Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's The Wobbler Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And this is that time of the year where we get to share with you some very special programing. It's normally, honestly, just for legislators. We do this pro-family legislators conference every year in Dallas and we bring in state reps and state senators from across the country. They get to hear some amazing speakers and panels. They get to exchange ideas and of course they get some really good time with David and Tim Barton and myself and others from the WallBuilders team and and several really good presentations. And so we've already shared with you a couple of those from David and myself. And by the way, I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach here with David. And Tim Barton. Forgot to say that. But today we're going to share Tim Barton's presentation about George Washington and his farewell address and and kind of where we are today compared to that standard of morality in the founding era. I think you're really going to enjoy this. It'll take today and tomorrow and you'll be able to get the whole thing at our Web site, WallBuilders.Show After Tomorrow. But be sure and share it with your friends and family. Be sure. And also visit our main website, wallbuilders.com where you can get some really good Christmas presents. And now is the time to be shopping. There's all kinds of cool swag in there with some great quotes from the founders and other fun stuff and then just some really good educational material. So be sure to check that out today while BlizzCon as you're planning your Christmas gifts. All right, let's jump right in. And by the way, I do still have a couple of spots left for the Patriot experience. I talked about it last week. You can go to Patriot academy.com, learn more about that. You got to be really quick on the draw and and ready to go because that's just a little over a week or a week and a day from today. And so you'll need to get online and get registered and make your plans to come down to Fredericksburg, Texas. But check that out. If you'd like to come enjoy that legislative training, speaking training, constitution training, handgun defense training, all of it in one. It starts December 10th at the Patriot Academy campus. So check that out. A Patriot academy.com. So three websites I've already given you today wobblers dot show for the radio program wobblers.com she go get those Christmas gifts for this year and then Patriot academy.com. If you'd be interested in coming to the Patriot experience December 10th. Let's jump in Here's Tim Barton at the pro-family legislators conference. 

Tim Barton [00:02:19] George Washington at the end of his presidency, delivers his farewell address. If you haven't read that recently, go back and read it. Now he's giving his advice on how he thinks America can succeed going forward at this point. There a falling out in his administration because the British and the French are at it again. And part of administration is team British. Part is team French. I mean, really, there are a lot of drama happening. And so he writes his farewell address. And it's so interesting the things that he highlights in it. He says things like avoid debt, avoid foreign entanglements. Focus on the issues we have in America. Don't let other nations figure out their own problems. I love principle more than you love party. So many good thoughts. But one of the things he says in it, of all the habits or all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity. Now again, and notice he's talking about how can you succeed going forward? How as a nation can we politically prosper? So of all of the things that we can do that would help us politically succeed, he says religion and morality are indispensable support. Now, let me first of all, draw your attention to the fact that in the entire farewell address, there's only one thing he said was indispensable. That's interesting. He didn't say avoiding that was indispensable, avoiding foreign entanglements. I mean, genuinely, this is significant. The words he wrote on purpose for reason that he's delivering this religion of morality. It's the only thing America cannot survive without. He continued in vain with that man attribute of patriotism. Who should labor to subvert these great pillars? So if you are against religion and morality, you don't love America because a patriot is someone who loves America. This is the way that was understood for generations. Now consider it again. If you are against religion or morality, you don't love America. I could point to some Supreme Court justices, to some politicians who apparently don't love America, according George Washington, because in 1962, when the US Supreme Court said that we shouldn't have prayer in schools or the following year, the Dole decision Abbott judgeship America let when they said we shouldn't have the Bible in schools, they were doing something. My dad mentioned this earlier that was without historic or legal precedents, and it was something that it used to be fundamentally known in America. This is American. When you are removing the moral foundation and on top of the fact if we're saying you can't have the Bible and prayer in schools, if there is no God, there are no God given rights. Right. And if there's no God given rights, then what's the purpose of government? We have confused so many things, but if you go back, the founding fathers could not have been much more clear about this than they were. Benjamin Russia was known as the father of public schools under the Constitution, and he is one of the most significant founding fathers. By the way, when he died in 1813, John Adams said that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush for the three most notable founding fathers. Today, most Americans can tell you almost nothing about Benjamin Rush if they even know who that is. But not only did he signed the declaration, ratified the Constitution. He served on three presidential administrations. He's the guy that started the Sunday school movement, America. He's the guy that started one of the very first abolition or maybe the first abolitionist in America. He started the Philadelphia Bible Society. He is noted as the most significant medical doctor in American history. He came of medical cures over 200 years ago. They're still unused today. He actually discovered all the way back then that chewing tobacco caused mouth cancer and smoking caused lung cancer and advised against it. I mean, it's remarkable what these people were doing back then. But he's the one that when George Washington becomes president, there is no Department of Education. Everything is done locally. And so even though there's a lot of independence and autonomy in the states, they said there are some things that that we should make sure our states uniformly teach. And this is when he wrote his essay, A Defense of the Use of the Bible in schools. And this is where he goes through. And you can find this online. It's not very hard to find. It is really worth going back and reading as he concludes the essay. This is how he concludes his essay and this is what he says in contemplating the political institutions of the United States. I lament that we waste so much time and money and punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them. We profess to be Republicans, not small our a Republican form of government right now political party. We profess to be Republicans and yet we neglect the only means of establishing a perpetuating are Republican forms of government. That is the universal education of our youth and the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible. What is the only way? To keep our republic working, he says. It's got to be teaching our kids what the Bible says. That's the only way this is going to work going forward. And by the way, he said, we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and we don't even try to prevent them, because if we would just teach all our kids the Bible, we would solve most of our common problems. What a novel idea. I like how much better might Chicago be if we were like, Hey, don't steal, don't kill? I mean, like a few basics would really help some people out. This is exactly what he's arguing. But then he gives the explanation even further. Well, why does this matter? He continues. For this divine book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws and all those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of Republicanism. I wrote about a quick break. 

