke to us. It's like funny, funny, ha ha. Man, it's going to be funny one day, all right, like cry tears, funny At any rate. I have one more thing and then we'll get into.
Speaker 1:I don't know where we're going today in the Bible, but I came across this recently Again. I think I've talked to you all about it in the past, but for whatever reason, it popped up on my radar again, this quote that I read from somebody that said your kids are either going to want your marriage or they're not going to want your marriage. And maybe you come from parents that that gave you a really bad example, right? Maybe you've got a horrible example of parents. Don't be your parents. If, if they were a bad example, don't become your parents. And and this is true of your spouse as well. Right? Maybe your spouse is a bad spouse. Maybe they don't follow God's very clear roles and responsibilities for them as a husband or a wife.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of marriages out there like that, sadly, folks that have absolutely no desire to follow 1 Corinthians 7, titus 2, ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3, hebrews 13, 4, right, no desire. Or they twist it to mean what it doesn't mean in Scripture to make excuses so that they can have some more me time, so that they can act the way they want to act, as opposed to serving God and serving you as their spouse. Right? Don't be their example. Don't be their like culprit. Set a better example for your children. Set an example for your children or for those around you if you don't have children. Break that cycle, folks. If you don't have a spouse, then be the spouse on your own. If you do have a spouse, then be the marriage. Set the example for your kids and for those around you of what a great marriage should look like, of what a great spouse, husband or wife should be, so that at least they get one example right and hopefully two. And you never know. You never know when your spouse might watch your example.
Speaker 1:I wish I had the verse in front of me. Some of y'all know it right now that you might win over your spouse, your unbelieving spouse, and that's kind of what it is right. Even if somebody claims to be a Christian, if they're not really following the commands of God and Jesus Christ, how much do they really buy into Scripture? Even if they claim to be a Christian, if they're not, if we don't really follow God, if we don't follow Jesus's commands, do we really love Jesus Christ? Are we really following him? And of course, the answer is no, and that hurts a bunch of us. Steps on our toes, at any rate, I took longer on that than I wanted to. Maybe some of y'all needed to hear it, though. Be the example, hopefully in your marriage, but at least in yourself as a spouse, set an example that your kids and those around you want to follow. All right, so we finished with James.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go into 1, peter 1, verse 1. A living hope and a sure salvation. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, galatia, cappadocia, asia and Bithynia, who were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.
Speaker 1:As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time, the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating, as he predicted, the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you. In these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours and your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. Because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy If you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work.
Speaker 1:Conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ, for he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times, for the sake of you who, through him, are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls off. The word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word which was preached to you. Okay, so, as always, there's a ton here, verse 22,. A couple real quick here at the end.
Speaker 1:Since you have, obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. Do we love each other? Do we love our neighbors as ourselves? And who's your closest neighbor If you're married? Your spouse. Do you love them fervently from the heart? Do we love people at church and our community and our schools and our little suburb, our town?
Speaker 1:I say this often because I feel like we've kind of missed it in the church. I think maybe we're getting a better picture of it now than we've had for a while. I know there's one church that I listen to their sermons often and their pastor talks about this frequently. You know, we don't have to go across deserts or overseas in order to find people that need to hear about Jesus Christ, that need our love. There's people right here in our area, in our community, in your community, in your schools, in your churches, down your street that need that love. When I really stop to pay attention to the people around me that need me, I'm overwhelmed by it often because I don't make the time, and I think a lot of that is our idea of well, that's not really missionary work, that's not really evangelizing, that's not big enough or bold enough or whatever. But I wonder how often and I'm really talking to myself here, folks, but maybe some of y'all too how often are we just making excuses because we don't really want to take the time to love those right around us? There's another one down here, but I'm going to go ahead and go back to the top. We won't get through all of this today. Verse one Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens.
