A Free Nation Cannot Last Without Returning To God

A single headline can expose a culture’s fault lines, and we start there, then trace the deeper question it raises: do we still have the moral courage to live by what we say we believe? We open with Proverbs 31 and a warning about misused strength, then move into prayer for listeners, families, marriages, leaders, and the vulnerable, especially children who are abandoned or abused.

From Genesis 2, we talk plainly about biblical marriage and why separating sex from marriage collides with God’s design. We connect that disobedience to what so many people see around them every day: pornography, adultery, and divorce, including inside the church. Then we read Jesus’ words in Luke 13 about the narrow door, a passage that challenges comfortable religion and pushes us toward real repentance and obedience. Psalm 79 adds the language of national lament, asking what it looks like to seek mercy when a people feel “on the brink of despair.”

We also shift to history and memory: a Medal of Honor spotlight, plus a powerful 1954 Dwight D Eisenhower Back to God broadcast that ties American freedom to faith, prayer, and shared moral foundations. Whether you agree with every conclusion or not, the episode is a direct look at Christian discipleship in public life, cultural decline, and the hard choices believers face in a conflicted age. Subscribe for more, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or your sharpest disagreement.

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Transcript

Proverbs Warning And A Shocking Case

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Proverbs 31 verses 1 through 3. The sayings of King Lamuel, an inspired utterance his mother taught him. Listen, my son, listen, son of my womb. Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers. Do not spend your strength on women, your vigor on those who ruin kings. February 14, 2025, Glasgow, UK, 15-year-old girl raped by Marwan Al Bakir, a Syrian migrant who entered the UK illegally, met the vulnerable runaway at a bus stop after dark, took her to a nearby grassy area, and forced himself on her. That is Islam. That is illegal immigration. Those who defend either defend these atrocities consistently, repeatedly. 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 you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. 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 much. Very grateful for your prayers. 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. Please forgive us our sins, Father. Help us to truly repent and to change our actions. Help us to do your will above all else. Guide our steps. Be with those listening to the podcast wherever they are, Father. Bless their families, bless their marriages. Guide those who have children in raising them to know you and your Son. Help us to truly love your Son Jesus Christ, to follow his commands, and to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to store up treasure in heaven, not here on earth. Be with those, Father, the runaways, the abandoned, the children who are abused, ill, injured, hurt. Help us to care for them. And the widows. Protect us from evil, Father. Help our nation to turn back to you, both here in America and around the world, and the nations where people are listening. Be with our leaders in the pulpit and in the state. Help them to rule and lead and fear of you. Be with our military, our law enforcement, our firefighters, our EMS. Give them wisdom, courage, a strong faith. Protect them, protect their families. God, my word too, Father, please. In your son's name we pray. Amen. Yeah, folks, do we even care? Are we even awake? Do we do we not see what's coming? Genesis marriage verse, Genesis 2, 24 and 25. This is the reason that a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife, and they become one flesh. The two of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they weren't embarrassed. This is the reason. So many people today want to separate sex out of marriage as if it's not necessary, if it's not a need. Inside the church, we do this. And yet that's nothing at all what the Bible says, how it portrays how God commands us to act toward our spouse physically. And then we wonder why pornography use is so rampant, why adultery is so rampant, why divorce is so high, even inside the church. Because we we're not listening to God. We're listening to the world in one form or another. Luke 13, 22 through 4.6. Jesus went through the towns and villages teaching as he went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem. Someone asked him, Lord, will only a few be saved? He replied, Work hard to enter the narrow door to God's kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. When the master of the house has locked the door, it will be too late. You will stand outside knocking and pleading. Lord, open the door for us. But he will reply, I don't know you or where you come from. Then you will say, But we ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets, and he will reply, I tell you I don't know you or where you come from. Get away from me, all you who do evil. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out. And people will come from all over the world, from east and west, north and south, to take their places in the kingdom of God. And note this some who seem least important now will be the greatest then, and some who are the greatest now will be least important then. At that time some Pharisees said to him, Get away from here if you want to live. Herod and Antipas wants to kill you. Jesus replied, Go tell that fox that I will keep on casting out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and the third day I will accomplish my purpose. Yes, today, tomorrow, and the next day I must proceed on my way. For it wouldn't do for a prophet of God to be killed except in Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers. How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings. But you wouldn't let me. And now look, your house is abandoned, and you will never see me again until you say blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord. One Sabbath day Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees, and the people were watching him closely. There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen. Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law, Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the Sabbath day or not? When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away. Then he turned to them and said, Which of you doesn't work on the Sabbath? If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don't you rush to get him out? Again, they could not answer. Are we worried about the word or the intent, folks? Psalm 79, 1 through 13. O God, pagan nations have conquered your land, your special possession. Man, that sounds familiar today in America, doesn't it? They have defiled your holy temple and made Jerusalem a heap of ruins. They have left the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of heaven. The flesh of your godly ones has become food for the wild animals. Blood has flowed like water all around Jerusalem. No one is left to bury the dead. We are mocked by our neighbors, an object of scorn and derision to those around us. O Lord, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you, on kingdoms that do not call upon your name. Do we, folks, do we acknowledge God in the United States of America anymore? Or in your nation where you're listening? Do we call upon God and his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit? For they have devoured your people Israel, making the land a desolate wilderness. Do not hold us guilty for the sins of our ancestors. Let your compassion quickly meet our needs, for we are on the brink of despair. Help us, O God, of our salvation. Help us for the glory of your name. Save us and forgive our sins for the honor of your name. Why should pagan nations be allowed to scoff, asking, Where is their God? Show us your vengeance against the nations, for they have spilled the blood of your servants. Listen to the mourning, the moaning of the prisoners. Demonstrate your great power by saving those condemned to die. O Lord, pay back our neighbors seven times for the scorn they have hurled at you. Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever and ever, praising your greatness from generation to generation. Proverbs 1226. The wicked lead them astray. Countryside, Book of the Wise, this is the first book in the series. Countryside Book Series and a review from Susan Weintraub, Wintraub, I'm not sure. Book of the Wise has wonderfully drawn adult role models and strong adolescents on their journey with a little help from magic. Symbolic and compelling is Cope's use of a magical and ancient language. Truly ancient and a bit magical. Strong writer, creating what may become a classic middle grade fantasy. Very kind review, five-star review on Amazon. If you get a chance, check it out. First and second book. And if you enjoy them, if you would leave a review as well, I would appreciate it. Same thing with the podcast. If you're getting something out of it, if you would leave a review. And if you have five or ten dollars a month you can spare, that helps us keep going. Medal of Honor winner for today, Abram J. Buckles. Sergeant, second lieutenant was the highest rank U.S. Civil War Echo Company, 19th Indiana Infantry, U.S. Army, May 5th, 1864, Wilderness Campaign, Virginia, USA. Though suffering from an open wound, Buckles carried the regimental colors until again wounded. Accredited to Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana, not awarded posthumously, presented December 4th, 1893, born August 2nd, 1843, Delaware County, Indiana, died January 19th, 1915. Buried Fairfield Cemetery, Fairfield, California. Abram J. Buckles. I got two things I'm going to try and get through. We'll see. We're going to do the longer one first. We read, I don't know, a few months ago, uh some remarks from President Dwight D. Eisenhower based on the American Legion Back to God program from 1955. And I didn't know it, but he had also done an uh announcement broadcast February 7th, 1954. And so we're going to read that one. This is remarks broadcast as part of the American Legion Back to God program. As a former soldier, I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth: that there are no atheists in the foxholes. They know that in time of test and trial, we instinctively turn to God for new courage and peace of mind. My wife just popped in and decided to smile so kindly at me. All the history of America bears witness to this truth. Out of faith in God and through faith in themselves as his children, our forefathers designed and built this republic. We remember from school days that aboard a tiny ship of destiny called the Mayflower, self-government on our continent, was first conceived by the Pilgrim Fathers. Their immortal compact began with the words, In the name of God. Amen. We remember the picture of the father of our country on his knees at Valley Forge, seeking divine guidance in the cold gloom of a bitter winter. Thus, Washington gained strength to lead to independence a nation dedicated to the belief that each of us is divinely endowed with indestructible rights. We remember, too, that three-fourths of a century later, on the battle-torn field of Gettysburg, and in the silence of many a wartime night, Abraham Lincoln recognized that only under God could this nation win a new birth of freedom. And we remember that only a decade ago, aboard the Transport Dorchester, four chaplains of four faiths together willingly sacrificed their lives so that four others might live. In the three centuries that separate the pilgrims of the Mayflower from the chaplains of the Dorchester, America's freedom, her courage, her strength, and her progress have had their foundation in faith. Today, as then, there is need for positive acts of renewed recognition that faith is our surest strength, our greatest resource. This back to God movement is such a positive act. As we take part in it, I hope that we shall prize this thought. Whatever our individual church, whatever our personal creed, our common faith and God is a common bond among us. In our fundamental faith, we are all one. Together we thank the power that has made and preserved us as a nation. By the millions we speak prayers, we sing hymns, and no matter what their words may be, their spirit is the same. And God is our trust. President's remarks were broadcast from the White House at 2 30 p.m. as part of the American Legion program originating in New York City. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, February 7th, 1954. Man. Wonder how many high school students have ever heard that. Why isn't it read in high schools? Why don't we read it every February the 7th? Why isn't it taught? Because that history's not popular today. It's not popular to acknowledge that the God of the Bible, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son, is responsible for every bit of freedom and liberty that we have in our nation. We can't have liberty as an Islamic nation or Buddhist nation, Hindu nation, atheist secular nation, Jewish nation. We can only have liberty as a Christian nation. As a Christian republic. Let me see if I can get the date. Yeah, I don't see it right here in front of me. I think it was about a month ago. And it's been on video. And it was in Vividor, I think. Vividor, maybe. Friday, March 6th, there it was, 2026, uh, at the Vilvordy train station in Belgium. And if you watch this video, folks, there's a young girl being harassed by a group of, if they're not migrants, then they're they're migrants. Uh they're first century, maybe. They're not Belgians. Uh, and when you look at the countries of origin, they're almost assuredly Muslim. And this young Belgium boy comes in and tries to defend the scroll, and these, I don't know, four or five, this gang turns on him, um, starts to beat him up. One of them picks him up and body slams him. And in the video, you see him just kind of laying there twitching on the ground. It sounds like he's made a full recovery, but it's starting to get some traction over there. Folks, there's no peace with Islam or with followers of the left. And yeah, I'm talking about your friends and family and neighbors and co-workers that follow those two ideologies. At some point, there's gonna be a conflict, and you're gonna have to choose whether to follow the principles of Christ, which are the foundation, the only foundation for liberty, or to submit to leftism and Islam. And those people that you know that that you might think are decent people, they're gonna choose to go along with Islam and leftism. And whatever that means for you, is whatever that's gonna mean. I wouldn't recommend watching that video, especially if you're squeamish. It's not a good video. Uh, but much like with abortion, maybe we need to watch some of those videos like 9-11. We ought to watch that every year to remember what Muslims, not extremists, not far fringe terrorists, just mainstream Muslims, did to our nation. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us the stay our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages, your nation, God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.