The American Soul

Christians in Crisis: Navigating Faith in a Fractured Republic

Jesse Season 5 Episode 39

What happens when a nation forgets its Christian foundations? In this thought-provoking episode, we dive deep into the spiritual crisis facing America and how returning to biblical principles offers the only viable solution for our troubled republic.

The collapse of marriage isn't a mystery - it's directly tied to our abandonment of God's design. When men and women refuse to embrace their distinct, complementary roles as outlined in Scripture, they make the institution itself unappealing. This pattern extends beyond our homes into every aspect of society. As John Quincy Adams observed, America's greatness stemmed from combining "in one indissoluble bond Christianity and civil politics."

We examine what Scripture teaches about confronting sin, particularly through the lens of 1 Corinthians 5. While we aren't called to judge those outside the church, we must lovingly hold fellow believers accountable. This isn't about condemnation but about restoration - "deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

The Declaration of Independence reminds us that our republic was founded on theological truths - that our rights come from our Creator, not from government. This foundation was essential to American liberty. Without it, we're left with competing human opinions about rights, a contest inevitably won by those with the most power.

Looking ahead, Christians must prepare themselves and their communities. This means training our youth both spiritually and practically, supporting businesses aligned with godly values, and strengthening local institutions. Through daily Bible reading, prayer, and submitting to God's design, we can begin the essential work of renewal - not just for ourselves, but for our nation.

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Speaker 1:

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 to appreciate y'all joining me and giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hope that'll give us some awesome extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the Marine Corps. I hope that'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the Marine Corps, and hopefully it'll draw us all a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ, both as individuals and as a republic. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much. I'm very, very grateful for that. Y'all help an immense amount. Spread the word when you tell other people about it, whether it's in person or social media or anything else. And for those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. Very, very grateful for that.

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 and your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for living in America. For those of us who are blessed to do so, help us to not take it for granted, father. Help us to value and make worthwhile the sacrifices of all those who have come before us, men and women, all the way back to your Son, jesus Christ, and even further back to those men and women in the Old Testament. Father, help us to follow their example, most of all, again, your Son Jesus Christ, above all, to do your will. Give us discernment, give us understanding, guidance, insight. Be with those who are hurting, father. Help us to care truly for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy, to care for the least of these. Help us to fight back against evils that we have too long turned a blind eye to Abortion, sex trafficking, lgbtq agenda pushed on our children. Help us to follow the commands that you've given us, the ones we like and the ones we don't, father, and to trust you that you know what is best for us, for our spouses, for our marriages, our families, our children, our nation. Forgive us for turning away from you, especially again in America, but in any of those nations around the world where people are listening, father, and please be with all the people listening, wherever they are across our American Republic or wherever they are in different countries around the world, father, whether it's Canada or England, scotland, wales, france, australia, south Africa or anywhere else in between. Father, any other places, so many others that I haven't mentioned South America, asia, africa Help us to support our brothers and sisters in Christ, help us to do your will above all else, and please guide my words here, father. In the name of your Son, jesus Christ, we ask and pray Amen. Have you made time for God and Jesus Christ today to read the Bible, to pray, to talk to Him and, if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? Two things, the least important. The first, which it's still hugely important, but it is secondary. Right, our marriage should come second to God and Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1:

But somebody on X was recently talking about they asked the question why young men are not interested in marriage today, seemingly and I don't know if there's statistics to back that up or not, but I see that question often, especially from what seem to be younger women on social media, and the answer is real simple. The answer is that it's the same answer that I would give. If somebody asked why women, young women, aren't interested in marriage. If that was a driving statistic, if you look at the other side of the equation and you see that the majority of them are not willing to follow their roles and responsibilities in marriage and sex, why would you be interested in joining yourself to them? So, in the case of women, if you looked at the men and most of the men were not willing to lead, protect, provide, love, nourish, cherish, why would you be interested in joining yourself to that kind of individual? And if the man was just trying to fulfill your same roles, why would you be interested in marrying another woman? You're not interested in marrying a woman. You're interested in marrying a man that follows God's roles and responsibilities. And the same is true and reverse. It's not a hard question to answer. We just don't like the answers of society.

