The American Soul
Are you tired of hearing the myth about separation of church and state? Are you tired of being told that America is not and never was a Christian nation? Do you want to have the information to stand up for the truth and fight back against this fundamental lie that’s invading our culture and education? Each week, host Jesse Cope will dive into quotes and excerpts from our great leaders and documents throughout our history showing how in President Woodrow Wilson’s words “America was born a Christian nation.” We have the truth on our side and together we can absolutely turn our nation around. Follow Jesse @jtcope4 on Twitter and @jtcopeiv on Instagram for daily doses of the truth to help fight back. Subscribe to The American Soul and share the show with someone who needs to hear it. We're on a mission to spread the truth and get our nation back on the right track — and you can help us make this possible.
The American Soul
You Don’t Need A Denomination To Reach Christ
Ever been told you need a specific denomination to be saved? We cut through that noise with a clear claim: salvation rests on faith in Jesus Christ, not on a brand, a gatekeeper, or a lineage. From there, we trace a thread that binds personal faith, covenant love, national gratitude, and moral courage into a single, compelling call to live what we believe.
We open with Song of Solomon 8 and its fierce declaration that many waters cannot quench love. It’s a picture of marriage that resists the disposable mindset of our age, urging us to prize covenant, protect intimacy, and treat love as a trust more valuable than wealth. Then we turn to Revelation 9, where startling images expose a deeper reality: even under judgment, hardened hearts cling to idols. That warning lands in the present day—sports, screens, politics, status—showing how modern life can sanctify distractions. Repentance is the way back to joy, not a word for other people but an urgent practice for us.
History steps in to steady the frame. President Ulysses S. Grant’s Thanksgiving and Christmas messages invite a nation to gratitude, peace, and goodwill—public disciplines that recalibrate our common life. We honor courage through the Medal of Honor story of Otto A. Boehler, whose charge across a burning bridge under fire embodies duty at cost. Together, these moments challenge us to align belief with action: confess Christ as the only mediator, build marriages that endure storms, resist idols that dull the soul, and choose courage when it counts.
If this conversation moves you, share it with a friend, leave a review, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next. What idols do you see most clearly—and what’s your first step away from them 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, sure to appreciate it. Appreciate you joining me. Hopefully you're able to listen to it with somebody else. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others 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 grateful for your prayers. Need them and want them. 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 through the merit of your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for all the many blessings that you bestow upon us, Father, that we don't acknowledge for whatever reason.
SPEAKER_01:Pride or selfishness or just lack of awareness. Help us to do your will, Father.
SPEAKER_00:Help us to love your Son Jesus Christ and to follow his commands. To love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
SPEAKER_01:Forgive us when we fail. Forgive us when we mistake. Encouraging others and sin for loving them. Forgive us our greed and our selfishness. Pride. Forgive us for simply getting our priorities out of order. Help us to do your will each day. Help us to be on your side. Because we know that your side is always the right side. Be with our leaders. Both in the pulpit and in the state.
SPEAKER_00:Be with our military and our law enforcement. Be with those who are injured.
SPEAKER_01:Those who have been attacked. Heal their bodies. Be with their families. Be with our nation, Father. And be with those listening to the podcast, please. Surround them with your angels. Protect them from evil of any kind. And God my words here, Father, please. In your son's name. Pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_00:So one of the things that has been really eye-opening to me and also really disturbing to me on X as a social media platform in particular has been the number of Christians or people who claim to follow Christ, who also claim that you have to belong to their particular denomination in order to be saved, or that there's some person throughout all of history who serves as a gatekeeper to get to Jesus Christ. And if you don't go through that person, if you don't go through that denomination, you can't be saved.
SPEAKER_01:You can't get to Jesus Christ. And you won't find that anywhere in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00:You can look, you won't see any particular denomination mentioned in the Bible, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Baptist, any version of that, Protestant, Methodist, Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Anglican.
SPEAKER_01:The thief on the cross is a great example of the fallacy of those arguments. There was no denomination.
SPEAKER_00:And the idea that you so one of the arguments that you'll hear is well, everything was going fine until these people broke off from this church or that church. But that kind of illustrates the point. When you have a denomination that has gone away from Scripture, there needs to be some kind of separation there, right? At any rate, if you're around people, folks, and you hear that, as best as you're able, correct that, because it's not only well, it just leads people astray. Or perhaps the better way to say it is anytime you have the opportunity to make sure that people know that the only thing they have to have is faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01:Confessing Jesus Christ is the risen Son of God, choosing to believe.
