The American Soul
The American Soul
Your Spouse > Your Phone: A Spiritual Wake-Up Call
What deserves your time today? In this thought-provoking episode, Jesse Cope challenges us to honestly examine our priorities and consider whether our actions align with what we claim to value most. Are we pouring ourselves into people or things? Are we truly making God and our relationships our highest priorities?
Through a heartfelt exploration of Revelation 22, Jesse emphasizes Jesus's repeated declaration "I am coming quickly" and unpacks its significance for believers today. The message is clear: our time is limited, and how we spend it matters eternally. When we choose distractions over devotion, we miss opportunities that will never return.
Jesse shares a poignant reflection on parenting and grandparenting, noting how quickly seasons of life pass and how often we realize too late the value of time spent with loved ones. "Every time we miss an opportunity to love somebody, that particular opportunity is gone forever," he reminds us, applying this principle especially to marriage relationships where daily choices either strengthen or weaken our most intimate bonds.
The episode takes a fascinating historical turn as Jesse discusses the spiritual foundations of America, revealing that 34% of our founders' quotes came directly from the Bible—far more than any other source. He announces a new series exploring the sermons that shaped our founding generation, beginning with Ezra Stiles' 1783 address "The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor." This historical perspective illuminates a profound truth: "There's a direct correlation between our success, our liberty, our safety, and our willingness to follow God and Jesus Christ."
Current events aren't ignored, as Jesse examines concerning reports about Chinese scientists arrested for biowarfare threats and the troubling decline in America's educational standards. These contemporary challenges make our return to founding principles all the more urgent.
Ready for a spiritual wake-up call that connects personal faith to national renewal? Listen now and reconsider what—and who—truly deserves your time today.
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, or to appreciate you joining me and giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I know for sure that y'all have multiple things pulling on you in all different directions, so I'm very appreciative, very glad that you're here. Try and use your time wisely. Hopefully it will give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the Marine Corps, and hopefully it'll draw each of us a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ as individuals and as a nation. For those of y'all that continue to support the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much. I'll help it to spread. I appreciate that. For those of y'all that have been here year after year, I'm very glad that you came back, obviously humbled by that. And for those of y'all that are new, I hope you enjoy it, hope you get something out of it, hope you come back. And, most of all, for those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. I'm very grateful for those prayers. I need those prayers, one and one.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for this day that you have made. Thank you for the time to record this podcast and the people that listen to it and share it and pray for me. Please be with them, be with their families, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil, heal whatever hurts, whether it's physical or emotional.
Speaker 1:Spiritual. Father, draw them close to you. Help them to feel your presence and your peace. Give us all a strong faith. Help us to trust you more each day, father. Help us to lean on you, not on our own understanding. Help us to love and trust your son, jesus Christ, and to follow his commandments. To love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with those around the world, father, who are suffering for the sake of your Son, jesus Christ. Help us to comfort them in any way that we can, whether they're in Nigeria or Syria, iran, north Korea, russia, china. Help us to truly care for the least of these and forgive us when we fail, father. Forgive us when we go our own way, when we turn a blind eye to those in need, when we make excuses instead of following your clear commands, roles and responsibilities for us. Strengthen our marriages across the nation, here in America and around the world and all the nations where people are listening. Be with their families Again, father. Please. Guide my words here and just bring us home to you. Be with our families Again, father. Please God, my words are and just bring us home to you and your son, jesus Christ, and your timing. In the name of your son, jesus Christ, we ask and pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk to him, to listen to him? Is he really at the top of your priority list? Do you even claim that or not? And if you do claim it, is he really there?
Speaker 1:And if you're married, do you love your spouse as you love yourself? Are they? Are their needs, are their? What they're excited about, what they're interested in? Does it carry just as much weight each day as what you're excited about and you're interested in, if you want your spouse to be interested in. Whatever you're interested in, whether it's cooking or working out or sports or sex or shopping, whatever it is that floats your boat. If you want them to be interested and excited about what you need each day, folks, you have to. It's literally the golden rule, right? You treat others the way that you want to be treated. You don't want somebody to come in and say, well, this is how you ought to feel loved, or well, this is how I feel loved, so this is how I'm going to love you. You want somebody to come in and say you know what I want to do, what you want to do, whatever you want to do it, I'm eager, I'm excited, I'm interested in you.