Rick Green [00:07:42] We'll be right back. That's Tim Barton. You're listening to us. He's speaking at the Pro-family Legislators conference about George Washington and his farewell address. We'll be right back on The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:08:57] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Jumping right back in with Tim Barton over the Pro-family legislators conference. 

Tim Barton [00:09:04] The Bible is what gives the Republic the soul. When you remove the biblical foundation, you've removed the soul. It's not going to work anymore. This is what you see echoed over and over. When John Adams became the president after George Washington the following year, John Adams wrote a letter to the militia of Massachusetts. And the whole letter is like four paragraphs. It's not long and it's definitely worth going and reading some of the more famous lines from that letter you might recognize. He said, We have no government armed with power, capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality, religion. There is no government that can subsist if you don't have the moral and religious constraints. And this is where the most famous line you'll probably know, he said. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. Our government. Our Constitution only works with religious, moral people, and this should be the most obvious thought for us. Why would he say you have to have a religious moral people? Because our government, the idea, the premise behind it, is giving freedom to the people. We the people are in charge. But if you give freedom to immoral people. That's not going to go very well. We've seen a lot more of this. Right. When you're going to say, well, in our state, we're not going to prosecute unless it was more than $1,000 that were stolen. I mean, like we're getting crazy now. If you remove a religious and moral foundation, freedom is not going to work very well. And and this is what the founding fathers again, echo over and over and over. And in I'm repeating this because in the midst of all of our legislative ideas and solutions that we're praying that God gives you some great ideas, an inspiration, encouragement, motivation to go back and make a difference. I just want to point out in the midst of all the great ideas that we should be doing, the founding Fathers could not have been more clear in their writings. I'm going to give you several more examples, but only a very few of how many there actually are. Sam Adams Following this same idea, Sam Adams says while the people are virtuous, they cannot be subdued. Nothing can defeat America if we're virtuous contrast. But when once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader. If we lose our moral compass, we'll just start giving our liberties away to people externally or internally. The Founding Fathers knew freedom is only going to work when we have a religious moral foundation. And again, part of why this matters. You're going to have people say, well, you can't have religion in here. It's not going to work without religion. But you are definitely confusing the reality of the situation. And and not to make this more complicated. But it really is worth asking some some basic questions. How are we supposed to determine right and wrong? Sincerely? What moral standard are we going to use? And if you've never done a little study, one of the greatest ways to compare religions measure the heroes of religions. Okay. Who's the hero of Islam? Muhammad. Who? Who's the hero of Christians? Jesus. We can't pretend like all moral codes or ethics are the same. They're not. When you have a guy who supported killing your enemies, who supported enslaving your enemies, who supported multiple wives, even child brides. Let's not pretend like all moral codes in campuses are the same. But you have to be governed by some kind of morals and who are going to be. And there's only three options. It's either going to be subjective, collective, or objective. Subjective is up to the individual. Well, that's not going to work when you have two people and one person thinks rape is right and one person thinks rape is wrong. Who gets to be right? Like this is not going to be a good decision. The only other options are collective or objective. Collective means we just vote on it. Okay. And there's a lot of people out who would argue this. Well, let's just vote on it. Can I remind you that for almost the entirety of human existence, do you know what was approved in the entire world from like the beginning up until, like, 150 years ago? Slavery. Collectively, everybody thought that's a good idea in the entire world. Is it possible for the collective to be wrong on an issue? Morally speaking, absolutely not even question about it. What's the other options? Its objective? Well, objective is having a standard that's beyond us that we can point to. So it's not change on the whims of the angels. And there is more than one objective standard. Right, because the Jews were the point of the Torah. The Christians point to the Bible, the Muslims point