Speaker 1:I was just talking to a very good friend of mine Just within the past few days, about the fact that we were talking about CS Lewis's quote, I think in mere Christianity. I don't remember, don't hold me to that, but he was talking about the fact that actually now I'm second guessing myself, but it was CS Lewis and he was talking about the fact that if nothing here on Earth fills me up, if nothing fills this void in me no amount of money or video games or TV shows or sex, or drugs or alcohol or power If none of that fills me up, it must mean that I'm made for another world. If nothing on this earth can fill me up and you know it can't, some of y'all have tried, I've tried If nothing on this earth can fill us up, it must mean that we're made for another place. Right? Do we live that way? Do we live as if we're already living in eternity and not here on earth? Do we live as aliens in this world?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It's kind of I'm going to still this is really bad paraphrase, so definitely don't hold CS Lewis responsible for this but it's kind of like D-Day invasion right, normandy, and the parachuters that went in behind enemy lines. We've been dropped off behind enemy lines in this world. The world's not our friend, folks. We're not friends with the world. You shouldn't want to be friends with the world. You should want to be enemies with the world. You should want to be a friend to God and Jesus Christ. But again, talking to myself here, dropped off behind enemy's lines, this is not our world. This is not our home. We're not going to stay here. Don't want to stay here.
Speaker 1:All we're trying to do, honestly, is it's like a snatch and grab or whatever they call it. We're trying to come in, grab some souls and get out. Snatch and grab or whatever they call it. We're trying to come in, grab some souls and get out. That's really how we ought to look at our life here. We're trying to get in, grab as many prisoners here as we can and get out. That's the goal. And it's a war, folks. It's an absolute war and we need to think about this. I talked about this recently.
Speaker 1:Maybe, we talked about it today a little bit. We don't need to be trying to make peace with the left, socialism, communism, leftism, islam. We need to acknowledge that we're at war, that there's not peaceful coexistence there anyway. I know I took At war that there's not peaceful coexistence there Anyway. I know I took longer on verse one than I really. But, aliens, folks, that's our job, get in, grab as many souls as we can Get out Verse three blessed be God, the father.
Speaker 1:God, the God and father of our Lord, jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Let that give you a little bit of hope today. Folks, whatever you're going through, however hard it is, however painful, it is a living hope. A man that I consider a brother told me that recently he said that God doesn't want us to just have hope for the next life. Although that's great and that's encouraging, as kind of like, I can't explain it as well as he did, but it's a living hope. It's a hope currently now active right, and it's this we're going to obtain one day. This inheritance which we obtain is going to be imperishable and undefiled and it's never going to fade away. That's a pretty huge hope, folks. That's a pretty huge hope Reserved in heaven for you. Reserved in heaven for you.
Speaker 1:Verse 6, 7,. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. We don't see Jesus Christ, but we love him. We don't see him now, but we choose to believe in him. It's a choice, folks. That's why it's called faith, because you don't see. If we saw it, it wouldn't be faith, and so it's a choice. Do you choose to believe in Jesus Christ? Anybody that tells you that they know 100%, without a doubt, 100%, without a doubt, that Jesus Christ existed or died for their sins and rose from the dead and they know that they have eternal life and salvation. You've got to question that sincerity a little bit unless they have seen Jesus Christ, unless he has shown himself to them in the flesh and I won't deny that that's an absolute possibility to see angels or Christ but unless you have seen it right.
Speaker 1:It's the same argument that I've talked about with kids before in the past. As far as so. One of my degrees is in geology and so I had to look at a lot of fossils rocks. I degrees is in geology and so had to look at a lot of fossils rocks. I know that's weird, I enjoy it. Don't hold that against me too much.
Speaker 1:But when we look at fossils from the past we make educated guesses but we don't know. We weren't there. We have no idea whether this little critter that we're looking at, a fossil of, lived the way that we say they did. And it doesn't matter, folks, I'm not trying to get into whether it's a 6,000-year-old Earth or a 5-billion-year-old Earth. I'm saying there's a fossil of a creature that lived at some point. That lived at some point, but we don't really know 100% if that creature is extinct. If it's been extinct for however long, we don't know what that creature functioned like. We have a pretty good guess, we're really pretty certain. And if you read through a book like Lee Strobel's Case for Christ, there's a lot of evidence for Jesus Christ. There's a lot of evidence for the resurrection. It's an educated guess, it's a really good one, just like people that argue about the functionality of specific fossils, they're making an educated guess.