Speaker 1:I was talking to my father I'll throw him under the bus recently About what a tragedy it is in life when we don't or our time and energy into people, when we give it to stuff. And I'm folks, I'm guilty. I'm so guilty of this. Over the years I have easily gotten sucked into. Computer games for a while were a big deal. Sports football college football is a huge suck for a while, and I've had others. But the point is, when we pour our time and energy into things instead of people. I know it sounds cliche, but everybody really loses.
Speaker 1:There's a number of examples out there. There's a number of examples out there, one that I was talking to him about because he's a grandparent and and so kind of fit our, our conversational setting is you know, when you're a parent, you have your kids for a very limited amount of time and I think a lot of us mess that up in some form or fashion as far as all of us mess it up. But what I mean is we don't appreciate that time that God's given us with our kids, often until it's too late, and I'm sure a lot of y'all that are parents you can kind of relate to that. You look up and your kid is not a kid anymore. They're 18, 19, 20. They've left the house, they've gone to work, They've gone to college, they've gotten married, whatever it is, and they're not there every day. You know every morning, every evening anymore, and all of a sudden it's.
Speaker 1:It's like this moment. You kind of have this. We used to, in a bad way, in the marine corps. We used to say these come to jesus moments. But you have one of those moments where everything kind of shuts down and stands still, and you realize that you had all these opportunities when you had your kids there and you passed them up because you needed to go to work or you needed to do something for yourself or whatever. The list goes on and on.
Speaker 1:Right, we have all these things that we find are more important than our kids, sadly, and it's too late. You know, our pastor, a month or so ago, made that comment that every time we miss an opportunity to love somebody and we don't that opportunity, that particular opportunity is gone forever. It's never going to come back. You're never going to get that opportunity again. And so how does this tie in right, pouring into people? So when we become grandparents, it's kind of like God and his infinite grace is giving us a second chance.
Speaker 1:Right, as a grandparent, you get a second chance, you get to look at those grandkids and you go. You know what? I made some mistakes when your parents were kids, not that you would tell them this, that you're just thinking this right. And I, I put so many things in front of you sports work, tv, social media, workouts, just whatever. Shopping, you know, cleaning, whatever it is that you put in front of your kids when they were, you know, in your home, under your care, and now God's given me these grandkids and I get the second chance.
Speaker 1:And the heartbreaking thing is when people don't. Now I'm not talking about the fact that the kids that grow up and then they try and get their parents to raise their children at all, because that's not the role and that's bad in a whole lot of ways. Dropping your kids off with your parents to be raised all day while you go off to work or do whatever else, you know, that's not what I'm talking about. But, as a grandparent, every opportunity that you get to spend time with those grandkids, to pour your energy and your effort into them, and and they choose not to, and that's really heartbreaking and sad for a number of reasons.
Speaker 1:But so my whole point of this is whenever we have a chance, folks and this goes back to our little comment on marriage each day, not to mention God and Jesus Christ and that relationship, obviously we're going to get more from God and Jesus Christ than we pour into them, but developing those relationships is so vital and your spouse is your closest neighbor. Developing those relationships is so vital and your spouse is your closest neighbor, and every single day that you choose to pour your time and energy into something else, over your spouse, is a day that you lose and you're never going to get that particular day back again. You're never going to get that opportunity again to strengthen your marriage, to protect your marriage, to nourish and cherish your marriage, your spouse Again. Folks, I'm preaching to myself, just like y'all. But the next time when we're tempted to sit down and turn the TV on or pick our phone up and scroll through it, we need to really think about what we're giving our time and energy to and whether that lines up with our priorities. And maybe it does. Maybe we don't really care about our spouse that much, and then we ought to at least have the courage to acknowledge that and say you know what? My spouse really isn't my priority, or God, jesus Christ, they really aren't my priority. All right, I got a lot to try and get through. I'm going to try and set something up today and we'll see if we get there.
Speaker 1:But first we are going to go into Revelation, chapter 22,. Last chapter in Revelation the river and the tree of life. This is the super exciting part, right? This is the part where we get to go to heaven, where we get to learn about heaven a little bit more. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, on either side of the river, was the tree of life bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and his bondservants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads and there will no longer be any night and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever.
Speaker 1:And he said to me these words are faithful and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angels to show to his bondservants the things which must soon take place. And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the word of the prophecy of this book. I, john, am the one who heard and saw these things, and when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God. Final message.