to the Koran. There's more than one objective standard. So this is only a question of what objective standard has the highest level of morals. And this is where we would argue there's never been a better moral teacher than Jesus. Right. And I'm saying this because very practically speaking, we complicate things or pretend like things don't matter or exist when they do, because every every single law that passes is coming from someone's moral code. Every single wall. We think something is right or wrong. And that's why we passed a law. Well, what is shaping our moral code? Making us think something is right or wrong? So. So the idea when someone says, well, you can't have religion in government or politics, well, how are laws made based on someone's moral view? So you're saying that we don't want morals impacted by a religious objective standard of treat other people the way you want to be treated, Right. Love your neighbor as yourself. We can't have that invade our space. It's one of the most intellectually dishonest and inconsistent statements ever. Everybody's morals are shaped by their worldview. Right. And this is where the founding fathers universally acknowledged that the best moral code we could follow is the moral code from the Bible. And to give you even more example of this. As you look back at the revolution, as a revolution unfolds and we have spent so much time over the many decades going into a lot of the stories. And so, for example, John Adams in 1813, he wrote Thomas Jefferson a letter at this point. They'd already had a falling out during George Washington's presidency. And then when they're running against each other, they actually when John Adams loses his reelection bid for president, he and Jefferson don't speak again for years. Benjamin Rush is the guy that actually helped restore their relationship. They start talking in 1813. They've both been presidents. They're done. They're writing letters and talking again. And John Adams writes this letter in June 28th, 1813, and he says to Jefferson, Remember all those years ago when we first got together and he's thinking about 1774. So this is like 40 years ago when the founding fathers first met. He says, remember, we first got together and we argued and we disagreed about so much. And he goes, it's a very long letter. He goes through and gives all these details about where they argued and disagreed. And he then draws a conclusion and says, but where we were able to find common ground. This is where he says they were able to find common ground. He says the general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. Where did we find common ground? They found common ground and a moral ethic that bound them together. And by the way, this is something that if we go back historically, it's so easy to show the influence of the Bible of Christianity, the founding fathers. Obviously, I've gone through several quotes, But let me even point you to two previous historians, because you have people like Alice Baldwin in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He was a professor at Duke University, actually started the women's program at Duke University. Incredibly noted historian, 1928, she wrote a book called The New England Clergy in the American Revolution. And in her book, she was highlighting the influence of pastors in early America. But what's interesting in this book is that she actually comes to the conclusion she says, there was not a single right articulated in the declaration that had not first been preached from American pulpits prior to 1763. What she actually points out is when the founding fathers came together and they're coming up with all their ideas, they didn't have a single unique idea. Instead, they echoed and repeated what? And she's already at this point. This is the end of her book. So she's already gone through and heard all the pastors and the sermons they delivered and what the sermons were and what they were arguing in articulating. And so she's drawn this conclusion of her book. She says they were just repeating what they had heard from their pastors for the previous decades. Again, the reason it matters is because if we don't understand the foundation upon which America was built, the idea that we're going to make America great again, you can only make a great again if you know what made her great in the first place. And what made her great in the first place wasn't just good tax policy. It wasn't just good immigration policy, although I support both of those. It was the foundation upon which we built. 

Rick Green [00:18:10] Everybody, one more break today. Stay with me. We'll be right back. Just a very quick break. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Tim Barton [00:19:10] For more information on God's hand in American history, contact WallBuilders at one 808 Rebuild. 

Rick Green [00:19:22] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. But a show we're going to jump back in with Tim Barton. He's speaking at the Pro-family Legislators conference on George Washington's farewell address. 

