Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome. The intersection of faith and culture is The WallBuilders Show, where we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution co-chair with David Barton and Tim Barton. And we're going to key in on Tim Barton's presentation about the American Revolution that he gave just a week or two ago at the Pro-family Legislators conference. We got the first part of it yesterday. Going to get the second part today. Let's jump right in. 

Tim Barton [00:00:30] Why is our government larger now than it's ever been in the history of our nation? Well, we're more secular now. And either there's a really big God or there's a really big government. You don't have both because either, my God shows apply all my needs or I look to the government to supply my needs. I mean, this is a big deal, right? But but this is why the more secular we become, the bigger government grows. And a secular government will never be a limited government. They're going to try to supply and provide and do everything, and they're not going to do it well. Well, let me go back to the declaration, because they didn't just lay out these three thoughts in that second paragraph in the concluding thoughts. They also said something quite significant. They said in their support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of nine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honors. They said we are giving everything we have for the cause of liberty. And historians have documented they paid an incredible price for it. In fact, one historian back in the mid 1900s when he wrote about this, here's what he acknowledged about it. He said nine signers died of wounds or hardships during the Revolutionary War. Five were captured or imprisoned, in some cases with brutal treatment. The wives, sons and daughters of others were killed, jailed, mistreated, persecuted or left penniless. One was driven from his wife's death bed and lost all his children. The house of 12 signers were burned to the ground. 17 lost everything they owned. Every signer was prescribed as a traitor. Everyone was hunted. Most were driven into flight. Most were at one time or another, barred from their families or homes. Most were offered immunity. Freedom rewards, their property or the lives and release of loved ones to break their pledged word or to take the king's protection. Their fortunes were forfeited, but their honor was not. No signer defected or changed their stand throughout the darkest hours. Their honor, like the nation, remained intact. None of them knew how it was going to turn out, and many of them died before they saw how it turned out. Many of them made it to the end and they lost everything in the process. But they committed knowing that whatever price I pay, if we get the victory, it was worth the price, right? This was their thinking. And just to be clear, as you watch the progression of what happens, it's it's quite fascinating to see the trajectory and the rollercoaster of these battles because when things start, when the British come and they say, we're coming to disarm the American people, we're coming to take the guns and the powder and the munitions, and that's why they're going to Lexington, Concord. This is literally the order, the British to go seize all of the military stores, the powder, also the wives of John Hancock and Sam Adams. But this is what the British were going for. And so if you look at Lexington, the Americans received the worse end of the deal at the end of the day, but they protected their guns, their gunpowder, their munitions. So it's kind of a win. They go to Concord at Concord. The Americans repelled the British. So starting off, it is a very trying time for the Americans because they're thrust into a war they didn't want. They're having to defend things that they didn't think they should have to defend. But early on, they're able to do it Well, as this happens, you also the siege of Boston, which the British was ordering, bombing Boston Harbor and the British then go and they take over and then the Americans start resisting. And it takes nearly a year. But they're able to actually win the siege of Boston. And then from there, you have guys like Ethan Allen at the Battle of Fort Ticonderoga or the captain for Ticonderoga, where Ethan Allen goes in and then leads these Green Mountain boys and they get the victory like, okay, I like this. This looks pretty good for us. Well, yes, At the very beginning, when there were barely a fraction of the British soldiers that were going to be in America, we kind of held our own for a little bit now. It wasn't pretty. We had casualties and losses, but we held our own. And then it's a matter of weeks after the shot. Around the world, you have the battle of Bunker Hill. And and even though the Americans inflicted higher levels of casualty, we were driven from the field. There was a high loss for us. But then we win at the Battle of Great Bridge, but then we lose. At the Battle of Quebec, we win at the Battle of Moors Creek Bridge, but also we won at Sullivans Island. But then we lose the battle of Long Island, and then we lose the Battle of Valkyrie Island, and then we lose the battle of white points, and then we lose the battle of Washington. It's not looking good, right? This is where Washington is. Like, if we don't have a