The American Soul
The American Soul
Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee: Rediscovering America's spiritual roots
What happens when a nation drifts from its spiritual moorings? Jesse Cope tackles this profound question by examining America's foundation in Christian principles and the consequences of abandoning these truths.
The episode opens with a heartfelt reminder to prioritize our relationship with God - through daily Scripture reading, prayer, and living according to biblical values. Jesse points out that our personal spiritual discipline reflects what our nation needs collectively. When we neglect these foundations, both our personal lives and our national character suffer.
A centerpiece of this episode is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's magnificent poem "The Building of the Ship." This powerful allegory of shipbuilding represents America's creation and preservation as a nation. Jesse shares the fascinating historical connection between this poem, Abraham Lincoln (who reportedly wept upon hearing it), and later, how Franklin D. Roosevelt sent its opening lines to Winston Churchill during World War II, creating a profound bond between allies during their darkest hour.
"Thou too sail on, O Ship of State, sail on O Union strong and great. Humanity, with all its fears, with all the hopes of future years, is hanging breathless on thy fate." These words resonated deeply with leaders who understood that America's strength came not from abandoning its principles but from embracing them more fully.
The episode takes a sobering turn as Jesse reads accounts from Fox's Book of Martyrs, detailing the horrific persecution Christians faced in the second century. These stories serve as powerful reminders of the price paid for faith throughout history and challenge us to consider what we would sacrifice to preserve religious freedom today.
Jesse concludes with a thought-provoking challenge: "We can't have America without God at the wheel and His Son, Jesus Christ, guiding it and the Holy Spirit. It's just not going to work. You can't have liberty where the Holy Spirit is not." He reminds us that when we compromise truth in the name of tolerance, we aren't being kind but cruel - a powerful reminder that genuine love speaks truth, even when difficult.
Join us for this enlightening exploration of faith, liberty, and America's spiritual heritage - and consider what we must preserve to ensure our ship of state continues to sail through the storms ahead.
The American Soul Podcast
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe
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. Sure do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it will give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to send the Marine Corps. Hopefully it will draw us all a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you so much, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for the podcast and for me, thank you so much, incredibly grateful for your prayers, need them, want them. Thank you For those of y'all who have been around for a while. I'm glad you're here, I'm glad you have decided to stick around, and for those of y'all that are new, I hope that you enjoy it, get something out of it, and I hope you come back. So, father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love, mercy and grace. Forgiveness of sins through the merit of your Son, jesus Christ, not through our own actions. Father, thank you for the people that listen to the podcast and share it. Be with them. Be with their families. Surround us with your angels, father. Protect us from evil of any kind. Help us to help those that have less than we do. Help us to help our country turn back to you. Please be with those who are hurting, father, those who are alone, scared, those who have lost parents or children, spouses, loved ones, those who are anxious, afraid. Comfort them, father. Please calm their spirits. Be with those around the world who are suffering for the name of your Son, jesus Christ. Comfort them. Forgive us when we fail, father, when we fail to follow the commands of your Son Jesus Christ, when we fail to love you with all that we are. Love our neighbors as ourselves when we fail to follow your commands in Scripture. Draw us close to you. Strengthen our faith. Be with our leaders here in America and around the world. Give them wisdom and courage, strong faith. Help them to rule in fear of you, father. Be with our military and our law enforcement. Keep them safe. Give them wisdom and courage our firefighters as well. Bring them home safe to their families. Please, our EMS workers also. 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 to pray, to talk to him, to tell him what you're grateful for, ask forgiveness where you've fallen short, to pray for those around you spouse, kids, parents, friends, co-workers, enemies right? Kids, parents, friends, co-workers, enemies, right. Much as we don't like to do that sometimes, there's really little else we can do that will have a more powerful effect on our enemies and make them no longer our enemies. Folks.
