America At 250 Years

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Welcome to the intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Boiler Show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective, and a topic we've talked about quite a bit, but is going to continue to be a big topic the rest of the year, since it's the 250th birthday of the nation, is where we came from as a nation. What was it that created America as the greatest nation in the history of mankind? What's the formula and what are those secret ingredients? Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Later in the program, Eric Metaxis will join us talking about his new book, Revolution. A topic uh very familiar to us here at Wall Builders, but love Eric Metaxis's books and just the perspective he takes on them. And super excited to learn about this one.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

You know, I was thinking about this last night and the revolution aspect, uh, it's kind of a revolution, but it really was more of a principle-driven thing. There's revolutions all over the world and they happen all the time, and they happen because somebody different wants to be in charge or because whatever. We were really principle-driven in what we did. And so I was thinking about this last night, 250 years, it struck me that we've gone through some 80-year cycles. Uh, because if you go back to the American Revolution, George Washington, that's when at that point in time we won liberty for the first time. We're a free, independent nation. We have a constitution, declaration, principles, we have liberty. But then it slides down over the next two generations, and we end up in the Civil War. And here comes Lincoln, and he brings a rebirth of liberty, going back to the documents he wrote and talked about. And it really did. It rebirthed liberty, and we get back to a solid America again. And then we go through another couple of generations and we get to World War II. And at that point in time, FDR, FDR literally has to defend liberty and save liberty for us from all these bad guys who have now attacked us and are after us in the world. And here we are now, two generations later, and we're having to renew liberty. And it it really is, I think, a historic time. I mean, what what we've got going here, what we've seen the last couple of years, and the change of attitude of people and the way they look at the American Revolution, you know, just even five, eight, ten years ago, in most places, the American Revolution, well, those those are those founding father guys, and you know, they were all the bad guys, all the all the ads were assigned to them by universities. And that's just not the tone right now. There's something really positive happening across the nation in so many communities, big and small, regarding this, and and hopefully this is going to be a significant time where that we we restore and regain some of that liberty.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Well, I think, yeah, there's no doubt that that is a general tone from so many American people and certainly the people that we interact with.

Competing Narratives On The Founding

SPEAKER_02 2:40

But we know uh actually in just a day or two, uh, the Smithsonian is going to come out with a lot of their history of America and the American Revolution. And uh some of our friends in DC have given us a heads up, like, hey, just just in case you guys want to be able to talk about this later, you know what we might have been invited to help um with some other initiatives and projects going on and rebuttal to this, but the big picture is the Smithsonian is coming out, and the way they are celebrating the 250 years of American independence is not going back to the principles of liberty, the principles of freedom, the religion and morality, the idea that the founders believed that our rights came from our creator. They came from God, they didn't come from government, that no tyrant should be able to rule over man, and that government's primary purpose was to protect our God-given rights, not to determine if we had them or dictate what they were. All of that being said, the Smithsonian, literally this week, they're going to release their kind of 250 in America, and it's going to be really about the impact of slavery. Uh, America was evil because this is what America was birthed on. It was oppression and et cetera, et cetera. You know, all the all the narratives we've been hearing since you can go back to the 1619 project when it came out in 2019 and all that nonsense. Uh part of uh part of what we did in our American story book, the American story, the beginnings, was a rebuttal of some of the nonsense coming out from 1619. And so honestly, we can just recycle those same rebuttals because it's the same nonsensical stuff they are bringing up again. And instead of celebrating a nation that has been the most free, the most stable, the most prosperous, and the most benevolent nation anywhere in the world, not just for the last 250 years, maybe ever, instead of celebrating the good that came from America, we know that academics want to continue to criticize this. And again, even from the Smithsonian. So, Dad, I agree with you that I think so many Americans, they're so tired of the woke, of the criticism uh really unwarranted, where in Marxism, people are saying that you're just evil, you're an oppressor because you're a Christian, because you're male, because you're white, whatever they want to throw out there, there are so many Americans that are so tired of this woke nonsense and they want to celebrate it. It doesn't mean that the academics aren't going the opposite direction and they're gonna double down on this. So it really does matter that this summer we spend time relearning the truth of American

