A Nation Loses Wisdom Without Scripture

Peace sounds simple until you try to keep it. We start with Proverbs 17:1 and a hard contrast: a dry crust with peace versus a house full of feasting and conflict. From there, we don’t stay abstract. We look at real violence and what it reveals about the world we’re living in, then we ask what kind of homes and communities we’re building when accountability disappears and bitterness becomes normal.

I read through Ephesians 5:22–33 and talk plainly about Christian marriage roles, the weight of vows, and why no-fault divorce changes the incentives inside a family. When people can walk away with little cost, the pressure to repent, grow up, and love sacrificially gets replaced with the habit of “checking out.” Whether you’re married, single, or raising kids, the question is the same: what habits actually produce peace over time?

We also turn to Acts 7 and Stephen’s martyrdom, using his courage to think about persecution, conviction, and what it means to “stand in the gap” for the weak. Along the way, we contrast forgotten heroes like a Medal of Honor recipient with our obsession over celebrities, then connect it to American history and the argument that the Holy Scriptures shape virtue, liberty, security, and even wisdom.

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Transcript

Violence, Conflict, And A Proverb

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Proverbs 171 Better a dry crust eat in peace than a house filled with feasting and conflict 1997 Brooklyn Bridge shooting. March first of ninety seven. Ali Abu Kamal, 69-year-old Palestinian teacher Muslim immigrant from the West Bank Gaza area, legally entered the U.S. on a tourist visa but overstayed. Opened fire with a pistol on a group of tourists on the observation deck of the Brooklyn Bridge, killed one, wounded six others, shouting anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, and then killed himself.

Welcome, Gratitude, And Opening Prayer

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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 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 that continue to share this podcast or the America's Christian Heritage Podcast, thank you very much. Very grateful for that. We'll put out another one of those on Thursday. And for those of y'all that continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you very, 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, your mercy, your grace, and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son, Jesus Christ. Guide our steps. Light our path, Father. Help us to see where you want us to go. Give us the courage to act on it, the wisdom to see it. Be with those listening to the podcast. Bless their marriages and their families. Give them a strong faith. Help us to overcome our doubts, Father. Forgive us our unbelief. We do believe. Help our nation here in America to turn back to you. Be with those around the world wherever they're listening. Help their nations to turn to you as well. To remember that all of our blessings, as individuals and as a nation, come from you, Father, not from our own greatness or skill. Help us to turn away from idols. To care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. Help us to care for our veterans and their widows and orphans. Those who are willing to go out and sacrifice so much for us.

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Help us to be willing and able to stand for your Son Jesus Christ. To stand for our nation founded on his teachings, on your word. Help us to truly repent of our sins.

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Help us to support and encourage them. Homeschool, private school, charter, public school. And guide my words here, Father, please. Your son's name we pray. Amen.

Ephesians 5 And Marriage Roles

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Marriage verses for today.

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Ephesians 5 22 through 33. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

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For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body just as Christ does the church. For we are members of his body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery. But I'm talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you must also love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

No-Fault Divorce And Accountability

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I've been talking to a few people about this last week or so, but folks, one of the most destructive things that we've done for marriage inside the United States is no fault divorce for a bunch of reasons. But basically, that just all boils down to lack of accountability. If you can just check out of your marriage whenever you want to, if there's no real accountability, why do you have any reason to fulfill your roles and responsibilities as a husband or a wife? And you can make the argument that it's one-sided in the favor of women today from the state's point of view. I think that's pretty clear when you look at the data that most divorces are overwhelmingly slanted toward the wife, but it's true in either case. If there's no consequences for not fulfilling your roles and responsibilities, if the husband has no real authority, or if there's no consequences for the husband abandoning his position, then what what reason do you have? There's there's no consequences for not fulfilling your roles and responsibilities, for not being submissive as a wife, for not caring for your wife as your own body as a husband.

Stephen’s Martyrdom And Coming Persecution

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Acts seven, fifty-one through eight thirteen. Stephen, continue, you stubborn people, you are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That's what your ancestors did, and so do you. Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute. They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the righteous one, the Messiah, whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God's law, even though you received it from the hands of angels. The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand, and he told them, Look, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He fell to his knees, shouting, Lord, don't charge them with this sin, and with that he died. Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem, and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. Some devout men came and buried Stephen with great mourning. But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison. But the believers who were scattered, I I can't not, folks, there's there's a real good shot in the United States of America that persecution is coming for Christians based on the path that we continue to trek down against Islam and the left, Marxism, communism.

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And this is just my opinion, just my thought, folks.

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I have always been one that that it was better to suffer blood, sweat, and tears in practice before the game, right? Rather get the pain during practice, during training, than get to the game and find that you hadn't practiced enough, hadn't pushed hard enough, hadn't trained hard enough, and then the pain came.

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If we have a fight coming, better to fight now to defend Christians, to defend women and children, to defend the widow and the orphan. We might win.

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But especially if we lose, folks, uh better to be with the ones who who lose, who go down swinging, who go down trying to defend those who are weak. I think you kind of see that in Stephen here. When he was being dragged out, he had to, at least in that moment, he had to know what was coming. Or have a pretty good idea that that this was the end of the road. And yet he still went down swinging.

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He still spoke the truth, he still tried to stand in the gap. You can do that theologically, you can do that physically.