Speaker 1:And if you're married, are you following your role and your responsibilities as a husband or a wife as according to Scripture? It's not hard, folks. I was watching, I was listening to somebody else, and they took Titus 2, and they kind of broke it down without actually quoting the verses word for word. They just wrote what was in it, but in kind of common English. Right, it's not hard folks. The commands for a husband and a wife and their relationship is really clear. The problem is that we don't really like that, right. We don't really want to do that. Just like a lot of times we don't really want to follow Christ's commands, to love God with all that we are to do right, to do everything for God, serving God. And then that second command, which involves our spouse, because they're our closest neighbor. It's not really a matter of whether we can or can't, it's really just a matter of whether we will or won't. All right, matthew 15. I think, just a matter of whether we will or won't. All right, matthew 15. I think, yeah, tradition and commandment.
Speaker 1:Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And he answered and said to them why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said Honor your father and mother, and he who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death. But you say Whoever says to his father or mother Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God. He is not to honor his father or his mother. And by this you invalidate the word of God. For the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.
Speaker 1:After Jesus called the crowd to him, he said to them Hear and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth that defiles the man. Then the disciples came and said to him do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement? But he answered and said every plant which my heavenly father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind, and if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. The heart of man. Peter said to him explain the parable to us. Jesus said are you still lacking in understanding? Also, do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated, but the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders these are the things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.
Speaker 1:The Syrophoenician woman. Jesus went away from there and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon and a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying have mercy on me, lord, son of David, my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed. But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and implored him, saying Send her away because she keeps shouting at us. But he answered and said I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and began to bow down before him, saying Lord, help me. And he answered and said it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. But she said yes, lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus said to her O woman, your faith is great, it shall be done for you as you wish. To her O woman, your faith is great, it shall be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed at once, healing crowds departing from there, jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee and, having gone up on the mountain, he was sitting there and large crowds came to him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute and many others, and they laid them down at his feet and he healed them.
Speaker 1:So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored and the lame walking and the blind seeing, and they glorified the God of Israel. 4,000 fed and Jesus called his disciples to him and said I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat and I do not want to send them away hungry for they might faint on the way. The disciples said to him when would we get so many loaves in this desolate place to satisfy such a large crowd? And Jesus said to them how many loaves do you have? And they said seven and a few small fish. And he directed the people to sit down on the ground and he took the seven loaves and the fish and, giving thanks, he broke them and started giving them to the disciples. And the disciples gave them to the people and they all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces seven large baskets full and those who ate were 4,000 men besides women and children. And sending away the crowds, jesus got into the boat and came to the region of Magadan. All right, there's a ton here, right, as per normal.
Speaker 1:One thing that I have always struggled with my whole adult life reading the Bible is this story of the Syrophoenician woman. It doesn't sound like Jesus is being very kind talking about. It's not good to take the food from the children and feed it to the dogs. I don't have a good answer for you folks. I've heard a couple good answers from pastors, but I don't remember them, so maybe they weren't that good after all. It's just simply something I don't understand. I don't understand that interaction between Jesus and this woman. I don't get it, and I'm sure there's some people out there that do. I'm not one of them.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day it's kind of like the question our pastor talks to us about every once in a while. He says either you trust God or you don't. At the end of the day, either you trust God or you don't, and I think in the case of this woman, either you trust that God is good or you don't. The Bible specifically tells us that God is good and that he's looking out for our best interests. Right, jeremiah? He's got a plan for us. He's not going to leave us alone and destitute. He's not going to forsake us. He wants what's best for us, all things work together for good for those who love the Lord. Right? So either we trust that God is good or we don't. And if we trust that God is good, then even though we don't understand this interaction with this Syrophoenician woman, even though we don't understand Jesus's response and tone of voice comment, don't understand Jesus's response and tone of voice Comment If we trust that God is good and Jesus is God, then we just have to accept this and understand there's something there that we're just missing.