victory, we're not going to be able to continue anymore. So at the strategic point. Right. And this is where you have the battle of Trenton. So. Okay. Yeah, we had a victory. Well, then the following year, early on, they do have the victory at the Battle of Princeton. So it's a win. But then they have the defeat at Brandywine. That's not looking good. Then they have the victory at Saratoga. And this was also a huge victory on an international stage because this was the first time we didn't just kind of kind of win. No decisively. We won. We captured thousands. And this was the first time that people like France looking from afar went, if they can do that, they might have a chance. This was part of the turning point in the eyes of the world that made them think we might want to back the Americans in this whole ordeal, but that that was only one of the battles, because from there you have the massacre, the Paoli massacre. And this is where the British little frustrated, some of them that are over here. They defeated the Americans. American surrendered and they said no quarter for those who surrender and they killed everybody that surrendered. I mean, this was really bad. Well, then you have the battle of Germantown that we lose. And this is the build up going into the Winter Valley Forge. So we've had a couple of good moments. We've had a lot of bad moments. And then we have Valley Forge and it's brutal, then it's miserable. And if you were a soldier there in that moment, you're going, Why are we here? Genuinely. Why? Because the British are held up in a town where? Out in the field we don't even have shelters to keep all of us where there are a few shelters, but not enough for all of us. We don't have fuel. They're out of food because the Continental Congress keeps promising they're going to send things and they don't make it in time. Why are we here? Right? What what's also interesting is while they're there, George Washington is a guy who is out walking with them every day, encouraging them. Guys, remember the cause. Remember why we're here, keeping the vision in front of them. It's also where they start training, recognizing we're going to have to be more disciplined if we're going to actually be able to defeat the British. So they train like crazy. The next major battle after Valley Forge is the Battle of Monmouth. And this one, the Americans do win. And this was the best the Americans had ever looked up to that point on the battlefield. We didn't just win. We looked like a legitimate military getting a win. And people were like, okay, like me. Maybe we have a chance in this. We go from that win. One of the next major battles is the battle of Rhode Island, which we lose. But we kept fighting. We win the Battle of Stony Point, but then we lose the siege of Savannah. Then we lose the siege of Charleston. Now, again, I'm just giving you a high level. These are some of the major battles we're going through. Well, then we win the Battle of Springfield. This painting is actually great. From the Battle of Springfield. The guy there is the Reverend James Caldwell. He was known as a fighting person In the midst of this battle, the Americans using their muskets, they ran out of wadding. And the wadding is what helps pack down the ball, the powder, so you're able to fire and fight back. And when they ran out of wadding, they were the edge of a town. He ran a local church. He inside and grabbed a stack full of hymn books. They were Isaac, what's him books? He came out and he held up one of the hymn books and he said, Let's give them what's boys put Watson to honor. And he hands them out. They use these watch pages, tear them up, make, and they continue to fight. Actually, he was known as one of these significant leaders in the forces of New Jersey. And he was one of many pastors that were very influential at this time. He was so influential. The British actually put a hit out on him. And they did this for many people throughout the course of the revolution. They put a hit out on him. There is a British squad like sniper group that's going up. They go and surround his house. He's not home, but his wife and kids are. His wife sitting down at dinner with the kids. They opened fire. They actually killed his wife, who was holding an infant. There's a three year old toddler there as well. The wife is killed. They then set fire to the house. The neighbors come running over. They rescue the kids. They killed his wife, though, in the midst of this, he continues on. He actually was offered a a leadership position in the military. He declined. He said, I just want to serve. We want a normal man. Although he was known as kind of one of the great and inspirations of the New Jersey forces, well, he wanted to be a normal soldier, but then he would lead divine service every Sunday. And on occasion when he was able to back home, he got up in his pulpit. And there's one story that he got his pulpit. And when he opened up his Bible, he then drew a pistol and set it on one side and he drew a pistol and set it on the other side. And he looked at the congregation and said, The British will not stop me from preaching, but they are welcome to try. As a different kind of pastor, right? That's pretty awesome. He does end up being assassinated. He he lost not just his wife. He lost his life. Well, other founding fathers adopted