SPEAKER_00:So the marriage verse for today, we're going to go back into Song of Solomon, and we're going to read the last chapter there, which is chapter eight. The lovers speak. Oh that you were like a brother to me who nursed at my mother's breasts. If I found you outdoors I would kiss you. No one would despise me either. I would lead you and bring you into the house of my mother who used to instruct me. I would give you spiced wine to drink from the juice of my pomegranates. Let his left hand be under my head, and his right hand embrace me. I want you to swear, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not arouse or awaken my love until she pleases. Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved? Beneath the apple tree I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you. There she was in labor and gave you birth. Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death. Jealousy is as severe as sheol. It flash its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it. If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised. We have a little sister and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall we will build on her a battlement of silver, but if she is a door we will barricade her with planks of cedar. I was a wall and my breasts were like towers. Then I became in his eye as one who finds peace. Solomon had a vineyard at Balhaman. He entrusted the vineyard to caretakers. Each one was to bring a thousand shecholds of silver for its fruit. My very own vineyard is at my disposal. The thousand sheckels are for you, Solomon, and two hundred are for those who take care of its fruit. O you who sit in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice. Let me hear it. Hurry, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices. Scripture readings, for today we're going to get back into Revelation chapter nine, starting with verse one. Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke. Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who do not did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were told not to kill them, but to torture them for five months with pain, like the pain of a scorpion sting. In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them. The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces. They had hair like women's hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion. They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people. Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abadon, and in Greek Apollyon, the destroyer. The first terror is past, but look, two more terrors are coming. Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice speaking from the four horns of the gold altar that stands in the presence of God. And the voice said to the sixth angel, who held the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound to the great Euphrates River. Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one third of all the people on earth. I heard the size of their army, which was two hundred million mounted troops, and in my vision I saw the horses and the riders sitting on them. The riders wore armor that was fiery red and dark blue and yellow. The horses had heads like lions, and fire and smoke and burning sulfur billowed from their mouths. One third of all the people on earth were killed by these three plagues, by the fire and smoke and burning sulfur that came from the mouths of the horses. Their power was in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails had heads like snakes with the power to injure people. But the people who did not die in these plagues still refused to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Psalm one thirty seven verses one through nine. Beside the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of popular of poplar trees. For our captors demanded a psalm from us, our tormentors insisted on a joyful home. Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem, but how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget how to play the harp. May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you. If I don't make Jerusalem my greatest joy. O Lord, remember what the Edomites did on the day the armies of Babylon captured Jerusalem. Destroy it, they yelled, level it to the ground. O Babylon you will be destroyed. Happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us. Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks. Proverbs thirty ten.
SPEAKER_01:Never slander a worker to the employer, or the person will curse you, and you will pay for it. The Medal of Honor for today is Otto A Bull. I think that's how you say that.
SPEAKER_00:Private Philippine Insurrection India Company, first North Dakota Voluntary Infant Volunteer Infantry US Army, may sixteenth, eighteen ninety nine, near San Isidro, Luzon, Philippine Islands. Probably murdered that, sorry. With twenty one other scouts charged across a burning bridge under heavy fire and completely routed six hundred of the enemy who were entrenched in a strongly fortified position. Accredited to Wapeton, Richland County, North Dakota, not awarded posthumously, presented may seventeenth, nineteen oh six, born october fifteenth, eighteen seventy three, Germany, died october fifteenth, nineteen ten, buried St.
SPEAKER_01:Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Breckenridge, Minnesota, United States. Otto A. Bowler Philippine Insurrection. So the quote this year, um each year, we're kind of switching over, right?