Speaker 1:And at the end of the day, folks, the bottom line, right, there's not a better deal out there going. There's not a better religion, there's not a better faith, there's not a better choice. It's not atheism, it's not Islam, it's not Buddhism or Hinduism or Judaism or mother nature ism or Satanism. There's nothing out there that is better than God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Even when we don't understand it.
Speaker 1:And I think often too, we find this right in people that don't really trust God, like God, want to mess with God, that don't want anything to do with God, right, they find a story like this and they kind of use it as a gotcha moment, right, like hey, this doesn't seem very nice. I wouldn't want to follow that God. You want to follow this guy the way he talked to this woman? Man, I wouldn't do that. And we kind of let that affect our faith. And yet when you come down here just a few verses later and he's healing these crowds of people, the mute speaking, the crippled restored, the lame walking, the blind seeing, and we don't give God any credit for that. And we forget when there's people that really want to cause us to doubt our faith and they point to stories that we don't understand. We forget the ones that we do. Jesus healing the sick, the lame, the blind, and we forget that at the end of all this he sends his disciples out, these men that he loved dearly, that he knew were all but one almost going to die brutal, gruesome deaths. He sends them out to all of us, to the entire world. That was really longer than I intended to go on that one point, but maybe some of us need to hear it. The other thing I'll tell you real quick is verse 18. It's really verse 15 through 20 where he's explaining to Peter the parable about the unwashed hands and the heart Verse 18,. But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and those defile a man.
Speaker 1:What we think folks controls the way we talk and the actions that we do, and a lot of that. You can kind of think about it like mental. My vocabulary just completely went away. Folks, I'm sorry, but your mental attitude, you know, do you have a positive attitude about? Do you? Do you look at reading the Bible?
Speaker 1:As I get to get up this morning, I I'm that's my positive Like I get to do it and read the Bible and pray. I have that option. I get to go talk to the God of the universe right now. Or do you have a? Uh? Oh, man, I got to do that again. Are you kidding? I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:I have other things I want to do. I want to watch TV, I want to scroll on my phone, I want to work out, I want to watch sports. You know, I'm just so tired. I just I need a little break. I need a little me time. Okay, if that's really true, maybe you need to readjust your day and your priorities. Same thing for marriage. Oh, man, they want to do that again. I just need a break. I'm just overstimulated, I'm over-touched, I'm over, like work's just been so rough. I just need a little time. Then you need to check yourself. As we used to say in the Marine Corps, the problem's not them, the problem is you. The problem is you have your priorities out of whack, out of line, and you're putting things before either God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, or before your spouse. That shouldn't be there, because there's nothing that should come before those two priorities every day. All right, we'll move on. I took a little longer there than I intended, sorry.
Speaker 1:So we're going to read a poem today. I'll tell you a little bit about it at the end. It involves President Lincoln and President Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. It's a poem by Longfellow. He wrote it in 1849, and it's called the Building of the Ship. And if you didn't know it, longfellow was raised by the sea, and so we're just going to read through it. We'll see how long it takes.
Speaker 1:The Building of the ship. Build me straight, o worthy master, staunch and strong, a goodly vessel that shall laugh at all disaster and with wave and whirlwind wrestle. The merchant's word delighted the master. The master heard, for his heart was in his work, and the heart giveth grace unto every art. A quiet smile played round his lips as the eddies and dimples of the tide play round the bows of ships that steadily at anchor ride. And with a voice that was full of glee he answered ere long we will launch a vessel as goodly and strong and staunch as ever, weathered a wintry sea and first, with nicest skill and art, perfect and finished in every part. A little model the master wrought, which, swift and sure the greater labor might be brought.
