The American Soul

Virtue's Foundation: Why Religion Matters More Than Politics

• Jesse • Season 5 • Episode 105

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The most dangerous threat to American liberty today isn't leftism or socialism, but "Christless conservatism" - people who appear patriotic but lack the spiritual foundation to stand firm when tested. Without Jesus Christ at the center, no political solution can restore our nation's freedom and virtue.

• Making time for God should be our first priority - how we spend our time reveals our true values
• Scripture from 1 Timothy 6 warns against those who stir up arguments and divisions through meaningless debates
• We should avoid "godless, foolish discussions" that divide Christians rather than uniting them
• John Adams wrote that "religion and morality alone" can establish principles for lasting liberty
• Benjamin Rush declared: "Without religion there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty"
• Political affiliations, denominations, and human solutions cannot save us - only Jesus Christ can
• Fiscal conservatism without moral foundation will eventually fail when tested

If you're looking for a fun, family-friendly middle-grade fantasy series, I humbly recommend Countryside. There are two books in the series so far. Pick up a copy - e-book, hardback, paperback - at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or whatever bookstore you've got around you, and if you enjoy it, please leave a review somewhere.


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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 do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I know you have other things vying for your attention, so I appreciate you spending some of it here with me. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you Very, very grateful for your prayers. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for this day you've made. Thank you for you, father, and your Son Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the promise of eternal life in heaven with you, through the merit of your Son Jesus Christ alone. Thank you for all the many blessings that you bestow upon us, the ones we admit and the ones we don't, for whatever reason. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast. Please be with them, their families, guide them, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil of any kind. Help us to do your will above all else, father. Help us to love your Son Jesus Christ, to follow his commands, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with our educators across the nation, here in America and the nations around the world where people are listening. Father, bless them, guide them, give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help us to teach our children your commands, your precepts and, as adults, to show them just a little bit of your son Jesus Christ and your love for us. Be with our leaders, father, both in the pulpit and in the state. For us. Be with our leaders, father, both in the pulpit and in the state. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Guide their steps, guide their words. And guide my words here, father, please. In your Son's name, we pray Amen.

Speaker 1:

Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word, to pray, to talk to him, to listen to him? Is that at the beginning of your day? Is that at the end of your day? Are you striving to pray continuously throughout the day? And if you're married, is your spouse your top priority After only God and Jesus Christ? Do you truly treat them as a one out of seven billion kind of treasure, or do you treat them indifferently, coldly, with apathy Again? I think we asked this on a recent podcast. What would it look like if you had a graph in front of you bar graph, columns, pie, whatever you want? You make it whatever you want, whatever kind of graph you like that showed how you were dividing up your time each day, month, year, for the last five years, the last 10 years? Would you be pleased with the percentages that it showed of how you spent your time or would you be disappointed? Would it line up with what you say your priorities are or would it not?

Speaker 1:

Marriage verse for today comes out of 1 Timothy 2, verses 11 through 15. A wife should learn quietly, with complete submission. I don't allow a wife to teach or to control her husband. Instead, she should be a quiet listener. Adam was formed first and then Eve. Adam wasn't deceived, but rather his wife became the one who stepped over the line because she was completely deceived. But a wife will be brought safely through childbirth if they continue in faith, love and holiness together with self-control. Different. Continue in faith, love and holiness together with self-control. Different Translation here A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man. She must be quiet, for Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not the one deceived. It was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Speaker 1:

Scripture today comes from 1 Timothy 6, verses 1-21. Because their efforts are helping other believers who are well-loved. Teach these things, timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life.

Speaker 1:

Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over meanings of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander and evil suspicions. These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy. Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world and we can't take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and some people craving money have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But you, timothy, are a man of God, so run from all these evil things.

Speaker 1:

Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good, fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses. And I charge you before God, who gives life to all, and before Christ Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, that you obey this command without wavering. Then no one can find fault with you, from now until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again, for at just the right time Christ will be revealed from heaven by the blessed and only Almighty God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He alone can never die and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen, nor ever will. All honor and power to him forever. Amen.

Speaker 1:

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this, they will be storing up their treasure and as a good foundation for the future, so that they may experience true life. Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness. May God's grace be with you all. Psalm 89, verses 38 through 52.

Speaker 1:

But now you have rejected him and cast him off. You were angry with your anointed king. You have renounced your covenant with him. You have thrown his crown in the dust. You have broken down the walls protecting him and ruined every fort defending him. Everyone who comes along has robbed him and he has become a joke to his neighbors. You have strengthened his enemies and made them all rejoice. You have made his sword useless and refused to help him in battle. You have ended his slender and overturned his throne. You have made him old before his time and publicly disgraced him. O Lord, how long will this go on? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your anger burn like fire? Remember how short my life is, how empty and futile this human existence. No one can live forever. All will die. No one can escape the power of the grave. Lord, where is your unfailing love? You promised it to David with a faithful pledge. Consider, lord, how your servants are disgraced. I carry in my heart the insults of so many people. Your enemies have mocked me, o Lord. They mock your anointed king wherever he goes. Praise the Lord forever. Amen and amen.