Speaker 1:

If you're a young man today and you've watched maybe your father or even your grandfather go through a marriage who's a good, decent Christian man who tries to follow Christ and they're trapped in a marriage where the wife doesn't respect him, doesn't submit to his will, his authority, and everything doesn't physically satisfy him whatever, whenever, wherever, however often right Proverbs 5.19 at all times. Why would you be interested in that? Why would you want to join yourself to a woman like that? And again, the same as with what I just said with the women. If the woman is trying to do the same roles as the guy, right. If they're trying to be that boss babe, you know tough, independent woman, which is a man's role.

Speaker 1:

Why Young men? They don't want to marry another guy, they don't want to marry another guy, they don't want to marry a dude, they want to marry a woman who's feminine, who follows her roles and responsibilities. And so, either side you're coming, if you're a man or a woman. That's why, folks, that's the simple reason why marriage is in trouble today is because, either way you look at it, we have too many men and women. And you can make the argument maybe for the last several decades it's more women because of feminism, but that pendulum swings back and forth. That's just where we are currently.

Speaker 1:

But anytime you have men and women who are not willing to follow their specific, very clearly laid out roles and responsibilities from God, then the other side's going to look at it and be like I'm not interested in that, I don't want anything to do with that it's basically summed up in the command in the New Testament not to yoke ourselves with unbelievers. Why would you get married to somebody, as a Christian, that didn't believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and the only path, the only path to salvation and eternal life? The second issue, which is the bigger one by far, is our faith and how we use that faith to strengthen our nation. Right, it's why we talk about reading the Bible each day, folks. If you're not reading the Bible each day, how can you be discerning Not just as a Christian, as anybody If you're not reading the source of truth every day? Which is why it's so important to have Christ biblically centered education, regardless of if those kids are Jewish or Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or atheist or anything else, at home in publicly funded schools in America as a Christian republic and we are a Christian republic.

Speaker 1:

So I went through and found this quote again from Judge Nathaniel Freeman in 1802. He was charging Massachusetts grand jury. The laws of the Christian system, as embraced by the Bible, must be respected as of high authority in all our courts In our courts, folks, and it cannot be thought improper for the officers of such government to acknowledge their obligation to be governed by its rule, the Bible, the officers in our courts, our government to be governed by the Bible. Our government to be governed by the Bible, the law of our government originating in the voluntary compact of a people who, in that very instrument, profess their Christian religion, it may be considered not a republic like Rome was a pagan, but a Christian republic. Right, we were born a Christian republic, folks, and so the only way we can function correctly, the only way we can produce liberty, is to be a Christian republic, to have Christ in the Bible at the center.

Speaker 1:

So where I got off on this is somebody was talking about they posted a picture of one of the illegal immigrant families being separated, and it was somebody, obviously on the left, that was super pro illegal immigration. And they said if you support this and of course it's tearful and a lot of it probably is propped up for videos, but even if it's a hundred percent honest, there's tears, there's crying, mom and baby are being separated from from dad, right. And they said if you support this in any fashion, you need to take all that Jesus four-letter word out of your bio talking about on X, right. So here's the thing, folks, anybody on the left that starts to try and tell you about the Bible or Jesus Christ, you can immediately null and void anything they have to say, even if they're making a comment. That's actually pretty wise. You can null and void it because they reject Christ, they reject the Bible.

Speaker 1:

So why would you listen to somebody that openly rejects God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and His Word about the Bible? They're using the Bible to try and browbeat Christians into feeling like they have some moral obligation to support evil and immoral things. If a person comes up to you and you know that they support abortion, which blatantly goes against Christ saying to care for the least of these, to love our neighbor as ourself, then you can immediately take whatever they have to try and tell you about the Bible and null and void it Because, even if they're technically correct, their intent is maleficent. However, comma, you as a Christian have a responsibility to read your Bible each day so that you are discerning and so that, technically, you could listen to this person and be able to rebuke them and correct their commentary. We don't get to just sit back and look at somebody on the left and say, well, you're stupid, we don't have to listen to you.

Speaker 1:

You have a responsibility as a Christian to know your Bible, to know what God tells us, to teach your wife, as a husband, to teach your wife and your children what the Bible says. Now, if that wife is not willing to listen, if she's interested, you do what you can, you lead by example and you let God worry about her, but you still have a responsibility to teach your children. But we have a responsibility, folks. We have been given so much in America and you hear people talk all the time about my rights and I deserve this and I'm going to get mine. We have so much more in the category and the column of our Excel spreadsheet and responsibilities that we need to worry about. Are we reading the Bible each day? Do we know history? We've been doing this podcast for a little over four years now and I cannot tell you the number of things that I still run across, that I have never heard before as an American citizen, that are pivotal in showing the link between God and our republic as a nation. Are we digging into that? Are we sharing that with others? So that leads me to well, first off, that leads us to our Bible for today, which is 1 Corinthians 5, I think Right.