Relearning History Through New Resources

SPEAKER_02 5:12

history. So if you don't have the American story at the beginnings, would highly recommend that. And of course, we have an entire series coming out. We actually, uh, God willing, the end of this month, we'll have a new book out on the signers of the declaration. It should be available before the 4th of July. And we will definitely highlight that as it gets closer. The book is called Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor, the Signers of the Declaration. And we do a short bio on all 56 of them to reintroduce them to American people. And part of why it matters, if you know their stories, it's easier to identify the lies and the nonsensical attacks when they come because we know their story. So this is really a time to dive in and relearn that story. And of course, we're excited about our friend Eric Mertaxis in his new book because he is gonna tackle this very topic. And based on what he's done with Martin Luther and Bon Hofer and some of these other books, it this probably is not gonna be a thin book. This is probably gonna be a massive collection telling a detailed story. So we are very excited about his work.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

Yeah, man, it's and it's great timing. And and and like you said, I mean, there's the the academic world uh loves to put their spin on this. I am so thankful. I just I just happened to come across a couple days ago. I was looking for some good videos to play at a at a celebration I was speaking at for the for the 250th. And and uh man, the stuff that the even the federal agencies and the 250th committee and all that from three or four years ago that was so woke and so leftist. It was so bad, guys. Oh, the videos were just so bad. I'm so thankful that President Trump put good people in, that he gave you guys and a bunch of our other friends such good access and influence on what's going on because it you know, you gotta go back to the Bing Crosby song, man. You gotta accentuate the positive. We can tell the good year of celebration. This is our birthday as a nation. Let's talk about the good stuff as well. So, anyway, this book, I think, from uh Eric Mataxis probably is gonna do that, but also sell the bad, the ugly, but the overall story is amazing. Uh, one of the most incredible stories in in history for sure. So, Eric Mataxis, will we return? You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

Why Religion Supports Liberty

SPEAKER_02 7:23

This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. Many today assert that religion is something private, that it has no place in the public square, and that it is incompatible with government. But the Founding Fathers believed exactly the opposite. They held that religion was absolutely necessary in order to maintain our free system of government. For example, John Adams declared, We have no government armed with power, capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. And signer of the Declaration, Benjamin Rush, similarly affirmed, without religion, there can be no virtue, and without virtue, there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object in life of all Republican governments. The Founding Fathers understood that limited government required public morality from the people, and that public morality was produced by the Christian religion. For more information about the Founding Fathers' views on religion and public life, go to wallbuilders.com.

Eric Metaxas On Telling The Story

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show Revolution. I love the title of the book and I love the author. Eric Matax is back with us, man. Good to have you back on Wall Builders, bro.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Excited to be with you. Uh, it's it's important to be with like-minded people. It's uh good for the soul. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 8:39

Well, not just in person. Uh, I'm telling you, man, uh all of the controversies in our own movement and with what people call the right, which I think is a weird definition now, but um your post and your show and the things that the positions you've taken and the stances you've taken against so many of the poisons and evils that are now coming from I don't even like saying our side because I don't think they really are anymore. But I just want to say thank you, man. You you've you've offered wisdom and discernment. Um I honestly, you and Jeremy Boring right now, I think are two of the most important voices for our movement because you're bringing sanity to a lot of this conflict. I know that's not our top topic today, but I hadn't got to talk to you in a while, so I just wanted to tell you things.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

It's all related, isn't it? It's all related. I mean, uh uh the the the my book on the American Revolution is kind of like where how have we drifted? We need to know our story. It's not it's not optional, it is vital. Vital. I mean, that's why I wrote the book because I realized most of us either don't know the story or forgot parts of it or whatever. And I I I I mean the the reason Rick that I wrote it is because I looked around and I thought, you know, there's a lot of books on the revolution, but there's not one book that tells like the whole story. I said, I I gotta tell the whole story, so you don't have to read 12 books. Here it is. And honestly, it is the greatest story. It's so uh I mean it's not the greatest story ever told, but it's like, you know, second greatest. It's the birth of this country is just almost an unbelievable miracle in history, and we need to understand that because that's real. That's not just you know patriotic hyperbole.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