Speaker 1:To answer to his inward thought, and as he labored, his mind ran o'er the various ships that were built of yore, and above them all and strangest of all, towered the great Harry, frank and tall, whose picture was hanging on the wall, with bowels and stern raised high in the air and balconies hanging here and there and signal lanterns and flags afloat, and eight round towers like those that frown from some old castle looking down upon the drawbridge and the moat. And he said with a smile Our ship I was, shall be of another form than this. It was of another form indeed, built for freight and yet for speed, a beautiful and gallant craft, broad in the beam that the stress of the blast pressing down upon sail and mast might not the sharp bows overwhelm broad in the beam. Might not the sharp bows. Overwhelm Broad in the beam, but sloping aft With graceful curve and slow degrees. That she might be docile to the helm and that the currents of parted seas Closing behind with mighty force, might aid and not impede her course.
Speaker 1:In the shipyard stood the master With a model of the vessel that should laugh at all disaster. And with wave and whirlwind rustle Covering many a root of ground, lay the timber, piled round, timber of chestnut and elm and oak, and scattered here and there with these the gnarred and Ah, what a wondrous thing it is to note how many wheels of toil one thought, one word can set in motion. There's not a ship that sails the ocean, but every climate, every soil must bring its tribute, great or small, and help to build the wooden wall. The sun was rising, o'er the sea, and long the level shadows lay, as if they too, the beams, would be Of some great airy argosy. Framed and launched in a single day, that silent architect, the sun had hewn and laid them every one ere the work of man was yet begun.
Speaker 1:Beside the master, when he spoke, a youth, against an anchor, leaning, listened to catch his slightest meaning. Only the long waves as they broke and ripples on the pebbly beach interrupted the old man's speech. Beautiful they were in sooth. The old man and the fiery youth. The old man in whose busy brain many a ship that sailed the main was modeled o'er and o'er again. Many a ship that sailed the main Was modeled o'er and o'er again.
Speaker 1:The fiery youth who was to be the heir of his dexterity and the heir of his house and his daughter's hand, when he had built and launched from land what the elder head had planned. Thus said he we will build this ship. Lay square the blocks upon the slip and follow well this plan of mine. Choose the timbers with greatest care. Of all that is unsound, beware for only what is strong and sound. To this vessel shall belong Cedar of Maine and Georgia pine. Here together shall combine A goodly frame, a goodly frame and the union to be her name For the day that gives her to the sea. So give my daughter unto thee.
Speaker 1:The master's word enraptured, the young man heard, and as he turned his face aside with a look of joy and a thrill of pride, standing before her father's door, he saw the form of his promised bride. The sun shone on her golden hair and her cheek was glowing fresh and fair with the breath of morn and the soft sea air, like a beauteous barge was she still at rest on the sandy beach just beyond the billow's reach. But he was the restless, seething, stormy sea. Ah, how skillful grows the hand that obeyeth love's command. It is the heart and not the brain that to the highest doth attain, and he who followeth love's behest far exceedeth all the rest.
Speaker 1:Thus, with the rising of the sun was the noble task begun, and soon, throughout the shipyard's bounds were heard the intermingled sounds of axes and of mallets, flied with vigorous arms on every side, flied so deftly and so well that ere the shadows of evening fell, the keel of oak for a noble ship, scarfed and bolted, straight and strong, was lying ready and stretched along the blocks, well placed upon the slip. Happy thrice, happy Every one who sees his labor well begun and not perplexed and multiplied by idly waiting for time and tide. And when the hot, long day was o'er, the young man at the master's door sat with the maiden calm and still, and within the porch, a little more Removed beyond the evening chill, the father sat and told them tales of wrecks in the great September gales of pirates upon the Spanish main and ships that never came back again and ships that never came back again. The chance and change of a sailor's life, want and plenty, rest and strife is roving, fancy, like the wind that nothing can stay and nothing can bind, and the magic charm of foreign lands with shadows of palms and shining sands, where the tumbling surf or the coral reefs of Madagascar washes the feet of the swarthy Lascar as he lies alone and asleep on the turf. And the trembling maiden held her breath at the tails of that awful, pitiless sea with all its terror and mystery, the dim, dark sea, so like unto death, that divides and yet unites mankind. And whenever the old man paused, a gleam from the bowl of his pipe would a while a loom, the silent group and the twilight gloom and thoughtful faces, as in a dream. And for one moment one might mark what had been hidden by the dark that the head of the maiden lay at rest, tenderly on the young man's breast.