SPEAKER_00:In November, we go through Thanksgiving Day proclamations, and then in December, we switch over and we start to go through some of the Christmas messages from presidents. And we're going to kind of shift or maybe like ease into it this year. We're going to read one more Thanksgiving Day proclamation from President Grant. This was October 26, 1876, because it references Christmas and kind of bridges the gap, I think. By the President of the United States of America proclamation, the year that is now drawing to its close has been one of peace and prosperity throughout our beloved country. The blessing of health has been generally restored, and the hand of industry has been everywhere active and successful. The products of the field and the workshop have been abundant, and commerce has flowed in healthful channels. The relations of the United States with foreign powers continue to be those of amity and peace. Our country has been preserved from the calamities of war, and our people have been permitted to devote their energies to the pursuits of peace and the development of our great natural resources. In view of these manifold blessings, it is meet and proper that we should recognize the hand of God and all these things, and that we should set apart a day for national thanksgiving and praise. Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of America, do hereby appoint Thursday, the thirtieth day of November next, as a day of national thanksgiving and prayer, and I recommend to the people of all the states that they assemble in their respective places of worship and offer up their sincere acknowledgments to Almighty God for his goodness and mercy. As we approach the Christmas season and the beginning of a new year, it is especially fitting that we should give thanks for the peace and prosperity which have attended us during the year that is about to close, and implore the continuance of God's favor upon our beloved country. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed, done at the city of Washington this twenty sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord 1876, and the independence of the United States, the 101st U.S. Grant by the President Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State.
SPEAKER_01:I wanted to read one more little blip uh from Grant. If I can find it.
SPEAKER_00:So he wrote a Christmas statement in 1873, a couple years before this. This is President Grant's 1873 Christmas statement. Washington, December 24, 1873, to the people of the United States, as this is the season when the Christian world celebrates the birth of our Savior, I desire to tender to all my fellow citizens, without distinction of creed or nationality, my heartfelt wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the blessings of peace, prosperity, and goodwill continue to rest upon our beloved country. U.S. Grant. And one more little blip, we'll move on. This is from Grant's 1870 message to Congress, December 5th, 1870. This is his first annual message. And this is just one little excerpt out of it, folks. The season of the year at which we are now assembled is one peculiarly appropriate for the exercise of those feelings of kindness and goodwill which should characterize the intercourse of all Christian nations. Christmas, with its associations of peace on earth and good will toward men, comes appropriately at this time to remind us of the duties which we owe to each other as members of the great family of nations.
SPEAKER_01:So a few comments here just to wrap up. I think you go back to Song of Solomon.
SPEAKER_00:And again, we struggle so much today with marriage, and especially even inside the church, you see it. I think we we don't use Song of Solomon enough. But this verse seven here, many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it. If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised. Love is just, it's a great treasure, folks. You cannot make too much out of having love in your life, being loved and loving your spouse. You look at Revelation 9, verses 20 and 21. And that really sums up the same problem that we see today in America. But the people who did not die in these plagues still refuse to repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. They continue to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts. You look at some of the things, the riots over the past five to ten years, the COVID. You look at how we've made gods out of sports and entertainment and even public school to a degree. And you have to kind of see God tapping us on the shoulder, going, hey, you need to turn around here. You need to pay attention to me. And yet, for so many of us, for our country as a whole, we seem determined not to repent and turn back to God.
SPEAKER_01:Couple more things. Don't forget Auto A.
SPEAKER_00:Bowler. Philippine insurrection charging across a burning bridge. And along with 21 other scouts routing 600 enemy. And remember Grant and his Christmas messages comments, particularly from his first annual message to Congress, talking about kindness and goodwill characterizing the intercourse of all Christian nations, which is implicitly, or almost really explicitly, identifying us, folks, as a Christian nation. Just one more piece of information for when somebody tries to tell you that we're not a Christian nation. We were founded that way. We don't act like that very much today, but that's how we were founded. And that's the only way we can correctly function. And I'm just really excited to get into these Christmas messages. I hope y'all have enjoyed the Thanksgiving proclamations, and I hope y'all will enjoy the Christmas messages.
SPEAKER_01:I look forward to that each year.
SPEAKER_00:If you are looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, if you would check out Countryside, there's two books in the series so far, I would greatly appreciate it. And if you enjoy them, if you would leave a review somewhere online, I would appreciate that as well. Those reviews help a great deal. And if you're getting something out of the podcast, if you feel like you have three or four or five dollars a month to donate, you can set that up on the Buzz Sprout website for the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:And I would be very grateful for that also.
SPEAKER_00:And lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from will, for thine is the kingdom, power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, 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.