Speaker 1:Folks, if anybody tells you, for example, I use this, I always go back to a trilobite. If y'all know what a trilobite is, it's this little crab-like creature kind of. That's real brief. If anybody tells you 100% they know exactly what, how a trilobite lived, they're lying to you Because no person was alive. If you believe in the five billion year old earth and even if there was, we don't have any record of a person that wrote it down saying, hey, I just got this trilobite and here's my. I saw how it looked. Right, whether it was 5000 years ago or five billion they choose to believe. It takes a leap of faith. I see this creature. It looks similar to what I've seen today. Pretty sure, this is probably how it lived.
Speaker 1:But that last little bit, folks, I know I'm going on about this, but that last little bit is a leap of faith, jesus Christ. There's some really good evidence that Jesus Christ did some miraculous things, that he fulfilled all the prophecies written in the Bible, that he was resurrected from the dead. But that last little bit at least if you haven't seen Jesus Christ in person, takes a little bit of a leap of faith, folks. All right, we're going to get back into Holy Trinity Church versus United States Supreme Court case from 1892. And this is the court opinion offered or delivered, however you say that, by Justice Brewer.
Speaker 1:And so yesterday, just a little, or the previous podcast, I think, just a little recap we talked he's kind of going through and talking about why we're Christian people. What's the proof? Because there's just mountains of proof. And as we talked about during the podcast, I think toward the end yesterday, you know we need to be prepared as Christians to defend our faith, and I don't feel great at it, folks. So if you don't either, me too, but at least a little bit, at least somehow just ask God. So, if you don't either, me too, but at least a little bit, at least somehow just ask God to help you.
Speaker 1:Be honest, y'all a person. Hey, I'm not the best at this, but this is why I have the faith that I do Think about it some. And the same thing with our nation If you're given an opportunity and maybe there won't be Maybe you will have a lot of opportunities in your life, maybe you won't have a lot of opportunities. But if somebody comes up and says, why do you believe in Jesus Christ, what are you going to tell them? I'm going to tell them personally, just if this helps you at all, because I've seen proof of some of the scriptures, the verses, particularly out of all. Because I've seen proof of some of the scriptures, the verses, particularly out of Proverbs. I've seen them in my life in action, and that tells me that there's truth in the Bible. So that makes me pay attention to it. And the more I read history of America in particular, the more I see that relationship between America and God and Jesus Christ and that gives me a little bit stronger faith.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And then America. Why? Why do you think that you know, if you're, if you're blessed with the opportunity and somebody comes up, it doesn't think that America's a Christian nation, which there's a lot of them today. They think that we're a secularist, deist nation, and they honestly go. Well, why, why do you think that we're a Christian nation, a Christian republic? Can you go to something like this court case and talk to them about it a little bit? Right? So we talked about Columbus first.
Speaker 1:Colonial grants are Walter Riley in 1584, first charter of Virginia and then the Mayflower Compact 1620.
Speaker 1:And so we're going to pick up there. Fundamental orders of Connecticut, under which a provisional government was instituted in 1638-39, commence with this declaration For, as much as it hath pleased the Almighty God by the wise disposition of his dying prudence, it be providence so to order and dispose of things that we, the inhabitants and residents of Windsor, hartford and Wethersfield, are now cohabitating and dwelling in and upon the river Connecticut and the lands there unto adjoining, and well knowing where a people are gathered together, the word of God requires that, to maintain the peace and union of such a people, there should be an orderly and decent government, established according to God, to order and dispose of the affairs of the people at all seasons, as occasion shall require. Do therefore associate and conjoin ourselves to be as one public state or commonwealth, and do for ourselves and our successors and such as shall be adjoined to us at any time hereafter. Enter into combination and confederation together to maintain and pursue the liberty and purity or I don't think that's right.
Speaker 1:It's written in older English folks. I'm sorry, Not personal here.