Speaker 1:Day by day, the vessel grew With timbers, fashioned, strong and true, stimson and Kilson and Sternson, knee, till, framed with perfect symmetry, a skeleton ship rose up to view and round the bows and along the side, the heavy hammers and mallets, plied Till after many a week at length, wonderful for form and strength, sublime in its enormous bulk, loomed aloft the shadowy hulk and around it columns of smoke, up-wreathing Rose from the boiling, bubbling seething cauldron that glowed and overflowed With the black tar heated for the sheathing, and amid the clamors of clattering hammers, he who listened heard, now and then, the song of the master and his men Build me straight, o worthy master, staunch and strong, a goodly vessel that shall laugh at all disaster and with waves and whirlwind, rustle with oak and brace and copper band, lay the rudder on the sand that, like a thought, should have control over the movement of the hull and near it, the anchor whose giant hand would reach down and grapple with the land and, immovable and fast, hold the great ship against the bellowing blast. And at the bowels, an image stood by a cunning artist, carved in wood, with robes of white that, far behind, seemed to be fluttering in the wind In a classic mold, not like a nymph or goddess of old or naiad rising from the water, but modeled From the master's daughter. On many a dreary and misty night Will be seen by the rays of the signal light Speeding along through rain and dark. Like a ghost in its snow white sark, the pilot of some phantom bark guiding the vessel in its flight by a path none other knows aright Behold, at last, each tall and tapering mast is swung into its place, shrouds and stays, holding it firm and fast.
Speaker 1:Long ago, in the dear haunted forests of Maine, when upon mountain and plain lay the snow they fell, those lordly pines, those grand majestic pines, mid shouts and cheers, the jaded steers panting beneath the goad dragging down the weary, winding road, those captive kings so straight and tall to be shorn of their streaming hair and naked and bare to feel the stress and the strain of the wind. And the reeling main whose roar would remind them forevermore of their native forests. They should not see again. And everywhere, the slender, graceful spars poise aloft in the air. And at the masthead, white, blue and red, a flag unrolls, the stripes and stars. Ah, when the wanderer, lonely, friendless, in foreign harbors, shall behold that flag unrolled Will be as a friendly hand stretched out from his native land, filling his heart with memories sweet and endless.
Speaker 1:All is finished and at length has come the bridal day Of beauty and of strength. Today the vessel shall be launched. With fleecy clouds, the sky is blanched and o'er the bay slowly, in all his splendor stite, the great sun rises to behold the sight the ocean's old, centuries old, strong as youth and as uncontrolled faces, restless to and fro up and down the sands of gold. His beating heart is not at rest and far and wide, with ceaseless flow, his beard of snow heaves with the heaving of his breast. He waits impatient for his bride. There she stands with her foot upon the sand, decked with flags and streamers, gay In honor of her marriage day. Her snow-white signals fluttering, blending round her like a veil, descending ready to be the bride of the gray old sea. On the deck, another bride is standing by her lover's side. Shadows from the flags and shrouds, like the shadows cast by clouds broken by many a summer fleck, fall around them. On the deck, the prayer is said, the service read, the joyous bridegroom bows his head and, in tears, the good old master shakes the brown head of his son, kisses his daughter's glowing cheek, in silence for he cannot speak, and ever faster down his own, the tears begin to run.