Speaker 1:

Somebody out there is paying attention, I know y'all are, is that right? Yes, we're going to pretend Immorality defiles the church. Amen to that. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife. Interesting little side note here, before I forget. There's a number of people and the Founders Bible is a great place to find some of these quotes. That's produced by the Wall Builders Association Great organization, by the way, as far as sources of information, if you have a chance to check them out. But they talk about the fact that homosexuality was viewed as such a horrendous crime that it wasn't even named in some of the legal documents, the legal commentaries. William Blackstone was one, I believe, who made that quote. Like, I'm not even going to name this, it's so bad because in Christian circles we don't name it Right. And that's your LGBTQ lifestyles right there. Just a little side note. But again, it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles that a man has his father's wife.

Speaker 1:

And you are puffed up and have rather not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you, rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I, indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him who has so done this deed In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you are gathered together along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That's another huge point. I'm going to stop right here.

Speaker 1:

Folks, we talk about being kind and caring when we support evil and really it's just cowardice. Let's be honest For the vast majority, we just don't want to rock the boat. We don't want to be that person that everybody looks at weirdly. You know your little community, your little neighborhood, and you start talking about the truth and then all these people start looking at you like man, that guy's weird, that guy's crazy. Maybe it's the women, maybe it's the men, maybe it's both. Right, when you talk about, for example, I get some really interesting looks sometimes from people when I start talking about just Scripture. Looks sometimes from people when I start talking about just scripture 1 Corinthians 7, 1 Peter 3, hebrews 13.4, proverbs 5.19, titus 2, ephesians 5, song of Solomon. Right, just start to talk about those and you will get some strange looks sadly, even inside the church from people that claim to follow Christ but really follow feminism in the world. So you're going to start to talk about this stuff and a lot of people are going to look at you weird and we go. Well, we don't really like that. I don't want to be that guy.

Speaker 1:

So I'm going to go ahead and go along with this. Yeah, somebody got an abortion. That's okay. That's a right, that's a reproductive right. Who am I to tell somebody else what to do with their body? What about that kid? Don't you have a responsibility as a Christian to defend that baby from having life taken away from them, being ripped apart, literally ripped apart inside their mother? Or you say you know what? I do not believe in homosexual marriage at all. I know God talks about it, but I don't want this person to feel bad. I don't want to push them away. So I'm going to go ahead and go to the wedding. I know God talks about it, but I don't want this person to feel bad, I don't want to push them away, so I'm going to go ahead and go to the wedding, I'll give them a gift and I'll. I just I won't stay long, you know. I'll make sure that they know that I don't approve of that. Really, you're going to go a little while, you're going to stay just a little while. Give them a gift, maybe, but you or you're just supporting, you have friends that have children who are gay. Well, I just want to support my friends, I just want to be there for them.

Speaker 1:

Look, the point of all this from this verse is we're not being loving by encouraging sin. And the analogy I always go back to is the bank robber analogy. Right, like, would you ever encourage a friend of yours to go rob a bank? Yeah, that's going to be great. You go do that. Let me help you plan. No, of course not. And what's the loving thing? Here you read this verse again deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Speaker 1:

Often, folks, the only way we as humans are gotten through to and I can tell you this firsthand from the little bit of experience that I have overseas with Muslims and even in our own country with leftists. The only thing they understand is power and control, and you can make the argument pain, but that's really just a human condition. How many times have we known in your life? How many times have you known because I've got quite a few that I could list in my own life where you knew you were doing something you shouldn't be doing and yet you did it anyway, and the only thing that got you out of doing it was there was so much pain eventually caused that you had to. And yet if it turns us back to God and Jesus Christ and saves our soul in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, and saves our soul in the day of the Lord, that's loving, that's kind. That's the angle that we ought to be taking as Christians.

Speaker 1:

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed, christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Immorality must be judged.

Speaker 1:

I write to you in my present epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral. I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters. Since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is. That's pretty hard right there, folks. But the point is that we need to police ourselves inside the church.