Speaker 1:Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. I, jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David. The bright morning star, the Spirit and the bride say come. And let the one who hears say come. And let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost. I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, god will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, god will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says yes, I am coming quickly. Amen, come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all Amen.
Speaker 1:So obviously there's a lot here. The biggest thing to me that's repeated, I think three times, is coming quickly. Right, verse 20, he says I'm coming quickly. Verse 12, I'm coming quickly, and then verse 7, I'm coming quickly. And the reason I mention this a couple One it's we need to pay attention. Two, I'm reminded of a story that a teacher from years and years ago told. And he would tell a student say, look, if I say it once, you know it's important, it's something you might wanna pay attention to. If I say it twice in class, there's a pretty good chance that it's gonna be on a quiz or a test. Not 100%, but there's a decent chance and you really ought to pay attention to it. And then he said if I say it three times, he said only God himself in heaven could keep it off of the next test. You have to know it if I say it three times. And so God says this here three times. Jesus says you know, I'm coming quickly and you've got to remember that his time is not our time. So a lot of people look at this and go well, he said this, you know, 2000 years ago this was written, and, and that's forever ago. Well, yeah, to us it is, but to somebody that's outside of time, that can see all of time, you know, one day is as a thousand, a thousand is as one. It's his timeline, it's not our timeline. So just remember that. Let's see what else was.
Speaker 1:Oh, one of the verses that I've always found interesting is verse nine. But he said to me do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God, because John had fallen down at the feet of this angel, and you're reminded of Peter or Paul or Barnabas, I can't remember who, who in the new Testament. They were spreading the gospel and they healed some people, or they did some miracle, and the people of that town wanted to worship them as gods, I think as Zeus, and I can't remember who the messenger of Zeus was anymore, but anyway they tore their clothes and they were like what are y'all doing?
Speaker 1:You know, we're just men and often, as humans, you know we like to be adored, we like attention. All you have to do is look at politics and entertainment and professional athletes or even college athletes today. We have a propensity as humans. We want people to adore us, we want people to on over us to follow us, and this verse has always kind of struck me. And again, folks, I'm just Lord, I'm not a priest, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a theologian, I'm just a simple man reading the Bible, talking to you all about it, and hopefully it helps both of us, helps me kind of talk it out and helps y'all kind of listening and maybe we'll figure out a little bit.
Speaker 1:But it's kind of a form of self-worship instead of worshiping God, when we really ought to tell people when we do something really good or when something great happens in our life. There's nothing wrong with taking credit for the hard work that we put in, but at the same time we ought to make sure that we recognize God and tell people hey, yeah, I did really good at this sport and I worked really hard, and that's how you get. There is hard work. But you need to understand that God gave me these talents to begin with and I'm just utilizing them to the fullest. And whether it's entertainment or whether it's politicians, I mean, how nice would that be to have a politician that, on a regular basis, said, hey, yeah, I appreciate your attention and I hope we're working towards striving toward X, y or Z and we're really doing good. But you need to make sure that you're paying attention to God, because that's where, whatever I'm doing, I hope that that's leading. So hopefully that makes a little sense.
Speaker 1:I always like that verse, verse 12 and 13,. Behold, I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end Kind of terrifying, right when you think about some of the things that you've done in your life. I know I've got a pretty long list of things that I've done that I don't have any desire to be rendered what I deserve. And you see in verse 14, right after that, blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life. The only way I get to heaven, to the tree of life, to God, to eternal life, with no more tears and no more sorrow, is washing my body, my soul, right in the blood of Jesus Christ, because he died for me, for my sins, and the only way I managed to get salvation and eternal life, to get to God, is through Jesus Christ. That's it and what's the alternative? Through Jesus Christ. That's it and what's the alternative?
Speaker 1:Fifteen outside of the dogs and sorcerers, the immoral persons and murderers and those and idolaters and everyone who loves practicing or practices lying, and that ought to be terrifying folks. You know we act like today. That fear is a horrible thing, but I remember every single kid I grew up with was afraid of their father and I'm talking about boys mostly, because obviously those were my friends mostly growing up, but were absolutely terrified of their father. And yet pretty much all the ones that I'm running through my head right now they knew that their father loved them and cared about them. I can think of a couple exceptions, but that fear, it was a healthy fear and there was just an innate understanding that the fear that we had was for our own good.