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Stand in the gap. Defend those who can't defend. Try to protect this liberty, this nation, this freedom that we have because of God and Jesus Christ. Feel like I have a lot more I could say about that, but we're going to move on.

Gospel Spreads, Psalm 129 Hope

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Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison. But the believers who were scattered preached the good news about Jesus wherever they went. Philip, for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims, and many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed, so there was great joy in that city. A man named Simon had been a sorcerer there for many years, amazing the people of Samaria and claiming to be someone great. Everyone from the least to the greatest often spoke of him as the great one, the power of God. They listened closely to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic. But now the people believed Philip's message of good news concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ. As a result, many men and women were baptized. Then Simon himself believed and was baptized. He began following Philip wherever he went, and he was amazed by the signs and great miracles Philip performed. Psalm 129, one through eight. From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me, let all Israel repeat this. From my earliest youth my enemies have persecuted me, but they have never defeated me. My back is covered with cuts as if a farmer had ploughed long furrows, but the Lord is good, he has cut me free from the ropes of the ungodly. May all who hate Jerusalem be turned back in shameful defeat. May they be as useless as grass on a rooftop turning yellow when only half grown, ignored by the harvester, despised by the binder, and may those who pass by refuse to give them this blessing. The Lord bless you, we bless you in the Lord's name. Proverbs seventeen one better is a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting and conflict. Amen and amen, folks. So

Books, Reviews, And Listener Support

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much better to have a house full of peace and love than all the money and all the feasting in the world. It's no fun at all to have constant conflict in the house. If you are looking for a middle-grade fantasy series, I would ask that you check out the countryside series. There's two books there, kind of like Narnia the Hobbit, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Hardback, Paperback ebook. And if you enjoy them, if you'd leave a review somewhere, I would appreciate that greatly. Same thing with the podcast, either one of them, uh the American Soul Podcast or America's Christian Heritage. If you feel like they're worthwhile at all, if you'd leave a review somewhere online, those help a great deal and tell others about it. And if you have five or ten dollars a month you can spare, there's a link in the show notes where you can set up that donation, and that helps both the podcasts and the writing. So thank you very much. Very grateful for y'all's support.

Hyde Park Assault And Cultural Warnings

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November 2024, Hyde Park, Central London. Abdulia, 42-year-old Egyptian national, entered the UK illegally in April 2023, claimed asylum, living in a taxpayer-funded asylum accommodation, had prior convictions in Egypt, including links to a bomb-making cell. Approached a woman walking alone, raped her in a secluded spot in the park.

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Never changes, folks.

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It's never gonna change. You're not gonna be able to live. Your wives and daughters, granddaughters, and grandsons, even are not gonna be able to live at peace with followers of leftism, Marxism, communism, socialism, Nazism, fascism, that whole bucket in Islam.

Medal Of Honor Versus Celebrity Worship

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Medal of Honor for today, Carlton N. Camp, private U.S. Civil War Bravo Company, 18th New Hampshire Infantry, U.S. Army, April 2nd, 1865, Petersburg, Virginia. Brought off from the picket line under heavy fire, a comrade who had been shot through both legs. Accredited to Hanover, Grafton County, New Hampshire, not awarded posthumously, presented December 21st, 1909. Born January 5th, 1845, Hanover, Grafton County, New Hampshire, died September 1st, 1926, buried Etna Cemetery 94, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Carlton in Camp. Add that to the list of names that are more important than sports figures. Well, I have been a tennis person for a long time, folks. And I if you know anything about tennis, Wimbledon has been going on, and they're at the very, very beginning, I think. I don't watch it a whole lot anymore. Never really did, but that's not the point. There was a player that came back. I'm not even going to mention their name, but they've been out of the game for a while, and there was all this big to-do about this player. And they were an American. How are they going to do? Are they going to do well? They've been gone for so long. There was so much interest. I wonder how many of us that are interested in that person, for example, even knew the name of Carlton N Camp or any of these other Medal of Honor readers. But we know the names of the actors and actresses. We know the song lyrics. We know the TV line, movie lines, we know the statistics of the sports players. I'm guilty of it too, folks.

Scripture, National Decline, And Closing Prayer

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President Martin Van Buren placed his hand on Proverbs 317, 1837, presidential oath of office. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. William Henry Seward, Secretary of State under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, negotiated the purchase of Alaska called Steward's Folly, I believe, right? Ended up not being a folly at all. I do not believe human society, including not merely a few persons in any state, but whole masses of men, have ever attained or ever can attain a high state of intelligence, virtue, security, liberty, or happiness without the Holy Scriptures. Even the whole hope of human progress is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible. The more the Bible influences us, folks, the more we have of virtue, security, liberty, happiness, intelligence. If you notice, the Supreme Court last week, I believe, put out a ruling on birthright citizenship, which was a complete disgrace to begin with. But the really interesting thing is some of the verbiage by one of our Supreme Court justices, and it in it she was using memes, the vocabulary, the verbiage of one-liners off of social media. The farther we've gotten away from the Bible, folks, it not only reduces liberty and virtue and security and peace, it reduces intelligence. Or wisdom, perhaps, is the better word there. People still have intelligence, they just don't know how to use it. We waste it. 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 this day 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 and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all, your families, your marriages, your nation. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.