Speaker 2:Anyway.
Speaker 1:The liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus, which we now profess, as also the discipline of the churches which, according to the truth of said gospel, is now practiced amongst us, which, according to the truth, of said gospel is now practiced amongst us.
Speaker 1:So, fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1638-1639,. What are they saying? Where a people are gathered together, the Word of God requires that in order to maintain peace and union, there's got to be a government established according to God, the Father of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, not according to Allah or some God from Buddhism or Hinduism, right, but God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So we're getting a little closer to the founding of the nation, right, and we're still seeing this trend columbus charters, mayflower, compact. Fundamental orders of connecticut now 1638, 39. What do they say? It's pleased almighty god by the wise disposition of his providence so to order and dispose things Right. So they're turning to God. They're saying it's pleased God for us to be here and do this. We need to establish this government according to God if we want peace and union. Right, because in order to have an orderly and decent government, it's got to be established according to God. And that they're all going to put themselves in this public state or commonwealth and any successors or anybody that's going to be adjoined to them at any time hereafter into this combination and confederation to maintain.
Speaker 1:And that word I'm still struggling with. I think it's like preserve, preserve. I think that's it Maintain and preserve the liberty and purity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus, right? So we've got to maintain the gospel of Jesus Christ and the discipline of the church is according to the truth of said gospel, which is now practiced among us. Right Kind of interesting there, I might be reading a little bit into this and as also the discipline of the churches, which, according to the truth of the said gospel, if your church is teaching you something that's outside of Scripture, that's not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Again, if your denomination, if your church is teaching you something outside of Scripture, if you can't point specifically to somewhere in Scripture something that your church is teaching, they're not teaching you the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's a really dangerous place to be. Folks, when people start to add, like you and I might have a disagreement about an interpretation of certain parts of Scripture, although a lot of Scripture is a heck of a lot clearer than we pretend it is today in a lot of cases. Right, feminism is a great example. There's a lot of scripture that's twisted. Proverbs 31 is an example that the quote-unquote Christian feminists love.
Speaker 1:Right, there are a lot of places where we try and make Scripture gray so that we can do what we want to do as opposed to what God tells us to do. And we're all guilty of that to a certain degree, folks. The difference is do we realize and repent of it? Do we try not to do that, or do we continue to do what we want to do and therefore twist scripture? But anyway, I got off track here.
Speaker 1:The point is, the interesting thing about this last sentence is the church is, according to the truth and gospel truth of said gospel, the gospel of our Lord Jesus right. If you've got a church or a denomination and they're teaching you something that's not in the gospel, that's no good folks. And here we are again. Fundamental orders of Connecticut saying the same thing we're a Christian nation, folks, this is a great tool for your tool bag, great thing to teach. Children growing up in the United States Required have to. This ought to be a big deal. This particular court case ought to be taught multiple times throughout a K through 12 education in the United States in public schools.
Speaker 2:I wonder if it is.