Speaker 1:And I think a lot of times people go back and they read through the Old Testament and they think, man, this God, he was this God's nasty. I don't like him. He's mean and cruel and I don't understand why he did this stuff. And I don't understand all the Bible, folks, nobody does. Anybody that tells you that they understand everything in the Bible is either lying to themselves or you or both. It's because if we understood everything, then we would be God and we're not, thankfully.
Speaker 1:But we ought to be afraid of the consequences, and God's trying to warn us, just like we as parents. If you're a parent, you know sometimes you put some fear in your children because you don't want them to do something stupid, and your children, because you don't want them to do something stupid, you don't want them to do something that's going to bring consequences down on them. And so this verse kind of strikes me that way. And then the last one, and we'll move on verse 17. The Spirit and the bride say Come and let the one who hears come and let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost, and that's really encouraging to me. Christ is saying hey, come, come, all right.
Speaker 1:So I've got one article that I want to try and go through and then I want to try and set something up new that we're going to read through a little bit each day. What I want to, the article I want to go through is out of the Epic Times. It's the June 17th to the 24th issue. If you have it, if you don't have it, I highly recommend it If you're a paper person or you just want a decent news source. They do a phenomenal job. It's a great newspaper, best newspaper I've read in, probably in decades, but years for sure.
Speaker 1:And they've got an article in there talking about the arrests of the Chinese scientists and the bio warfare threat to the United States. And let me see who the authors. The author, darlene McCormick Sanchez. Arrest of Chinese scientists highlight bio warfare threat to the US. So these scientists and there were, I think, three main characters they conspired to smuggle in these funguses that could really do some damage to our food supply chains through the airport, I believe, and they got caught Right. And so this article goes through and talks about all the connections that these Chinese scientists had University of Michigan, texas, a&m. One of them worked there, I think, from August 2022 to August 2023.
Speaker 1:And the article talks about the fact that the CCP has openly claimed war against the United States. They call it a people's war, which translates to total war. Folks in every single facet, every angle, right, any way that they can harm the United States. That's the goal. I go back to this time and time again.
Speaker 1:But the idea of peaceful coexistence with leftism, socialism, communism, nazism, fascism or Islam, it's just, it's a fantasy, it's a vain illusion. Peaceful coexistence, particularly inside the United States, with individuals who support any of those evil ideologies because their desire, their claimed desire for tolerance or peace? It's a lie, it's a sham. All it is is to buy time to gain strength, to take power, every single one of those, whether you're talking about the modern American left, you're talking about socialists, communists, nazis, fascists 20th century, 21st, it doesn't matter Islam for centuries. Anytime you hear them start to talk about peace and tolerance, you have to understand, from a historical point of view, that conversation, that talk, is only going to be present until they get enough power or they build up enough strength to take over, and then there's not going to be any more conversation about coexisting or peace, and all you need to do is look at North Korea today, look at communist China today, look at Iran or some of the other areas across the globe where Islam has a stranglehold. There's no peaceful coexistence, there's no sure. You can worship, you can be Jewish, you can be Christian, you can be Buddhist, you can be. No, there's none of that. You can stand up for liberty and freedom and against communism. There's none of that in China, north Korea, no-transcript. We're diluting the standards more and more there and then we're giving our best positions away somewhere in here.
Speaker 1:It talked about oh, I wish I had it. Oh, for example, in the University of Michigan's molecular plant-microbe interaction working groups, 13 professors and research individuals, including one of these terrorist scientists from China. These communists are listed. Of those, jian or John, however you say it, and eight others are Chinese, three are South Korean, only one is American.
Speaker 1:We're selling out our own children, folks. We don't educate them. And it's not that we don't have stupid kids. We have kids that have been trained to be stupid. They're not unintelligent. We have just watered down the standards and allowed mediocrity to take over meritocracy. We've allowed scrolling social media and everything else that comes with it and lowered the standards so much that these kids aren't pushed, and the whole entitlement, participation mentality. There are very few arenas in life anymore where we honor and reward true excellence.
Speaker 1:I was talking to a friend of mine recently, a good friend of my wife's and mine. We were talking about the fact that in public service, particularly teachers, but even in your police officers and firefighters today, often if you fit the right quota, if you've got the right skin color or the right gender or you make the department look good from a political correctness point of view, you're going to get promoted over those who don't. And in teaching in particular, there's very little incentive for teachers to really strive to be good and ask them if they have the ability to shift money around to reward those teachers that are really doing a great job and pouring into those kids versus those that aren't. And with only the rarest of exceptions, if they're honest, they're going to say no, I don't have that capability and so we're not pushing our kids. We don't reward hard work and effort, we kind reward everybody. You know everybody gets an a, everybody gets a trophy, and we dilute the standards until we get to that point and then we look up and our kids can't compete at at a level where, all of a sudden, merit is rewarded and our colleges start looking out into the world and bringing those people in instead of training our own children. And they're publicly funded. Even the private ones get public funding. So we're literally paying to strengthen our enemies around the world through our own education system. That's just mind boggling.