Speaker 1:

You got somebody that's out there openly supporting abortion. You're not even supposed to eat with them. You got somebody out there that's openly supporting LGBTQ lifestyles or that's living one that claims to be a follower of Christ, male or female. Not even to eat with such a person. Somebody that's cheating on their spouse, right? Somebody that's going out and getting drunk all the time but then comes to church, goes out and gets hammered drunk every Saturday night and then goes to church Sunday morning. Not even supposed to eat with such a person. Somebody that's looking at pornography all the time. Doesn't care about it, right? Just this list of things.

Speaker 1:

Folks, there's a huge difference between sinning, which we all do, acknowledging that it's sin, and knowing we need to repent before God and Jesus Christ and striving to do that, and what he's talking about here, which is like this going back to this man that was living with his father's wife, that's not repentant. I had a very good friend of mine years ago, a lot brighter Maybe that's damning him with faint praise, but he really was a lot wiser than I. A really good friend of mine, Great just a side note in case he's out there listening. I was always jealous of his athletic ability because he played soccer and I always despised those people that could run so easily. I've had to run my whole life folks high school athletics, college athletics, marine Corps I never have gotten to the point where I really enjoy it. And some of these people, they just look like they enjoy it. You know what I'm talking about. You know some of these people and they go out and they run and they try and look like they're dying and they're really hurting, but you know they really enjoy it. Anyway, I got off on a sidetrack there. Those people, but this gentleman a lot wiser than me, no-transcript.

Speaker 1:

There's a difference between a man that gets sucked into pornography, acknowledges that it's wrong, even if he goes back to that well to drink, but fights it as hard as he can fight it, turning to God for strength and Jesus Christ for strength, versus a guy that sits there every night and watches it and talks to other people about how awesome it is. There's a difference there just is. I mean, look at David, david was. He's one of my great heroes for a number of reasons. We talk about him often. He had the guy murdered, slept with his wife, had the guy murdered because he got her pregnant and the guy wouldn't go home and sleep with him so he could cover it up to begin with. And yet he was a man after God's own heart. When Nathan came in and confronted him, he immediately confessed, repented.

Speaker 1:

For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside, but those who are outside? God judges. Therefore, put away from yourselves the evil person, man. This last part, folks, is so huge. We don't have a responsibility to judge those people outside the church. That's going to be God's job. And God helped those people outside the church. That's going to be God's job and God helped those people. That's why we have to strive so much to bring as many to Christ as possible, as long as we can, as hard as we can, because at the end, if they're outside the church and I'm not, it's Catholic, small C, universal, doesn't matter your denomination If they have not chosen to put their faith in Christ to cover their sins, then God is going to judge them and they're going to spend eternity in hell and there's not going to be any more second chances. And that's terrifying and that should be terrifying for us, for them, even if they're an enemy, even if they're an enemy folks that treats you horribly, that gossips about you, that beats you, that, whatever else. Folks, we ought to be praying for them to come to Jesus Christ, because if they don't, it's not our job to judge them. God is going to judge them. But inside the church, we need to have some law and order folks. The church, we need to have some law and order folks, and not the least reason of which.

Speaker 1:

If there's people that we're trying to draw into the church and they see the same kind of, or even worse, hypocrisy inside the church than outside the church, why would they be interested in coming If the people inside the church are exactly the same as people outside of the church in the world? If the people that claim to follow Christ aren't any different than those that don't, why would you be interested in that? It really goes full circle to the conversation we had about marriage earlier. As a Christian man or a Christian woman, we have extremely clear roles and responsibilities in those scriptures I listed before right. Extremely clear roles and responsibilities in those scriptures I listed before right 1 Corinthians 7, ephesians 5, titus 2, 1 Peter 3, hebrews 13, 4, proverbs 5, 19, song of Solomon very clear. But if we claim to follow Christ and yet we don't follow our specific roles and responsibilities in marriage, when somebody else, even inside the church, they're looking at marriage and they're going, well, why do I want to do that? You know everybody's all worried about AI and creating these artificial robots that are going to take over. Well, shoot, I mean, why not? If the people inside the church aren't going to do what they're supposed to do, wouldn't it be better if I just went and got one of these fake ones? Great, not my commentary is not great, folks, but a wonderful, very short, only 13 verses there from 1 Corinthians 5. So I know that I am a day late and a dollar short and I apologize, but I do this every year and so I'm going to do it this year, and that is on July 4th, which I know today is not July 4th, right Hence the comment day late and a dollar short. We read through the Declaration of Independence, so I'm going to In Congress July 4th 1776, the unanimous declaration of the 13 United States of America.