all of their kids. I mean, it's it's it it's a very bittersweet story in the midst of this. But he was one of the leaders at the Battle of Springfield. That's a very famous painting from it. We win that one, but then we lose the battle of Camden. But then we do win the Battle of Kings Mountain. We lose the battle of New Jersey, but then we win the Battle of carpenters. We lose the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, but then we win the Battle of Chesapeake. And then that sets up ultimately the victory that we win, the Battle of Yorktown. And this is the end of the American Revolution. So really good. We made it. We win this thing as the Americans are celebrating and obviously incredible victory and they look back on the journey and what happened. One of the gentlemen, Major General Nathaniel Greene, he wrote his wife kind of in the midst of this right before this this this last major victory. But he was seeing all that happened and he wrote his wife. And here's part of what he wrote in the letter. He said, The liberties of America are the object of divine protection. What was so well-recognized by the people that were there was in the midst of the ups and downs, in the midst of the winds and even the losses. They recognized God's hand on what had happened and how it was happening that God was keeping them alive. And if you look, I just was high level. But if you look at the American Revolution, this is quite fascinating because they fought for more than seven years and there was more than 250 battles of the American Revolution. Arguably, they lost far more than they won. And yet. Somehow they made it. Now, also, keep in mind, as they're fighting this, there were times they weren't even fighting the British. They were fighting other colonists because it was patriots against loyalists. There were many battles that it was just patriots against loyalists. These are Americans like, I'm not even fighting the people. I'm trying to be fighting right now. Right. I want to live in peace with you. It's interesting. They had all kinds of issues and battles from all different fronts, and it went longer than they wanted. It cost them more than they had hoped. But but they knew to get this win, it's going to be a big deal. 

Rick Green [00:12:05] Alright got to take a break. We'll be right back. You've been listening to Tim Barton speaking at the Pro-family Legislators Conference on the American Revolution. Quick break. We'll return here on The WallBuilders Show.  

Rick Green [00:13:21] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Let's jump in for the conclusion of Tim Barton's presentation on the American Revolution that he gave at the Pro-family Legislators conference just a few weeks ago. 

Tim Barton [00:13:30] Here's where I want to start asking some questions. Because if you look at the most unlikely upset, arguably like military history, this is one of the top unlikely upsets that a bunch of untrained farmers are going to defeat the most powerful military in the world, which Great Britain was at that time. How in the world did this happen? And I want to draw eight observations from this. And this is where I think that this can be very applicable force, maybe different ones for different people depending on your state and your issues and what you're dealing with. I just want to draw some conclusions for us because if you look big picture, how did all this start? Well, first of all, it was a grassroots movement. As this was happening, the American people were going this crazy. Well, the king is taking all these rights and everybody was frustrated now. They didn't know no how or what or why. They just knew they were frustrated. There was a swell on the American people rights. We're tired of this. We don't like this. We don't want this. And what they did was leaders, communicators and problem solvers were chosen. Now, it's interesting. If you look at the founding Fathers, it was a diverse group of individuals. They were all lawyers. They were they weren't all farmers. They weren't all doctors. They were a wide variety. But all of them were chosen based on the value that people thought they would add. And I'm saying this because for all of us, we have different gifts and skills and abilities. But leaders were chosen now. Again, worth noting, the people choosing them didn't even necessarily know what they could do or should do. They just know I got a problem and I need you to solve it. It's kind of a big deal because they didn't know what the founding fathers were going to do. They just knew, you know what, I kind of trust you. And if you can go help solve this, we'd really appreciate it. The founding fathers, when they get together, one of the first things they do is they defined their beliefs and values. Now, this is early revolution, right? But they defined it. First paragraph. Declaration. They talked about the laws of nature. Nature's God. This fixed the moral compass of right and wrong. Second paragraph. We hold these truths to be self-evident, right? That all men are created equal there and above the curve. Like they go through. They are laying out their belief system. Why? Because no American had to wonder what we believed or why we believed it. I would argue for so many politicians. I don't even know what you stand for. Right. Like, what do you believe? It's something