Speaker 1:So great article. If you get a chance, go in there and read it. The ties between some of these universities university of Michigan was a big one, but there's a couple others, as I said, texas A&M is in there. In there. And then a quote from Claire Lopez and her former CIA operations officer said that the Chinese right part of their doctrine. They consider biological warfare against agriculture, animals and humans as part of their military repertoire. Folks, china's not our friend. Anybody that supports communism, socialism, leftism, nazism, islam, inside the United States or out, they are not promoting, because all of those are anti-Christ at the core and regardless of what we like to pretend today in our education system, the only principles that unified our founders, as John Adams said, were the general principles of Christ, and so if you're anti those principles, guess what? You're anti-American Again.
Speaker 1:Darlene McCormick Sanchez. Arrests of Chinese Scientists, highlighted by a Warfare Threat. Pretty good article. Get a chance. I would recommend checking it out, all right.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to try and kick something off and I think I'll just talk about it today and we'll get started on the next podcast. But and I looked for this statistic, folks, I can't find it. Maybe some of y'all know it. You can help me out. You can leave it down in the comments on the podcast or on X or somewhere.
Speaker 1:But somewhere in the past, over the last few years, I've read the statistics of how many sermons on average our founding fathers listened to. Founding fathers and mothers listened to that founding generation, and it was a lot. They listened to a lot of sermons over the course of their lives, and so what did that do? That gave them a tremendous grounding, because the sermons were not denominational doctrine. It was biblical for the most part, which is an important distinction.
Speaker 1:Folks, there is a huge difference between people that claim to follow Christ and go to a church where the most important thing is the denominational doctrine of that church versus people that go to church where the most important thing is the Bible. Those two are not the same and it doesn't matter what you're talking about, whether it's Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox or whatever else. The point is you do not get the same positive outcome when you send someone to a church that is more concerned with their denomination than they are with Jesus Christ. The only time you're going to get a positive, a really net positive output is when you're going to a church that teaches scripture, that focuses on God and Jesus Christ and not their denomination, on God and Jesus Christ and not their denomination. So these founders, they got a ton of you know, sometimes in some of these commentaries that I've read, they would go to church a couple times on Sunday, maybe once twice on Saturday in the middle of the week, and so a lot of them heard these sermons really consistently and there were a lot of sermons printed, because a lot of the sermons were political, unlike today. They talked about the political issues of the day from a biblical point of view, which we desperately need Again, we need pastors talking about Politics from a biblical point of view.
Speaker 1:There was a study done back in 1984 by Donald Lutz and Charles Henneman and we've talked about it before. It was published in the American Political Science Review in 1984. It was issue 78, maybe, and the title was the Relative Influence of European Writers on Late 18th Century American Political Thought. And they went back and they found that the overwhelming majority right, or the largest percentage I shouldn't say the largest percentage 34% of the founders' quotes came directly out of the Bible. The next highest source was Montesquieu, a French legal philosopher 8.3,. Sir William Blackstone, an English jurist who wrote commentaries on the laws of England, at 7.9, and John Locke, an English philosopher, was fourth at 2.9%. So this huge chunk relative to other sources came from the Bible. And where did they get this? They got these out of these sermons. They listened to these sermons constantly, and so what I would like to do on the next podcast is I would like to go back and read a sermon given by Ezra Stiles. I'd like to read every once in a while. I don't know.
Speaker 1:There's a couple that I have on my mind for sure to start with, that'll take us a while, but this first one is by Ezra Stiles, who was president at the time of Yale College. It was given in May of 1783, and it was entitled the United States Elevated to Glory and Honor, and it was. It was listed as a election address and it was listed as an election address, and so it was given by the president of Yale College, who was Ezra Stiles, who, if I have my little book here, let me find it. This is William J Federer, america's Ezra Stiles. Founder of Rhode Island College, now Brown University, in 1763, president of the first society for the abolition of slavery formed in Connecticut in 1790. Again, president of Yale College, and he gave that address before the Assembly of Connecticut and I think, although it doesn't say it there, that he was a pastor. So on the next podcast I would like to start to read a little bit of that, along with our Fox's Book of the Martyrs and History of the Rise, progress and Termination of the American Revolution.