That's right, man. And and you're, you know, the 250th, obviously perfect time. Uh we're, you know, 40 years out from Reagan warning us of, quote, an eradication of the American memory that would lead to an erosion of the American spirit. That's clearly happened. So you're bringing back the memory in order to help get the spirit back. And and we got a lot of people right now that, you know, apparently America's the bad guys in history. You know, um, they've got this negative black pill twist on everything we've ever done as a nation. So I think starting where where you are and and even telling the story of the revolution in in simply a truthful but passionate and inspiring way is needed.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

That's yeah, I definitely couldn't have said it better myself. That's exactly what my goal was. And it's funny too, because when you tell it straight, it is the most inspiring story. We need to hear this. And what we've been hearing for the last 40 years has been a lot of kind of negative blather or slightly negative blather. And I thought for the 250th, we need the whole story in a kind of definitive way. And honestly, I w I forced myself to watch the Ken Burns PBS thing, you know, and it's shocking that they managed to make the American Revolution seem like meh not that big of a deal.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

It's you have to actually work hard to make a great story seem eh not that great. And that they did it though. They managed to succeed to make the American Revolution be like, ah, you know, who won? Like, I I don't know, like it's kind of sad, but you know, it happened. I mean, it's it's crazy. It would be like if you watched Rocky or Braveheart in in a version that you're like, yeah, it's it's unclear who the good guy is. Like, really? How do you tell that story in that way? So

Providence And The War’s Brutal Reality

SPEAKER_01 11:55

this book is meant to be an antidote to all that. And listen, the thing is, uh it's not like I mean, you know that I'm a radically conservative Christian, but the book is they're just a standard history book. You can give it to anybody. They don't have to be on the same page as we are, because it's true. What I'm writing is not making a case for what we believe, it's just telling the truth. When you tell the truth, you tell the story without skewing it, it makes its own case. And that's to me, it was overwhelming, I have to say, writing it, researching it. It was overwhelming to see how God's hand is involved in this country and how the founders were motivated by God and godly principles. I mean, we kind of know that, but when you actually see for yourself the way I did writing the book, I was overwhelmed. I was absolutely I said, this needs, every American needs to know this. This is this has been taken away from us, and we need to know it. And, you know, uh people who maybe aren't sure of it or don't know the details, I wrote this book for them. It's like, here it is, you tell me what you think. Like this is pretty it's pretty clear that they understood what they were doing was like a mandate from God to create a government where the people govern themselves. They don't look to a man like King George III as their king. They look to God as their king, the way the ancient Israelites did in the Sinai Covenant. That's the narrative, and they all got it, including Jefferson and Franklin, they all understood this is what we're doing. It's never been done in human history, but we're doing it now. I mean, that's a big deal, and we need to know that.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Well, and to tell it in the you know, like the good, the bad, and the ugly, all of it we learn from from all of it, and the stories are just so overwhelming. It's not like you know, what if you had one instance of say, you know, the hand of Providence being seen or one of the founders saying that, and that's that your whole story is nothing but that, yeah, then you could go, meh, but man, it's just over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

George Washington could not shut up about how we have seen Providence over and over and over. This is the man who lived it, he knew it. Yeah, and he's the one they say he was a deist. We know he was not, and and if only because of those statements, but it's like this guy knew this is a sacred cause. If we honor God, we have a covenant relationship with God. If we honor God, he will honor us. And the br the one thing that the the big thing that comes out of my research, which I really didn't know before, is that the British were really wicked. I mean, it's not just like they were the other the other side, they were barbaric. The way they fought the war. I mean, our men would surrender, they would bayonet them to death. I mean, you see this over and over. This is like the Japanese in World War II, like the Nazis.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

What they did to Dr. Warren, Dr. Joseph Warren didn't you? I mean, it's horrific. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