Speaker 1:The worthy pastor, the shepherd of that wandering flock that has the ocean for its world, that has the vessel for its fold, leaping over ever from rock to rock, spake with accents, with accents, mild and clear, words of warning, words of cheer but tedious to the bridegroom's ear. He knew the chart of the sailor's heart, all its pleasures and its griefs, all its shallows and rocky reefs, all those secret current that flow with such resistless undertow and lift and drift with terrible force the will from its moorings and its course. Therefore, he spake and thus said he, like unto ships far off at sea, outward or homeward bound, are we before behind and all around? Are we before behind and all around? Floats and swings, the horizons, bound, seems at its distant rim, to rise and climb the crystal wall of the skies and then again to turn and sink as if we could slide from its outer brink. Ah, it is not the sea. It is not the sea that sinks and shelves, but ourselves, that rock and rise with endless and uneasy motion, now touching the very skies, now sinking into the depths of ocean. Ah, if our souls but poise and swing Like the compass in its brazen ring, ever level and ever true To the toil and the task we have to do, we shall sail securely and safely reach the fortunate isles On whose shining beach the sights we see and the sounds we hear will be those of joy and not of fear.
Speaker 1:Then the master, with a gesture of command, waved his hand. There was heard all around them and below, the sound of hammers blow on, blow, knocking away the shores and spurs. And see, she stirs, she starts, she moves, she seems to fill the thrill of life along her keel and, spurning with her foot the ground, with one exulting joyous bound, she leaps into the ocean's arms. And lo, from the assembled crowd there rose a shout, prolonged and loud, that to the ocean seemed to say Take her, o bridegroom, old and gray, take her to thy protecting arms With all her youth and all her charms. How beautiful she is, how fair she lies within those arms that press her form with many a soft caress Of tenderness and watchful care.
Speaker 1:Sail forth into the sea, o ship, through wind and wave, right onward steer. The moistened eye, the trembling lip are not the signs of doubt or fear. Sail forth into the sea of life, o gentle, loving, trusting wife, and safe from all adversity. Upon the bosom of that sea, thy comings and thy goings be For gentleness and love and trust. Prevail o'er angry wave and gust and in the wreck of noble lives, something immortal still survives. Of noble lives, something immortal still survives. Thou too, sail on O ship of state, sail on O union, strong and great.
Speaker 1:Humanity, with all its fears, with all the hopes of future years, is hanging breathless on the fate. We know what master laid to kill, what workman wrought thy ribs of steel, who made each mast and sail and rope, what anvils rang, what hammers beat and what a forge and what a heat were shaped by the anchors of thy hope. Fear not each sudden sound and shock. Fear not each sudden sound and shock. It is of the wave and not the rock. It is but the flapping of the sail and not a rent made by the gale. In spite of rock and tempest roar, in spite of false lights on the shore, sail on, nor fear to breast the sea. Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee. Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, our faith triumphant o'er, our fears Are all with thee, are all with thee.
Speaker 1:So, longfellow Henry Wadsworth, longfellow, one of our greatest poets here in America. He wrote this as an allegory that slavery would destroy the union, which it almost did, and he was an abolitionist, apparently pretty staunch so against slavery. And we needed men and women like that desperately, just like we do today against slavery, and we needed men and women like that desperately, just like we do today, against abortion. President Lincoln I've read this in a couple different places apparently heard this poem and is said to have wept when he heard it, so strong were his emotions about the Union. And then, so that was. He wrote this again, I think 1849.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure when President Lincoln heard it, but in 1941, so almost a century later, president Roosevelt, fdr, sent a letter to Churchill and he put the first five lines of this poem and told Churchill that it applies to you people as it does to us. Churchill wrote back telling him how deeply he was moved. And so, if we go back to those first five lines, if I can get there, build me straight, o worthy master, staunch and strong, a goodly vessel that shall laugh at all disaster and with wave and whirlwind, wrestle. Those are the first four, and maybe he was including the title, or maybe he wrote some more. I don't know. But we can't have when you really get into this, folks we can't have America without God at the wheel and His Son, jesus Christ, guiding it and the Holy Spirit. It's just not going to work. You can't have liberty where the Holy Spirit is not. You go back to John Adams again talking about the general. The only principles at which that group of men could come together on were those principles, those general principles of Christianity. Not any particular denomination, not denominational doctrine at all, but the principles of Jesus Christ is laid out in scripture. Oh, at any rate, I thought it was a pretty good poem.