Tim Barton [00:19:30] Normally at this point, I would go through a lot of quotes from Founding Fathers. I would maybe even go through some early documents. I want to go a different direction because I'm going to presume that many of you have heard us give some of those thoughts and talks before. But I want to point out that the influence of Christianity was so significant that even if you look inside of the military, so, for example, in 1776, George Washington gives general orders and in this general order and he gives money to the revolution. I'm going to show you several of them. But the in their mind, the value of Christianity in the Bible was so significant that they even put requirements on the military throughout the revolution based on the constraints that they learned from Christianity, the Bible. So here's one for 7076. The colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure chaplains according accordingly persons of good character and exemplary lives. To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay a suitable respect and it's in carefully upon religious services. Now, let me just pause for a second. He says, Everybody, these chaplains, everybody should go to church. When your first general order. For the military. Is is highlighting that you need a chaplain so you have a spiritual guide and you need to go to church every Sunday. That says something quite significant about what they value in the midst of a war that you're going on, Right? He continued. This is why it mattered. The blessings and protection of heaven are all times necessary, but especially in times of public distress, endanger the general hopes and trust that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country. This is why it matters. We have a chapel and go to church because we need God's help and especially a time of war. So make sure you're a good Christian soldier. That's it. You know, 70, 76. Well, let me go through a couple more. When you do 1778, he gives a general order. And in this one, he acknowledges the distinguished character of Patriot. It should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian. You're in the middle of a war and you just said, What's more important than being a patriot? Being a Christian? What it should be. Everybody be a patriot right now. Stand up, fight, defend this country. Fight for what's right. Like that. That makes the most sense. He said, No, no. The most important thing is that you're a Christian. That's even higher than being a patriot, he continued. The signal is just a providential goodness, which we have now, or which we have experienced and which have now almost crowned our labors with complete success. Demand from us in a peculiar manner the warmest returns of gratitude and piety to the supreme. Author of Good. I Showed you yesterday. Washington, at this point says with almost complete success. You have not had almost complete success. That's one of the most dishonest, ambitious things you could have said. Except he's recognizing that God has been with us the whole time. That's why he's drawing a complete success. And by the way, they have at this point just come off a victory. And actually a couple of victories, relatively speaking. So he's going look what God has done. We need to acknowledge and honor God. And this is right. He's just said the highest thing you can be is a Christian. Well, then they get into Valley Forge and at Valley Forge he gives another general order. And this is the June order. He gives it Valley Forge out to set the context of this when you know there are Valley Forge. This is one of the worst moments they're having to live through. And it sets the context for now the guidance he's going to give them. And it's just it's funny in my mind. You'll see why when we get there, he says. Purity of morals being the only sure foundation of public happiness in any country and highly conducive to order and subordination and success in the army. So saying if we're going to succeed, we're going to have to have purity of morals. This is where he goes. The wanton practice of swearing has risen to a most disgusting height over there in the middle of this war. And people are like, This is this bleep in filth and foul. I can't write. And he's like, I'm shocked. I cannot believe in the military that someone's using profanity. That's why it's funny to me because I'm like, I don't know if the military knows other words, right? Like, I, I have a lot of friends in the military and I'm pretty sure, like, if if they know other words that these are for sure their favorites. Right. He says the practice of swearing has risen to a most discussing height. A regard to decency should conspire with a sense of morality to banish a vice productive of neither advantage or pleasure. You just banned cursing in the military? What's. But why did you do this? He says because. That brings our moral condition down and we have to be moral, which in this he actually links to God's blessing because God doesn't bless immorality. So if we're going to be moral, if we're going to receive God's blessing, we have to be moral and therefore we can't do immoral things like profanity. Again, given what I know of the military, that's kind of a funny thought today. This is George Washington in the midst of war. That's how important morality was, right? This this Christian faith, Bible foundation, morality matter. When we needed the revolution. At this point, the fighting is largely over. The peace treaty of Paris has not yet been signed. But he gives another general order. And this one he says, injustice to the zeal, inability of chaplains as well as to his own feelings, meaning his Washington. Washington's the commander in chief thinks it a duty to declare the regularity and decorum with which divine service is now performed. So so encouraging. Right? Make sure you're going to the church and chapel services. And then he goes on and giving detail. I've abbreviate it. So we're going to pick up at the end of the concluding of that paragraph of why he's saying why he says it will reflect great credit on the Army in general, tend to improve the morals and at the same time to increase the happiness of the soldiery and must afford the most pure and rational entertainment for every serious and well disposed mind. He's giving the benefits of going to church after he says make sure everybody is going to church. This is so interesting. That is the beginning. The middle, the end of the revolution, Washington says. Right. Being a Christian is the most important thing. 

Rick Green [00:25:55] My friends, we are out of time for today. We'll pick up with him tomorrow. So this would be a two part program for his presentation and you'll have both of those available to you at WallBuilders Dot show. So don't forget the three websites I gave you today. WallBuilders Dot Show for the radio programing of the last few weeks, as well as this entire presentation with Tim Barton and then WallBuilders Dot coms and get that Christmas shopping done quick And it's a twofer, right? You get you knock out your Christmas shopping and you bless your family with some good education on the foundation of the country. And the swag helps educate people even when you're just walking down the street. Anyway, check all that out. It while Vodacom and then also at Patriot academy.com. You can learn more about the Patriot experience your chance to come to the Patriot Academy campus and experience everything the Patriot Academy offers and equipping you to be a good citizen. All right, folks, we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks so much for listening to The WallBuilders Show.