that I so appreciated about Mike Johnson as a congressman when he had his bullet point list of seven things every conservative ought to stand for, he said. This is what we are fighting for, not just being known by what we're against, though, here. Here's what I believe and why I believe it. They laid it out so that everybody could see and nobody had to wonder, what are your beliefs, what are your values? And not just their beliefs and values? They also identified and articulated the problems. Here's the grievances. Right. They've done this. And this. And this. And this. 27 grievances in the declaration they identified. Here's what I believe and why I believe it. Here's what's wrong and here's why it's wrong. If we don't know what's wrong, we're gonna have a hard time fixing it. But also, how do we convince other people to join the cause? If we can't identify what's broken? And it's not just identify it. They put it in writing and they pasted this everywhere for everybody to see it. And there were very few that disagree. Now, by the way, the reason that they debated in the second Congress, the reason we went from the original draft to the final draft and there were things changed. It's because not everybody agreed on this, but they found the common ground. And then even the end of the declaration, what did they do? They fully committed to the cause we talked about. Their lives are forged and sacred honors. They gave everything they had. And this is a big deal. When they sign their name on that document, there were only two options. We win. Or we die. Legitimately. Because they were now traitors against the king. Their name was on the paper identifying themselves. That's how committed they were to it. Because when the declaration initially presented the public on July 4th, 1776, the only two names that were on it was the President of Congress, Secretary of Congress. It was John Hancock and Charles Thompson. But but then other in fairness, I don't know who made the suggestion, and I have not been able to identify that. Yeah, but somebody was like, hey, maybe it could've been John Hancock. Like, why are you guys taking me out to dry? Why am I the only one the king knows about, right? I don't know. Maybe other founding fathers were like, Hey, I'm put my name on that list. But we know in August, they began signing and other founding fathers signed up. But this is how committed they were. They weren't committed to winning the next election. They were committed to the costs. Even if it costs me the next election, right? Go back and look at the price that was paid. Some of them lost their kids. The British killed them. The British came. And some of their wives died. Their houses were burned. Now, I'm not suggesting that happens. Political vironment. I'm just saying this is how committed they were to the cause. And we would not have had a victory. Had. We had people that were a double minded man, unstable in all their ways, right. Had they been half in and half out, this victory never would have happened. They were fully committed. But not just that. They form coalitions in alliances and at times with people who had very different positions. Who was our biggest ally in the revolution? The French. You mean the people that guillotine their political opponents, The people that rejected God and all Christianity? Those were our biggest allies? Yes. But what's significant is when they form coalitions in alliances, they never compromise their values. They said, we would love to have your help, but here's what we believe and here's what we're trying to do. And if you want to join us, we'd love to have you. They didn't exclude people that would help them accomplish what the goal and the mission was. We didn't have to agree and believe on everything. It's why RFK is part of the Trump administration. And Trump has already said publicly several times, you don't get to touch the oil. Right. The liquid gold. No, you don't get to touch that, right? They don't all agree. But if you can help us here again, this is a big deal because I know for many of us in caucuses and committees, we're trying to get people and there needs to be some strategy involved. But this is big picture. We have to understand if there's going to be a victory, we're going to have to have some alliances. We're going to have to have some coalitions to be able to pull this off. And in the midst of the fight, they also never forgot why they were fighting. Now, this is also a big deal. Because actually a lot of them did. Valley Forge is a great example. And Valley Forge. How do you keep thousands of people convinced to stay in miserable conditions when you're not assured of success? You're not sure there's a big deal because for a lot of people they will be going, Why are we doing this? It's incredibly well documented. George Washington. Every day. Walks through the camp went by, all the tents went by, all these little huts that had been built. And every day checking in and Hey, how you doing? How's it going? How you feeling? I hang in there. We're going to do this. They had a leader that kept the vision before the people so that when people were discouraged, when they were frustrated, they had a leader who said, remember why we're doing this? Remember the cause? Because if we pull this off, it's going to be worth everything we paid. The reason they