Speaker 1:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation, should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, invents a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.

Speaker 1:

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation, of his assent should be obtained and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them. Into compliance with his measures, he has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise, the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within.

Speaker 1:

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states for the purpose of obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither and raising the conditions of new appropriations of land. He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made justices or judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.

Speaker 1:

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation. For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us, for protecting them by a mock trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world. For imposing taxes on us without our consent. For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury. For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretend offenses for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies. For introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies, for taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments, for suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

Speaker 1:

He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravished our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people. He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, dissolution and tyranny already begun, with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages and totally unworthy. The head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

Speaker 1:

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our immigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguity, to the voice of justice and consanguity. We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation. We hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. We therefore, the representatives of the United States of America and General Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the America in 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 that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved, and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce and do all the other acts and things which independent states may of right do. 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.

Speaker 1:

Massachusetts, no. Georgia Button, gwinnett, lyman Hall. George Walton, north Carolina. William Hooper, joseph Hughes, john Penn, south Carolina. Edward Rutledge, thomas Hayward Jr. Thomas Lynch Jr. Arthur Middleton, massachusetts. John Hancock, maryland. Samuel Chase, william Packa, thomas Stone, charles Carroll of Carrollton, virginia, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, delaware, john Morton, george Clymer, james Smith, george Taylor, james Wilson, george Ross, delaware, cesar Rodney, george Reed, thomas McKean, new York, william Floyd, philip Livingston, francis Lewis, lewis Morris, new Jersey, richard Stockton, john Witherspoon, francis Hopkinson, john Hart, abraham Clark, new Hampshire. Josiah Bartlett, william Whipple, massachusetts, samuel Adams, john Adams, robert Treat, payne Elbridge, gary, rhode Island, stephen Hopkins, william Ellery, connecticut, roger Sherman, samuel Huntington, william Williams, oliver Wilcott.

Speaker 1:

Declaration of Independence. Folks, sorry, it's a few days late. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe we need to think about it more often than just on July 4th each year, at any rate, divine providence, firm belief in divine providence. There's a lot of things there, folks, that you can, a lot of analogies you can make to today. One of the things that struck out at me this year reading it, is that our founders turned to the British, not just king and parliament, but also to their fellow citizens, in much the same way that a lot of us have been begging and pleading with our fellow citizens here in the United States on the left to change their hearts and minds and turn away from supporting evil. And it has fallen on a deaf ear and continues to fall on a deaf ear. And it has fallen on a deaf ear and continues to fall on a deaf ear. It doesn't mean that we don't keep trying. We do keep trying, folks, but the similarity is pretty astounding. All right, we'll move on.

Speaker 1:

So we're going to get back into Fox's Book of the Martyrs. This is Chapter 6, and this is an account of the persecution in Italy under the papacy. We shall now enter on an account of the persecutions in Italy, a country which has been and still is the center of potpourri, the seat of the pontiff One, the center of the potpourri Two, the seat of the pontiff one, the center of the potpourri two, the seat of the pontiff three, the source of the various errors which have spread themselves over other countries, diluted the minds of thousands and diffused the clouds of superstition and bigotry over the human understanding. In pursuing our narrative, we shall include the most remarkable persecutions which have happened and the cruelties which have been practiced one by the immediate power of the Pope, two through the power of the Inquisition, three at the instigation of particular orders of the clergy, and four by the bigotry of the Italian princes In the 12th century.

Speaker 1:

The first persecutions under the papacy began in Italy at the time that Adrian, an Englishman, was pope, being occasioned by the following circumstances A learned man and an excellent orator of Brixia named Arnold came to Rome and boldly preached against the corruptions and innovations which had crept into the church. His discourses were so clear, consistent and breathed forth such a pure spirit of piety that the senators and many of the people highly approved of and admired his doctrines. This so greatly enraged Adrian that he commandednold instantly to leave the city as a heretic. Arnold, however, did not comply for the senators and some of the principal people took his part and resisted the authority of the pope under an interdict which caused the whole body of clergy to interpose and at length persuaded the senators and people to give up the point and suffer Arnold to be banished. This being agreed to, he received the sentence of exile and returned, retired, to Germany where he continued to preach against the Pope and to expose the gross errors of the Church of Rome. To preach against the Pope and to expose the gross errors of the Church of Rome. Adrian, on this account, thirsted for his blood and made several attempts to get him into his hands, but Arnold for a long time avoided every snare laid for him. At length, frederick Barbarossa, arriving at the imperial dignity, requested that the Pope would crown him with his own hand. This Adrian complied with and at the same time asked a favor of the emperor, which was to put Arnold into his hands. The emperor very readily delivered up the unfortunate preacher, who soon fell a martyr to Adrian's vengeance, being hanged and his body burnt to ashes at Apollia, the same fate attended several of his old friends and companions.