I mean, you're you're you know this stuff. I didn't know it the way you know it. And so doing the research, I was astonished, but it's over and over. It's not just a few instances, it's the entire war. The British were wicked, and they were really not just I mean, the Christian, the Americans were like radically Christians. Most of the leaders were radically Christians. The British were not just not Christians, they were anti-Christian. They were, they were irreligious, godless, mocking the faith of, you know, the Boston, Massachusetts uh uh Christians. I mean, it really is, I had not seen that before. That they really were, if if you're watching this movie, you'd say, oh, those are the bad guys. Like they're really bad. What they do, the way they they treat their prisoners, the way they treat those who surrender, uh, what they do to win the barbarism. That's what pushed a lot of people on the fence over to the American side because they said, these are evil people. They'll they'll they you know, they're they're hiring the Hessians and the Native Americans to terrorize and torture the civilian population. You think those are the bad guys. We our side would not do that. And if anybody did do that, Washington would come down on them like a like a pile of bricks because he was absolutely committed to fighting this war in a way that honored God. And I did not know that, Rick. You know that stuff, but I'm telling you, most Americans we don't know that. So I when I the more I researched it, the more I thought, I have not known the depth of the story or the spiritual nature of it. It's just it's just astonishing to me. It's like, but it's also very inspiring. It makes me happy that we're at a moment where people will get to know this stuff.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Well, I was I was trying to, I can't remember the number, but but one of the grievances in the declaration is is is about what you just mentioned. You know, I'll basically sicken the savages on them and and uh that we're barbaric. I mean, there's a whole grievance in the in the declaration about that. Listen, Eric, I know you well enough to know you don't you don't write a book like this just to tell the story. You you want people to have a takeaway and you want them to act on it. And and I'm assuming it has something to do with reviving that American patriotism. What do you want people to take away from the revolution, from the birth of America?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Well, honestly, I was overwhelmed writing this book. Now, sounds like, again, hyperbole. I I knew that I wanted to tell the story and tell it straight, right? I want to tell the story straight so the generation of Americans can say, if I read this book, I got the whole story. Everything that's important is in this book, right? Because there's so many books out there, so many books. I just want to put it all in one book. And obviously, I want to be readable and fun. There's crazy funny stuff, there's amazing heroes and some despicable villains. But in the course of writing it, you know, when I started, people said, What's your angle? I said, I have no angle. I just want to tell the story of America and the birth 250 years ago. But the angles that came up

Revolution As A Spiritual Turning

SPEAKER_01 17:20

make you realize this was a spiritual birth, that the God's hand was in this. This was not just some nation. And the reason the book is titled Revolution and not American Revolution is I said, there has never been a revolution that was a real, true revolution that succeeded, that gave the people what it claimed. The French Revolution is a bloodbath. The French Revolution fails miserably. They say, Oh, we want egality, fraternity, and liberté. We want liberty. Guess what they got? They got a dictator, an emperor. They got rid of the king, and then he's replaced by with a bloodbath, followed by a dictator, emperor. In our uh revolution, which is the only successful true revolution, which is why the book's called revolution, is we got rid of one monarch and turned to the monarch, God, directly. It's going back to the Sinai Covenant. So people need to get that that's real. That's what the founders understood. This is not some Christian version. This is what the founders understood. And when on August 1st, Samuel Adams gives a speech on the steps of Independence Hall, he says, We have this day restored the sovereign. In other words, we had a bad sovereign, we had King George III, we restored the true sovereign. So we're going back to the Sinite covenant 3,000 years earlier, where we get rid of Pharaoh, we come out of Egypt, and we look to God as our king. That's the narrative. And even the most uh the the the most how do I put it uh the most secular, the least religious figures like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, they understood this narrative. There was no doubt that they got this when they created a a seal for the country. Uh Franklin comes up with um the Israelites in the signal. Yeah, that's right. Uh and Jefferson comes up with the passing through the Red Sea. I mean, ladies and gentlemen, everyone understood what this was. And so to me, that's the takeaway is to understand that our founding is it's inescapable that God's hand is in it and that all of those men understood that. That's to me the key. That's how they saw it. Even if you don't see it that way, you need to do the honor of do them the honor of seeing how they saw it. And when you see it, most people are going to be convinced, yep, they got it right. And I have not been taught this, you know, in school or I haven't heard this on TV. This is very important that we kind of get back to what what is what is uh what what is our DNA? When, you know, when when when when Lincoln, I start my book with, you know, quoting Lincoln in my introduction that Lincoln says we were a nation conceived in liberty, uh conceived, there's a moment of conception in liberty and dedicated the proposition, all men are created equal. What about this conception? What about the DNA in that moment of conception? Have we followed that? And the fact is, to some extent we have, but lately we've gone off. And we need to know what is the DNA. When we started, what was the idea of liberty in the in the mind of these men that gave their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honors? So I want to kind of get people back to understanding this is this is the actual version. This is what the founders saw, which has been secularized. I don't need to tell you, I don't need to tell wall builders. It's been secularized. So I said, I want to write a book that kind of encapsulates it in a way that's very readable, that you could give to anybody who maybe isn't where we are, and they they'll they'll get it. So that was the goal.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

Revolution by Eric Metaxis. Anywhere books are sold. Um, Eric, can we get it back?