Speaker 1:And so I will leave y'all. We'll go ahead and move on to that for today. We'll come back to the Medal of Honors on the next podcast. All right, so here we go. We're going to get back into the story of Mr Lithgow, and they've left him. They convinced him to condemn himself and now they're going to take him to torture in Spain.
Speaker 1:In consequence of this, he was conducted by the sergeants to the end of a stone gallery where the raft was placed. Stone gallery where the rack was placed A and Corridor or Executioner, immediately struck off his irons, which put him to very great pains, the bolts being so close riveted that the sledgehammer tore away half an inch of his heel, enforcing off the bolt, the anguish of which, together with his weak condition, not having the least substance for three days, occasioned him to groan bitterly, upon which the merciless accolade said Villain, traitor, this is but the earnest of what you shall endure. When his irons were off, he fell on his knees, uttering a short prayer that God would be pleased to enable him to be steadfast and undergo courageously the grievous trial he had to encounter. The accolade and notary having placed themselves in chairs, he was stripped naked and fixed upon the rack. The office of these gentlemen being to be witness of had set down the confessions and tortures endured by the delinquent. It is impossible to describe all the various tortures inflicted upon him. Suffice it to say that he lay on the rack for above five hours, during which time he received above 60 different tortures of the most hellish nature, and had they continued them for a few minutes longer, he must have inevitably perished. These cruel persecutors being satisfied for the present, the prisoner was taken from the rack and his irons being again put on, he was conducted to his former dungeon, having received no other nourishment than a little warm wine, which was given him rather to prevent his dying and reserve him for future punishments than from any principle of charity or compassion. As a confirmation of this, orders were given for a coach to pass every morning before day by the prison, that the noise made by it might give fresh terrors and alarms to the unhappy prisoner and deprive him of all possibility of obtaining the least repose. He continued in this horrid situation, almost starved, for want of the common necessaries to preserve his wretched existence, till Christmas day when he received some relief from Marine waiting woman to the governor's lady. This woman, having obtained leave to visit him, carried with her some refreshments consisting of honey, sugar, raisins and other articles, and so affected was she at beholding his situation that she wept bitterly and, at her departure, expressed the greatest concern at not being able to give him further assistance.
Speaker 1:In this loathsome prison was poor Mr Lithgow kept till he was almost devoured by vermin. They crawled about his beard, lips, eyebrows etc. So that he could scarce open his eyes, and his mortification was increased by not having the use of his hands or legs to defend himself From his being so miserably maimed by the tortures. So cruel was the governor that he even ordered the vermin to be swept on him twice in every eight days. He, however, obtained some little mitigation of this part of his punishment from the humanity of a turkish slave that attended him who, when he could do it with safety, destroyed the vermin and contributed every refreshment to him that laid in his power.
Speaker 1:From this slave, mr Lithgow at length received information which gave him little hopes of ever being released, but, on the contrary, that he should finish his life under new tortures. But, on the contrary, that he should finish his life under new tortures. The substance of this information was that an English seminary priest and a Scotch copper had been for some time employed by the governor to translate from the English into the Spanish language all his books and observations, and that it was commonly said in the governor's house that he was an arch-heretic. And that it was commonly said in the governor's house that he was an arch-heretic. This information greatly alarmed him and he began, not without reason, to fear they would soon finish him more, especially as they could, neither by torture or any other means, bring him to vary from what he had all along said at his different examinations.
Speaker 1:Two days after he had received the above information, the governor, an inquisitor and a canonical priest accompanied by two Jesuits, entered his dungeon and being seated. After several idle questions, the inquisitor asked Mr Lithgow if he was Roman Catholic and acknowledged the pope's supremacy. He answered that he neither was the one or did the other, adding that he was surprised at being asked such questions since it was expressly stipulated by the Articles of Peace between England and Spain that none of the English subjects should be liable to the Inquisition or any way molested by them on account of diversity in religion, etc. In the bitterness of his soul, he made use of some warm expressions not suited to his circumstances as you have almost murdered me, said he, for pretended treason, so now you intend to make a martyr of me for my religion. He also expostulated with the governor on the ill return he made to the King of England, whose subject he was, for the princely humanity exercised toward the Spaniards in 1588, when their armada was shipwrecked on the Scotch coast and thousands of the Spaniards found relief who must otherwise have miserably perished miserably perished. The governor admitted the truth of what Mr Lithgow said, but replied with a haughty air that the king, who then only ruled Scotland, was actuated more by fear than love and therefore did not deserve any thanks.