Speaker 1:Forgive me for the poor reading of it, but just a little piece of history we're going to read keep reading Fox's Book of the Martyrs. So we're in the section the Fourth Persecution under Marcus Aurelius Antonius, AD 162, and we're just going to pick up where we left off. Some of the restless northern nations have risen in arms against Rome, had risen, having risen, sorry, in arms against Rome. The emperor marched to encounter them. He was, however, drawn into an ambuscade. Strong, the emperor marched to encounter them. He was, however, drawn into an ambuscade and dreaded the loss of his whole army, enveloped with mountains, surrounded by enemies and perishing with thirst. The pagan deities were invoked in vain when the men belonging to the militine or thundering legion, who were all Christians, were commanded to call upon their God for succor, a miraculous deliverance immediately ensued. A prodigious quantity of rain fell which, being caught by the men and filling their dikes, afforded a sudden and astonishing relief. It appears that the storm which miraculously flashed in the faces of the enemy so intimidated them. That part deserted to the Roman army, the rest were defeated and the revolted provinces entirely recovered. This affair occasioned the persecution to subside for some time, at least in those parts immediately under the inspection of the emperor, but we find that it soon after raged in France, particularly at Lyons, where the tortures to which many of the Christians were put almost exceeded the powers of description.
Speaker 1:Veteus, agathus, a young man. Blandina, a Christian lady of a weak constitution. Sanctus, a deacon of Vienna Red-hot plates of brass were placed upon the tenderest parts of his body. Belbius, a weak woman, once an apostate. Natalis of Pergamos and Sothenus, the venerable bishop of Lyons, who was ninety years of age.
Speaker 1:Blandina, on the day when she and the three other champions were first brought into the amphitheater, she was suspended on a piece of wood, fixed in the ground and exposed as food for the wild beasts, at which time, by her earnest prayers, she encouraged others, but none of the wild beasts would touch her, so that she was remanded to prison. When she was again produced for the third and last time, she was accompanied by Ponticus, a youth of fifteen, and the constancy of their faith so enraged the multitude that neither the sex of the one nor the youth of the other were respected, being exposed to all manner of punishments and tortures. Being strengthened by Blandina, he preserved unto death and she, after enduring all the torments heretofore mentioned, was at length slain with the sword. When the Christians, upon these occasions, received martyrdom, they were ornamented and crowned with garlands of flowers for which they, in heaven, received eternal crowns of glory, crowned with garlands of flowers for which they, in heaven, received eternal crowns of glory. The torments were various and exclusive of those already mentioned. The martyrs of lions were compelled to sit in red-hot iron chairs till their flesh broiled. This was inflicted with peculiar severity on sanctus, already mentioned, and some others. Some were sewed up in nets and throw thrown on the horns of wild bulls, and the carcasses of those who died in prison previous to the appointed time of execution were thrown to the dogs. Indeed, so far did the malice of the pagans proceed that they set guards over the bodies while the beasts were devouring them, lest the friends of the deceased should get them away by stealth, and the offals left by the dogs were ordered to be burnt.