Speaker 1:

I can't not stop there, folks. And you look at the history of the church in Rome, not just for like a year or two, and not as many other denominations that have created, submitted atrocities, look back on their own history and openly acknowledge the evil thereof and the fact that there's no way that they should have ever justified the atrocities committed based on following Jesus Christ. The atrocities committed based on following Jesus Christ and it's very similar in some facets to the Muslims you hear so often today Muslims talk about peace and tolerance is to bide their time, to buy time, to gain power until they can get total power, total control. But one of the reasons that you see, even if you just look at modern events, the lie of the idea that Islam is peaceful and tolerant is because when the atrocities are committed, when you look at, for example, israel a couple years ago, actually just Israel in general over the last half century plus but you look at the atrocities committed by Muslims in Syria right now, in Nigeria right now and so many other places against Christians, where's the outcry from the Muslim community? If they really wanted peace, if they were really tolerant, if Islam was really a religion of tolerance, there would be an overwhelming outcry for, or condemnation of, the actions of these Muslims. But there's not. In fact, you have to try really hard to find anybody, especially anybody that claims to be a good Muslim, to decry, to condemn the actions of Muslims when they're raping, pillaging, plundering, torturing Christians in particular, or Jews, but really anybody that doesn't follow Islam.

Speaker 1:

And you can make the same kind of comments about socialism, communism, leftism. You look at the 20th century, comments about socialism, communism, leftism. You look at the 20th century. But you look at this, and there's still people today that will try and defend these actions based on the fact that they claim that the church in Rome is infallible. And that's where the real problem goes, folks, when you claim that you have this unbroken line of hopes that were all infallible, and then you see the atrocities that were committed by the popes, that there's no possible way it would ever have been justified by Jesus Christ and therefore by a follower of his, jesus Christ and therefore by a follower of his. That's where the huge problem comes, folks, is the claim of infallibility of the Pope himself or of the church as a body, and you just can't get there from here.

Speaker 1:

And Sinus, a Spaniard, was sent to Rome to be brought up in the Roman Catholic faith, but having conversed with some of the Reformed, he read several treatises which they had put into his hands. He became a Protestant, this at length being known. One of his own relations informed against him when he was burnt by order of the Pope and a conclave of Carmos. The brother of Encinas had been taken up much about the same time for having a New Testament in the Spanish language in his possession, but before the time appointed for his execution, he found means to escape out of prison and retired to Germany. There's another thing, folks, that is just astounding.

Speaker 1:

Is anybody that would claim and there's people today that will claim this, from certain denominations that could claim that get upset about the fact that Christians have the Bible? Claim to be a Christian and then get upset. Fellow Christians have access to a Bible. Claim to be a Christian and then get upset fellow Christians have access to a Bible. I mean, that's just. It's hard to even get your head wrapped around. There's no excuse for that, none. If you're a follower of Christ. You want to get the Bible into the hands of as many people as possible to read the truth, to read the gospel, to be drawn to Jesus Christ, to strengthen their faith, to encourage them, to give comfort to them. And you don't need a priest or anybody to interpret God's word in the sense that you can find anybody that has learned and studied the Bible and is truly a follower of Christ. They don't have to be of a particular denomination, they don't even have to have a particular degree from a certain institution, a particular degree from a certain institution. Some of the wisest men that I have known in my life are men that the world would call simple, but they read the Bible, they study it and they apply it to their lives. And the idea that somebody would want to take that from them and still claim to be a follower of Christ is laughable.

Speaker 1:

Spanius, a learned layman, by reading controversial books, became of the Reformed religion An information being exhibited against him to the pope. He was apprehended and cast into prison. His wife, children, relations and friends visited him in his confinement and so far wrought upon his mind that he renounced his faith and obtained his release. But he was no sooner free from confinement than his mind felt the heaviest of chains, the weight of a guilty conscience. His horrors were so great that he found them insupportable. So he had returned from his apostasy and declared himself fully convinced of the errors of the Church of Rome. To make amends for his falling off, he now, openly and strenuously, did all he could to make converts to protestantism and was pretty successful in his endeavors.