Speaker 1:One of the Jesuits said there was no faith to be kept with heretics. The inquisitor then, rising, addressed himself to Mr Lithgow in the following words you have been taken up as a spy, accused of treachery and tortured, as we acknowledge innocently, which appears by the account lately received from Madrid of the attentions of the English. Yet it was the divine power that brought those judgments upon you. Yet it was the divine power that brought those judgments upon you for presumptuously treating the blessed miracle of Loretto with ridicule and expressing yourself and your writings irreverently of his holiness, the great agent and Christ's vicar upon the earth. You are justly fallen into our hands by their special appointment. Thy books and papers are miraculously translated by the assistance of Providence, influencing thy own countrymen.
Speaker 1:This trumpery being ended, they gave the prisoner eight days to consider and resolve whether he would become a convert to their religion, during which time the inquisitor told him he, with other religious orders, would attend to give him such assistance thereto as he might want. One of the Jesuits said, first making the sign of the cross upon his breast. My son, behold, you deserve to be burnt alive, but by the grace of Our Lady of Loretto, whom you have blasphemed, we will both save your soul and body. We will both save your soul and body. The fact, folks, that anyone who claimed to follow Jesus Christ would condone torturing someone to follow Christ is the height of irony, because Christ was tortured and then nailed to a cross Is the height of irony because Christ was tortured and then nailed to a cross. You're not following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ when you torture somebody, so try and convert them to your denomination, which wouldn't be a real conversion anyway. Under torture, it wouldn't mean anything. You're following the footsteps of those who killed Christ and the obvious claim that the church or the pope had some sort of infallibility in the process of torturing, or approving of torture or threatening to burn alive. It's just, it's mind-boggling. It's to choose the side of Saul, not Paul. We'll move on For today. We'll come back to Mr Lithgow. Let's see what other sorry fate awaits him now that he's been tortured by the secular authorities. We'll see what the Catholics are going to do to him. We'll get back to Mercy, otis Warren and the history of the rise, progress and termination of the American Revolution.
Speaker 1:So Governor Gage had just wiped some of the names from the Assembly. Every external appearance of respect was still kept up towards the new governor. The council, the House, the judiciary officers, the mercantile and other bodies prepared and offered congratulatory addresses as usual On the recent arrival of the commander-in-Chief at the seat of government. The incense was received both at Boston and Salem with the usual satisfaction, except the address from the remaining Board of Counselors. This was checked with asperity and the reading it through forbidden, as the composition contained some strictures on administration and censured, rather too freely for the delicate air of an infant magistrate, the conduct of some of his predecessors. But this was the last compliment of the kind ever offered by either branch of the legislature of Massachusetts to a governor appointed by either branch of the legislature of Massachusetts to a governor appointed by the King of Great Britain.
Speaker 1:No Marx's ministerial resentment had either humbled or intimidated the spirits, nor shook the intrepidity of mind necessary for the times. And though it was first called into action in Massachusetts, it breathed its influence through all the colonies. They all seemed equally prepared to suffer and equally determined to resist in unison if no means but that of absolute submission was to be the test of loyalty. The first day of June 1774, the day when the Boston Port Bill began to operate, was observed in most of the colonies with uncommon solemnity as a day of fasting and prayer, bosom a zeal to relieve and an clarity to support the distressed Bostonians deemed to pervade the whole continent. Except the dependents on the crown and their partisans, allured by interest to adhere to the royal cause, there were indeed a few others in every colony, led to unite with and to think favorably of the measures of administration from their attachment to monarchy in which they had been educated. And some there were who justified all things done by the hand of power either from fear, ignorance or imbecility. Two things here, folks one, those few who justified all things done by the hand of power and limited submission. And we'll get later on in the year, probably at some point we'll get to that sermon by Jonathan Mayhew which was so important to the thoughts of our country, even a couple decades after he had given it. We don't have a responsibility as Christians to submit unlimited, to give unlimited submission to power when it goes against God. In fact, we have a responsibility not to. And then the other thing here is you notice that this first day of June 1774, when the Portville, boston Portville began to operate, was observed in most of the colonies as a day of fasting and prayer.