Speaker 1:The martyrs of Lyons, according to the best accounts we could obtain, who suffered for the gospel, were 48 in number and their executions happened in the year of Christ 177. Epipodius and Alexander were celebrated for their great friendship and their Christian union with each other. The first was born at Lyons, the latter at Greece. Epipodius, being compassionate by the governor of Lyons and exhorted to join in their festive pagan worship, replied lines and exhorted to join in their festive pagan worship, replied your pretended tenderness is actually cruelty and the agreeable life you described is replete with everlasting death. Christ suffered for us that our pleasures should be immortal and hath prepared for his followers an eternity of bliss. The frame of man being composed of two parts, body and soul, the first, as mean and perishable, should be rendered subservient to the interests of the last. Your idolatrous feasts may gratify the mortal, but they injure the immortal part that cannot therefore be enjoying life, which destroys the most valuable moiety of your fame. Your pleasures lead to eternal death and our pains to perpetual happiness. Epipodius was severely beaten and then put to the rack upon which, being stretched, his flesh was torn with iron hooks. Having borne this torment with incredible patience and unshakable fortitude, he was taken from the rack and beheaded.
Speaker 1:I can't even imagine folks God forgive me my complaints Can't even imagine. Are we willing to at least fight to preserve a nation where the gospel of Christ can be spread around the world? Folks, are we willing to even do that, to risk war, life and limb, or are we not even willing to do that anymore? Are we so comfortable to do that anymore? Are we so comfortable, are we so willing and so desperate for life and peace at all costs that we're not even willing to risk or and all the evils that come with it, to preserve a little bit of light to shine to the rest of the world, leading them to Christ? The other thing that's really interesting here in this commentary from Epipodius if I'm saying that right is his response, or his commentary to the governor of Lyons. Lyons, how do you say it? L-y-o-n-s.
Speaker 1:Your pretended tenderness is actual cruelty when we folks pretend to be kind by encouraging people to sin. Whether you're talking about outright rejection of God, you know well you. You do you. Or feminism, or abortion, or LGBTQ relationships, when we encourage people in those things. When we condone those activities, we're not being loving, we're actually being cruel. We're pretending that tenderness and love but we're not being. You can't encourage sin, you can't encourage lies. And be loving or kind. Going along with the whole feminist mantra isn't kind. Ripping a baby apart limb from limb, isn't kind. Right going back to the feminism that destroys marriages and families and weakens our nation, that's not kind. Encouraging people, condoning LGBTQ relationships, that weaken our nation, that destroy families, that isn't kind. It's not loving, it's not tender, it's actually cruel.
Speaker 1:Valerian and Marcellus, who were nearly related to each other, were imprisoned at Lyons in the year of 177 for being Christians. The father was fixed up to the waist in the ground, in which position, after remaining three days, he expired AD 179. Valerian was beheaded. Apollonius, a Roman senator, an accomplished gentleman and a sincere Christian, suffered under Commodus because he would not worship him as Hercules. Would not worship him as Hercules. Asubius, vincentius, pontianus, perigrinus and Julius, a Roman senator, were martyred on the same account Would not worship him as Hercules.
Speaker 1:Good grief, folks, don't forget I'm going to leave you all alone with that for today but don't forget about the Christians that we have in places like Syria today, where you have bands of Muslims roaming around the country, taking them out of their houses, raping, pillaging, plundering, torturing. Don't forget the absolute depravity of those who hate Jesus Christ. I would even throw in here don't forget what the Muslims did to the Jews a couple years back and have done for centuries. Don't forget the cruelties of the left socialists, communists, nazis, fascists over the last century plus. There's no peaceful coexistence there, folks. There's nothing loving or kind to the widow and the orphan about going along with any of those ideologies. You end up putting people in a position where they have no hope of justice, mercy. You put them under the power of those evil men and women. No hope of justice, mercy. You put them under the power of those evil men and women, and the only way, the only way, to even remotely counter that is to make sure that we have a nation founded on those principles of Christ, not the doctrine.
Speaker 1:Folks, we're going to keep reading through this book over the rest of this year, however long it takes, and you're going to see the Catholic Church and the evils that they've done. It's not denominational doctrine that we need at the heart of America. That does not work. It's the general principles of Christ. We don't need any particular church married to the state. It doesn't work. But we do need the state married to God. That's the way our founders created. It wanted it right. You just have to look at our history. God bless y'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 y'all again real soon, looking forward to it.