never forgot is because they had a leader who kept reminding them. You will have colleagues. You will have constituents. They will need a leader to keep reminding them what we are doing and why we are doing this. Because there will be times it will not be easy. The course revolution. There were ups and downs and sometimes there were more downs in their ups. But but this is part of what they did. And then the last thought is they persevered until they succeeded. And this is also an important connection for us because. Throughout the entire revolution. They were never assured of success. Never. You can never be assured of success. But we are assured of defeat if we give up. The only thing we can be assured of is if we quit, we lose. But if we keep showing up and this is a big deal because I know some of you were in states and you're like, we're in the minor and like minor minority, we are uphill battles. I don't know. We can even do gay. The only thing you're assured of is if you quit, we lose. That's the only guarantee. But if you show up, if if we start doing and again, of course, of the revolution, there were times they lost. Incredible lengths of time. Incredible casualties. But they kept fighting and they kept working to form coalitions. They kept speaking vision to the people. They made sure this was written down and articulate and they could say, here's our values and beliefs and here's what we're against. They kept working. And this is where ultimately we look at the victory. It reminds me a lot of what the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians six nine, where he said, Let us not grow weary of doing good for a new season. We shall reap if we do not give up. This is the encouragement I want to give. We talked about this yesterday. My dad talked about it Thursday night. We have not won the war. Right. In fact, arguably, we could say, hey, miracle like we've won a battle. God did it for sure. God did a miracle. But I would say I heard somebody use this analogy. I thought, that's actually pretty good. All we've done so far on an actual stage is win the coin toss. The game is about to start, right? This is where we are. And no matter what state you are in, no matter where you might be in this journey phase of the revolution, the battle of what we're fighting for and how we're dealing with no matter where we are. We are at a place that it is time for us to embrace the reality of that calling. To know what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, to be the leader that our states are need to speak that vision before the people. I think these eight observations are things that if if they're not already being done well in the states, think through how can we do it? And there's more observations we could draw. But I want to give you some encouragement because in the revolution they weren't assured of victory and they kept showing up and they persevered until through the grace of God. And only because God moved so many times on their behalf, they got the victory. You will not get the victory of God didn't show up. So you can just take that burden off your shoulders. Victory is not dependent on you. But you've been called to be faithful. You've been called to show up. And if we continue to show up, we position ourselves for God can use us to do something significant. I want to start off with the encouraging this morning. God has put you here for a reason on purpose. Wherever we are in the midst of the war, if we continue fighting, God is on the move. We can position ourselves on God's side. And I think God's going to use you to make a major difference. 

Rick Green [00:25:12] All right, folks, that was Tim Barton you were listening to. He was speaking at the Pro-family Legislators conference. And I got to tell you, any time you go to this conference, it is so encouraging. I mean, the room is packed with state legislators from across the nation that are fighting for the things we believe in. They're restoring biblical values. They're bringing back the constitutional republic, restoring the proper jurisdictions of government. It's so exciting to see their excitement about what they're going to do in the legislative sessions in 2025. So it's just a great way to kind of wrap up 2024 and head into 2025. I would encourage you to do the same thing. So for the legislators and for us here at WallBuilders, we get together once a year at this time of the year to help those legislators get prepared for their legislative session in 2025. In the same way for you as listeners to The WallBuilders Show, for you as citizens. Now is the time to be preparing yourself for 2025. If you have not yet taken our biblical citizenship and modern America course, you need to take that class. It will get you prepared for 2025. So go sign up for free today at Patriot academy.com. As a constitution coach or a constitution host and you will get all of those constitution classes for free and you'll be able to host that class in your living room or church or school or wherever you want to do that with friends and family as you sharpen each other's countenance and you get a biblical perspective on the Constitution and on how to be a good citizen, and then you move into 2025 ready to take back ground for freedom. Do that today at Patriot academy.com. Thanks so much for listening to the WallBuilders Show.