Speaker 1:

A person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls. There's a couple places here in 1 Timothy 6 where God talks about avoiding foolish discussions. Right that there's people that just have an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words, to stir up arguments and ending in jealousy, division, slander and evil suspicions. Verses four, three and four, or four, I'm sorry, and 5, and then 20, 21. I'm struck by this. There's a gentleman that I follow online that I like a lot of what he says, of what he says, but he got off talking about Israel, the modern state of Israel, and whether Israel, in the Bible, included the modern state and the Jews, or if it was children of Abraham. And then if it was only true children of Abraham and true children of Abraham, what did that mean? Did it mean that it was Christians or Jews and Christians, christians or just Jews? And there's a number of places in the Bible where God talks about being really careful when you get into arguments that cause divisions. That cause divisions, and I was thinking to myself, you know we have.

Speaker 1:

We have very clear problems in the United States today Feminism, abortion, rejection of God, jesus Christ, lgbtq lifestyles, particularly the transgender stuff, as we see with all these shootings illegal immigration, like. We have a number of issues that are very clear from Scripture today. And even if you buy this idea that seems to be prevalent inside the church or growing inside the church, that we shouldn't have anything to do with the modern state of Israel right, which I don't, but let's pretend for a minute that you did Don't? We have enough problems inside the United States among Christians to deal with without going and looking for more. Yeah, it's very similar to me, to the people that want to talk about. Well, actually, it's not as bad, the people that want to tell you that you have to belong to their denomination in order to be saved. Those are much more dangerous to me, because they're telling you something that's just blatantly not true, not out of Scripture. It's adding to what Jesus Christ is. What they're basically saying is Jesus Christ isn't enough, you also have to belong to our denomination, and so they're hindering their own entrance into the kingdom. Because if you die, folks, and you tell God hey, you got to let me in because I was a Roman Catholic or I belong to the Church of Christ or was Greek Orthodox or I was Baptist Reformed, he's going to look at you and say, sorry, I don't know you, I don't know what you're talking about, the only you know.

Speaker 1:

In the Marine Corps, there were certain times when we had a back and forth response, when a patrol was coming back in and you would have something that the guard on the sentry would say and there had to be a correct response from the patrol coming back in. A password, if you will, and the only password to get into heaven is going to be Jesus Christ. He's the only key. There's no other key. There's no other key. There's no additional key. You don't have to have two keys. Anyway, I got off track there, folks. But, lord, don't we have enough to be concerned with without going and hunting up things about whether we should support Israel and then even, goodness gracious, what other country in the Middle East are we going to support? What other country in the Middle East are we going to support? I just I don't think.

Speaker 1:

We got a lot of problems with anti-Semitism inside the church today that are very similar to anti-Semitism inside the church in Germany in the 1920s and 30s, and you can make the argument even inside Britain. You go back and look at those verses again. Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander and evil suspicions. These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy. And then 20. Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless, foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness.

Speaker 1:

Medal of Honor for today Frederick Bergendahl, private Highest Strength Sergeant, indian Campaigns banned. 4th US Cavalry, us Army, december 8, 1874, staked Plains, texas, gallantry. In a long chase after Indians Accredited to Boston, suffolk County, massachusetts, not awarded. Posthumously, presented October 13, 1875, born February 26, 1858, gothenburg, sweden. Died December 15, 1889, gothenburg, sweden. Died December 15th 1889, gothenburg, sweden. Buried at the Kast Cemetery, austria. Ooh, can't even say that word, gothenburg Sweden. That's an interesting one. We've only read a couple where the individual was buried in the same place that they were born, and they weren't born in America.

Speaker 1:

There's got to be more to that story. Gallantry and a Long Chase After Indians Frederick Bergendahl Probably stirs up the people there that want to pretend that the indigenous day people, that want to pretend that all of the indigenous people were peaceful and kind and caring and would never hurt a fly, and that Christopher Columbus and all of those mean, evil white people from the old world that came over were only interested in rape, pillage and plunder over, were only interested in rape, pillage and plunder. So we got a couple quotes I want to end with today. I'm going to give just a little quick story. So years ago I saw an interview with an extremely successful author and he was talking about. Early on in his career he came up with this title for this book I've told this story on the podcast before for those of y'all that have been around and he said it's the best title that I've ever come up with for a book, ever in my entire career and by this point he was extremely successful, had a number of really successful books published New York Times bestseller, et cetera. He said it's the best title I ever came up with and I lost it. And of course, the interviewer was like really Said yeah, I was going to bed one night and my wife was already in bed asleep and I thought of this title and I thought, oh man, I'll write that down in the morning. And I woke up and I couldn't remember it and I've never been able to remember it and I tried so hard and I couldn't. And he said so. Now there's a, there's a pad and a pen right beside the bed and if I think of something at night as I'm falling asleep, I get up and I write it down and I can vouch for that, folks. And I can vouch for that, folks. If I think of something at night and I don't write it down somewhere, it's pretty much gone. Well, I thought of something yesterday and I thought it was pretty good, but I didn't have anything at the time to write with and I was already running late for another appointment and I said, well, I guess, if God really wants me and to talk about it, I'll remember it. And, lo and behold, I did remember it afterwards, so I guess he wants me to talk about it.