Speaker 1:In the Charter of Privileges granted by William Penn to the province of Pennsylvania in 1701,. It is recited because no people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, if abridged of the freedom of their consciences as to their religious profession and worship. An almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, father of Lights and spirits, and the author as well as object of all divine knowledge, faith and worship, who only doth enlighten the minds and persuade and convince the understandings of people, I do hereby grant and declare, etc. So this is you're going to have to give me a second, folks, if I can find it quickly, but it's a great teaching moment, if I can find it. James 1.17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. So one of the comments we've made over the years on this podcast is a quote by Benjamin Franklin and I don't have the quote in front of me so I'm going to paraphrase a little. Forgive me, but Franklin said basically, when I give speeches, addresses, talks in the United States, I don't have to explain my biblical references Because the people there in the United States they get it, they know their Bible, they're a very Bible-literate society. And you've got to remember the timing of this right Franklin's life, going up into the Revolution, right when he was super, super popular and that was after the Great Awakening Started, back in the 1730s, give or take. And so we have become over these decades, a Bible literate people, especially in some areas like the New England area. At that time People listened to a lot of sermons, they read their Bible, which ties into what we talk about so often, the fact if you're talking to somebody, any Christian, today, and they're telling you that people shouldn't have the right to own a Bible or read a Bible and that if they don't belong to their little denomination, that they can't be saved. That's really dangerous folks and you need to be really wary of those people, because that's the exact same thing that our founders and ancestors had to deal with in Europe. That our founders and ancestors had to deal with in Europe, right. But so this father of lights in this charter of privileges granted by William Penn to the province of Pennsylvania in 1701. And almighty God being the only Lord of conscience, father of lights and spirits, right. So this reference is to God, the Father of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:And if we read our Bible consistently, day in and day out, we catch these little references there's so many built into our founding documents to speeches, to proclamations. There's so many references to Scripture. But if we don't know our Bible, if we're a Bible illiterate people, then we miss a lot of this stuff. We don't catch it. And then it opens the door right, for example, to the left, saying well, we're not a Bible nation, we're not a Christian nation. Where did you get that idea? That's foolish. We don't have the principles of Jesus Christ built into our founding documents. And if they did say God, they were just talking about some random deist out there floating around in space. They weren't really talking about God, about the Father of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:But if you really, if you read the Bible enough and you know that particular title, then man you can kind of smile at them, maybe even wink, shake your head a little bit and say that was a nice try, that was a good try. But no, I know, I know, because I know this reference the father of lights out of James, chapter one, verse 17. I know they were talking about God, the Father of Jesus Christ, coming nearer to the present time. The Declaration of Independence recognizes the presence of the divine and human affairs in these words. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America and General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, etc. Publish and declare, etc. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. So this is another great opportunity to defend against the lies of the left, and not even really to defend, but to be on the offensive. When you're teaching kids, when you're talking to people right, talk to them about, because one of the things you're going to hear, for example, I know this is the Declaration of Independence, but the Constitution.
Speaker 1:I got to get this book out. The Constitution is a great example. Oh, I don't have it. What did I do with it? Oh, I don't know what I did with it. Let me go see if I can find it real quick. All right, I got it.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that they're going to tell you is that all of our founders, almost all of them, were deists or atheists. Well, if you know just a little bit, you can go back and say I don't think that's right. And you could go back and you say well, let's look at the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention right, who represent the makeup at large, and you can say okay, public record 28 Episcopalians, eight Presbyterians, seven Congregationalists, 2 Lutherans, 2 Dutch Reformed, 2 Methodists, 2 Roman Catholics, 1 Unknown and 3 Deists. Over 90% of the members right were Christian, and even the ones that weren't at this point in time were influenced by the Bible. And so you look at this declaration and you go well, they're talking about God.
Speaker 1:Well, what God. Well, it wasn't a bunch of Muslims that got together and wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It wasn't a bunch of Jews independents and the Constitution. It wasn't a bunch of Jews, it wasn't Buddhists or Hindus, it wasn't atheists, it wasn't Satanists, it wasn't even primarily the old world Roman Catholics or Orthodox. It was Christians, overwhelmingly.
Speaker 2:Protestant, but Christian.
Speaker 1:Christian. So in the Declaration here, when we go and we look at this right and we examine it, who's the creator? God, the Father of Jesus Christ, right, so we're all created with unalienable rights. Who's the supreme judge of the world that we appeal to for the rectitude of our intentions? God, the Father of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Why are we looking for support? Divine providence, right. Who are we relying on the protection of divine providence? What providence? God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:You have to know these little bits, folks. And there's a quote by one of our founders I don't have the book in front of me, right? Another couple of great quotes that go here when you're talking about this, madison Hamilton, somebody, right. They said I don't think the Constitution, for example, could have even been ratified without the hand of God, because the differences, right, john Adams, the general principles upon which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity, and in that particular letter, or whatever he wrote there, he talks about the fact that those are the only principles that could have unified such a diverse group of men. Are we ready, in season and out of season, to defend our faith, most importantly, but the faith of our nation as a nation. God bless you all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages, if you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, folks, we'll talk to you all again real soon. Looking forward to it.