Speaker 1:I was talking to an extremely close friend of mine recently, someone who is very much like a brother to me, and we got to talking about the condition of America today and the cause. America folks, we're not special because we're Americans. There's nothing about us that has been set apart simply because we're Americans. There's nothing about us that has been set apart, simply because we're Americans, to be some kind of special chosen people by God. We're not the Israelites, but we are special to God in the sense that when we follow his commands, when we strive to do his will commands, when we strive to do his will, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. We are very special in that sense and we have a responsibility to look to God for his commands, his roles, his responsibilities, to look to Jesus Christ, to follow his commands, to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. It's like FDR I think it was either FDR or Truman that quote that we read so often.
Speaker 1:It's impossible to look at the history of our nation and not see that connection to the Bible. And where we have had the most liberty, the most security, the most safety, the most progress is where we've been the truest to the principles laid out there. There's a direct correlation between our success, our liberty, our safety and our willingness to follow God and Jesus Christ. Does that mean that everything's going to work out great from a worldly point of view? No, folks. I mean you look at the pilgrims. They came here primarily to be able to worship Jesus Christ God and Jesus Christ freely, to spread the gospel of Christ, and yet at least half of them perished. It doesn't mean that everything is going to be a rose garden. You know that's a Marine Corps recruiting poster from I don't know, maybe back in the 80s, maybe even the 70s, somewhere in there that I remember saying as I grew up we didn't promise you a rose garden, right. And God doesn't promise us a rose garden either in this life. He promises us something even better, something so great we can't even comprehend it in the next life. But the farther we move away from God, folks, the farther we move away from liberty, and you can see that throughout our history and the closer we move to God. There are blessings associated with that. When they got in trouble, our founding generation turned to God. We read through these fasting and prayer proclamations each Thanksgiving. I look forward to it every year during the month of November. You know I look forward to it already. I just like reading through them. It's so encouraging and when there were trying times, God is where we turned as Americans at our founding across the entire nation. And it was a big deal. It was a huge deal. You can see it here in Ms Warren's talking about uncommon solemnity. It was a big deal these days of fasting and prayer and turning to God.
Speaker 1:The session at Salem was of short duration, but it was a busy and important period. The leading characters in the House of Representatives contemplated the present moment replete with consequences of the utmost magnitude. They judged it a crisis that required measures bold and decisive, though hazardous, and that the extrication of their country from the designs of their enemies depended much on the conduct of their present assembly. Their charter was on the point of annihilation. A military governor had just arrived, with troops on the spot to support the arbitrary systems of the court of St James. These appearances had a disagreeable effect on some who had before cooperated with the patriots. They began to tremble at the power and severity of Britain at a time when firmness was most required, zeal indispensable and secrecy necessary. Yet those who possessed the energies of mind requisite for the completion or the defeat of great designs had not their order or resolution shaken in the smallest degree by either dangerous threats or caresses. It was a prime object to select a few members of the house that might be trusted most confidentially on any emergency. This task fell to Mr Samuel Adams of Boston and Mr Warren of Plymouth. They drew off a few chosen spirits who met at a place appointed for a secret conference. Among these, the names of Hancock, cushing and Halloway of Sullivan, robert Payne and Benjamin Greenleaf of Newburyport, and many others should not be forgotten but ought always to be mentioned with respect for their zeal at this critical moment. Several others were introduced the ensuing evening, when a discussion of circumstances took place, immediate decision and effectual modes of action were urged, and such caution, energy and dispatch were observed by this daring and dauntless secret council that on the third evening of their conference, their business was ripe for execution.
Speaker 1:We need this today, folks. We need something like the committees of correspondence. We need people meeting Christians and conservatives talking, churches communicating with other churches, counties communicating with other counties, whether it's sheriffs, city councils, mayors, board of commissioners, cities and towns communicating schools that are conservative, christian school boards, superintendents, police chiefs, even states, when you have an overwhelmingly conservative, christian, conservative state communicating with others. But we need to be talking to each other and looking at what's coming. Looking at what's coming and anything you can do to encourage your local area to increase, strengthen the training of, increase the numbers of local law enforcement that are part of that community, that have skin in the game for that community, firefighters, ems. We need desperately those things, folks. We're going to need them. God bless you all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages if you're married. 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 listening, we'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks looking forward to it.