Speaker 1:

The most dangerous threat we have to our nation today here in America, and any country, folks around the world that claims to stand for liberty or freedom, is Christless conservatism. Because when you're talking about people that support leftism, socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, islam, you know you can't depend on them. There's no confusion. You know that they are following evil ideologies, or at least you should. But with Christless conservatism, those people appear to be patriots, appear to be conservative, appear to really want to stand for liberty.

Speaker 1:

The problem is it's like the proverb that talks about a lame joint or foot or a weak tooth. You don't ever know when they're going to crack. You don't ever know when they're going to crack. You don't ever know when they're going to decide. You know what this conservative stuff that's too much. This isn't really what I signed up for.

Speaker 1:

And so in that moment of need, when you really need that person right, it's like the scene out of the old Mel Gibson Braveheart movie for those of y'all that are old enough to have seen that and they're in this particular battle and he thinks he has these people that are going to back him up and he sends the signal and they betray him and they walk away and abandon him and he thought he could depend on him but he really couldn't. And that's the epitome of Christless conservatism. Fiscally conservative but socially liberal is a pretty good example of that. You hear that often from a lot of people. It's impossible, because at some point your social liberalism is going to come into play on the fiscal side and you're going to decide well, I can just cut this corner right.

Speaker 1:

And so any solution today that doesn't start with Jesus Christ and God is a non-starter. And it doesn't matter, folks, you know what? President Trump, if you think he's the greatest thing ever, he's not. He can't Without God. He's not going to help the nation. It doesn't matter if taxation is your big deal. You think flat tax, fair tax, if God isn't the center of our country, it's not going to save us School choice if that's your big deal, you think. Flat tax, fair tax. If God isn't the center of our country, it's not going to save us. School choice if that's your big deal, it's not going to save us. If you suddenly could get rid of every single illegal immigrant in the country, mass immigrant in the country, it's not going to save us If the core of our solution, whatever we're offering, isn't God and Jesus Christ, it's a short-term solution at best.

Speaker 1:

And so there's two quotes today that I wanted to read to you. One we've actually just read recently, but it fits really well with this, and it's by John Adams, from June 21st 1776. Statesmen, my dear sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people in a greater measure than they have it now, they may change their rulers and their forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. They will only exchange tyrants and tyrannies.

Speaker 1:

And so you see him here, and make no mistake, he's talking about Christianity, not any imposter, not Islam, buddhism, hinduism, other naturism, anything else. He's talking about Christianity, not any imposter, not Islam, buddhism, hinduism, other naturism, anything else. He's talking about Christianity. So we've got to have Christianity which develops morality and virtue, because the only way we can have a free constitution is pure virtue, right? And so then you go over here to Benjamin Rush, who was one of our three greatest founding fathers, according to some, and what does he say? He says the only foundation for a republic is to be laid in religion, again, christianity. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty. And liberty is the object and life of all republicans, all republican governments republican little are not talking about the party folks, and that was another thing that really spurred on this little conversation, as I saw actress from hollywood talking about the fact that the response of the left this week or the last couple of weeks to the Charlie Kirk assassination they've been so gleeful and so joyful.

Speaker 1:

She said if you were ever thinking about leaving the Democratic Party and joining the Republican Party, this is the time, this is your sign. They're celebrating this man being assassinated and leaving his wife, a widow, and his two children fatherless. This is, you know, if abortion and feminism and LGBTQ nonsense wasn't enough, this ought to do it. The problem is, folks, the Republican Party isn't the solution. There is no solution unless that solution is centered on God and Jesus Christ. And you have to recognize that. The real solution then isn't the party, it isn't the person, it's God and Jesus Christ. And if that party or that person happened to go along with God and Jesus Christ, right then that's all well and good. But the point is God and Jesus Christ, not the Republican Party, not conservatism in and of itself, not Trump or whoever you want to pick, not some particular politician. And you can't have it. If you don't teach your children Christianity, educate them on the general principles of Christ, we'll lose our republic as we are.

Speaker 1:

If you are looking for a fun, family, fun middle grade fantasy series, I would humbly recommend Countryside. There's two books in the series so far. Pick up a copy e-book, hardback, paperback, amazon, barnes, noble, whatever bookstore you've got around you, and, if you enjoy it, if you'd leave a review somewhere, I would appreciate that. God bless you, 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.