Speaker 1:

These proceedings occasioned his second imprisonment, but he had his terms. Being asked why he would obstinately persist in his opinions and leave his wife and children in distress, he replied I shall not leave them in distress. I have recommended them to the care of an excellent trustee. What trustee, said the person who had asked the question with some surprise, to which Phanius answered Jesus Christ is the trustee I mean, and I think I could not commit them to the care of a better. On the day of execution he appeared remarkably cheerful, which one observing said it is strange you should appear so merry upon such an occasion when Jesus Christ himself, just before his death, was in such agonies that he sweated blood and water. To which Phineas replied Christ sustained all manners of pangs and conflicts with hell and death on our accounts and thus, by his suffering, freed those who really believe in him from the fear of them. He was then strangled and his body being burnt to ashes. They were scattered about by the wind.

Speaker 1:

Let's see how much time. Oh yeah, we definitely need to move on. For today We'll come back to this for sure. Fox's Book of the Martyrs. We're going to get back into it at least for a few minutes. Mercy, otis Warren and the History of the Rise, progress and Termination of the American Revolution. We'll pick up where we left off in Chapter 5.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, at the early period there were some who viewed the step of their summoning a general congress under existing circumstances a peculiar embarrassment. A general congress under existing circumstances, a peculiar embarrassment as a prelude to a revolution which appeared pregnant with events that might affect not only the political systems but the character and manners of a considerable part of the habitable globe. This observation has since been verified in the remarkable revolution in France. This observation has since been verified in the remarkable revolution in France. A struggle for freedom on one side, of the combinations of European monarch on the other, to depress and eradicate the spirit of liberty caught in America, was displayed to the world. Nor was any of the combination of princes of the treaty of piloting, more persevering in the cause of despotism than the king of Great Britain.

Speaker 1:

America was then little known, her character, ability and police less understood abroad. But she soon became the object of attention among the potentates of Europe, the admiration of both the philosophic and the brave, and her fields of theater of fame throughout the civilized world. Her principles were disseminated, the seeds sown in America ripened in the more cultivated grounds of Europe and inspired ideas among the enslaved nations that have long trembled at the name of the Bastate and the Bastinado. The Bastate and the Bastinado. This may finally lead to the completion of prophetic predictions and spread universal liberty and peace as far at least as is compatible with the present state of human nature. The wild vagaries of the perfectibility of man, so long as the passions to which the species are liable play about the hearts of man, so long as the passions to which the species are liable play about the hearts of all, may be left to the dreaming scholar who wonders in search of impracticable theories. He may remain entangled in his own web, while that rational liberty to which all have a right may be exhibited and defended by men of principle and heroism who better understand the laws of social order.

Speaker 1:

Here's the problem that we don't understand, and Elon Musk is a textbook example today trying to create a third quote unquote American party. It wasn't the fact that we had the Atlantic on one side and the Pacific on the other that made America great. It wasn't the overwhelming natural resources that made America great. It wasn't that we were stronger or faster or smarter or better that made America great. It wasn't common law in and of itself that made America great. It wasn't the Republican ideas of ancient Rome or the Enlightenment that made America great.

Speaker 1:

What made America great and successful in producing liberty was the relationship with God and Jesus Christ. You go back and you look at John Quincy Adams' comment that the supreme glory of the revolution was that it combined in one indissoluble bond Christianity and civil politics. That's what made America great, and it doesn't matter whether we have one party or two parties or three parties or 15. If we as a people don't look to God and Jesus Christ, we're going to fail, and we may fail anyway, folks. We may have pushed God with abortion and feminism and separation of God and state and LGBTQ lifestyles and sexual immorality of all kinds, no-fault divorce. The list is so long. We may have pushed him so far that it's too late for us as a nation, but for those of us that follow him, those of us that accept his son Jesus Christ, he will never leave us nor forsake us, just like he didn't leave the Israelites, even though they were exiled to Babylon. So in that sense we have a great comfort, regardless of what happens to America. But if we want America to be a bastion of hope and light and liberty, the only solution, regardless of how many political parties are present, is for us as a people, in our private lives, in our marriages and families, in our churches and our, in our communities and in our public lives as states and a republic, we have to turn back to God and Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1:

Through the summer previous to the meeting of Congress, no expressions of loyalty to the sovereign or affection to the present state were neglected in their public declarations or affection to the present state were neglected in their public declarations. Yet the colonies seemed to be animated, as it were, by one soul to train their youth to arms, to withhold all commercial connection with Great Britain and to cultivate that unanimity necessary to bind society when ancient forms are relaxed or broken, and the common safety required the assumption of new modes of government. But while attentive to the regulations of their internal economy and police, each colony beheld with a friendly and compassionate eye the severe struggles of the Massachusetts where the arm of power was principally leveled. The severe struggles of the Massachusetts where the arm of power was principally leveled, and the ebullitions of ministerial resentment poured forth as if to testify their sister provinces, as if to terrify their sister provinces into submission.

Speaker 1:

There's three things here, folks, that we really need to look at. One is this last the colonies didn't treat Massachusetts as if it was on their own, as if what was happening there was irrelevant to them. And we can't do the same, it's true, today. We can't look at California or New York, or Illinois or wherever you want to look across the state, whatever city Detroit, new York, la, san Francisco, san Diego, houston pick your poison Washington DC we can't look at what's going on in those cities, especially to the conservatives and Christians that live there and are suffering and assume that it doesn't have anything to do with us, it does, assume that it'll never get to us. It will, it's coming. A lot of y'all can probably already see that. A lot of y'all can probably already see that.

Speaker 1:

The second thing here is when they talk about withholding all commercial connection with Great Britain and the internal economy and police folks, we need to be doing what we can now, while still trying to reconcile, trying to encourage citizens who support the left socialism, communism, leftism, nazism, fascism who support Islam to change their hearts and their minds and to turn away from evil. While praying for that, while encouraging that, while pleading for that, we need to be building up our local police, our local law enforcement, at the county level, at the town level, at the state level if you're in conservative Christian majority areas building up our firefighters, building up our EMS, increasing the numbers, increasing the training, increasing the quality of the equipment and their abilities, their capabilities, right State militia again, if you're in a conservative Christian majority state, we need to be looking at that. And then the economy whenever you can, folks and sometimes it's going to cause a little discomfort, sometimes you're going to have to have a few extra steps, but anytime you can keep from supporting a business or institution that promotes leftism, whether you're talking about unions, education unions or otherwise, or whether you're talking about private businesses. Anytime you can not support them with your finances. We need to do that. Anytime we can support those businesses which are pro-God, pro-liberty, pro-america. We need to do that.

Speaker 1:

And then the last point in this paragraph is train their youth to arms. There's a reason that that was so important at this time and it's still important. The fallacy, the idea that we live in this different day and age that's so unique that none of the stuff that's come before in history matters now. It's like saying that God's word all of a sudden doesn't apply today because there's a different societal context that I've come across that use that line. All they're really trying to do is to justify making the Bible say what they want it to instead of what it actually clearly says. Because if you can pick and choose what parts of the Bible change, quote, unquote, change or need to be changed to adjust to the context of society, then you can change whatever you want to say whatever you want, depending on what society says is okay and of course that makes no sense. It's illogical.

Speaker 1:

If our founders in that generation needed to train our children, train our men in arms, we need to do the same thing. So anything you can do to encourage those around you to train with arms is a great thing, especially when you combine that. One of the positives when you get into a really good gym, when you're talking about martial arts training, is when they require the character, and all of your really really good ones do this. They require the training of the character, along with the physical aspects of the children and the men and women that go there. And so as you get better, as you progress, as you train physically, you're also training spiritually and mentally and you're building your character, and that's the same thing that needs to happen today. When we train with arms, you go out and you train with firearms. You need to talk about God and Jesus Christ. You need to talk about character. You need to build your spiritual and emotional mental strength as you're building your physical capabilities. It's so important, so important today, and you can see. You can see the people that don't like us trying to prevent that.

Speaker 1:

You look at again the videos, for example, from China, what they tailor the TikTok videos to American children. How different that is from what they tailor to their own children. Right, they tailor engineering and patriotism and character to a certain degree to their own children, despite communism. And then to us, they tailor to our children. Fluff and immorality and laziness and anti-America, anti-god right, anti-liberty. At any rate, y'all get the idea and I've gone over. So God bless y'all, god bless your families, god bless your marriages, god bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.