Recovering The American Spirit Today

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Let me let me just let's close out with that. Like, can we recapture that American spirit and that foundation you're talking about?

SPEAKER_01 21:02

That that's God's will and that we will get it back, but we are in a war, spiritual war. It's the third existential crisis of our history. The revolution, things didn't look so good. God's hand was with us, we prevailed. The Civil War, it wasn't looking so good. God's hand was with us, we prevailed. We're in the third existential crisis. So it is a war. It's a spiritual war, it's a strange thing we're going through. But I believe God is with us. And part of my writing this book is to recall us to what do we need to know to fight, to pray, to, to, you know, and I don't mean fight with weapons. I'm talking about fight as citizens for what is right and true. Uh to me, that's why Longfellow wrote Paul Revere's ride in 1860. He said, How do we how are we going to get through this existential crisis? We need to look back to 1775. And the reason I wrote this book is to look back in the same way to 1775. We need to understand who we are and we need to reanimate the spirit that that comes. Got us through the first existential crisis for the third. So I'm seriously hopeful. I don't I don't just say that. I but we have to understand it's a fight. But you know what? God called us to the fight. He made us for the fight. So I am I am genuinely hopeful that via prayer and all of the men in the revolution, they looked to God. They said if we look to God and honor God, He will give us the victory. If we fight our way, we will lose. That's where we are today.

SPEAKER_03 22:28

Man, beautiful. Brother, I never ever thought. I I I didn't even realize Longfellow's uh poem was that long after. Um, but the fact that it was, you know, right like you're saying, right before the Civil War to remind us who we are.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:40

Um, great stuff, brother. God bless you. Eric Bataxis, thank you for coming on, man. Thank you.

Bring A WallBuilders Speaker

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Hey, this is Tim Barton with Wall Builders. And as you've had the opportunity to listen to Wall Builders Live, you've probably heard the wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, about all the things that makes America exceptional. And you might be thinking, as incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the wall builders guys to come to my area and share with my group, whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school or public school or some political event or activity. If you're interested in having a wall builder speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.wallbuilders.com and there's a tab for scheduling. And if you'll click on that tab, you'll notice there's a list of information from speakers' bios to events that are already going on, and there's a section where you can request an event to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties and freedoms. Go to the wall builders website and bring a speaker to your area.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

Welcome back to the wall

POW Camps Evidence And Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_03 23:54

builder show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Eric Matax's new book, Revolution. Uh, of course, wherever books are sold. And as we're back here with David and Tim, the new book you guys have coming out, when do you think it'll be ready? You said July 4th is kind of the kickoff?

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Well, uh, hopefully we're gonna have it available. Um, the the printers right now think that they're gonna be able to ship it back to us uh the week of June 16th, but uh given the nature of uh uh printing in that world, uh it could be another week. So we should have it in in hand uh at least one week, if not two weeks before the 4th of July. And so we're definitely gonna keep this uh at the forefront of people's information as it gets closer. And then wallbuilders.com is the best place to go initially. Uh, I'm sure Amazon is gonna pick it up and they're gonna sell it as well. Um, but a lot of times they want to see if there's a demand before they get it. Uh, and then they want to jump on board. So at this point, wallbuilders.com, and then probably after the first week or two its release, it'll be available on Amazon and then lots of other places as well. But initially, wallbuilders.com is the best place to go, and we'll keep people updated through our radio program and even our podcast and other things as we go along.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

And you know, Eric was talking about how different America was from Great Britain, how Great Britain really was vicious in many ways. And I've just been working on this week some of the things that happened with the POW camps. Americans and British both had POW camps, but in the British POW camp, they had somewhere between 25 and 32,000 American prisoners, and more than half of them died in those camps, just the abuse, the sickness, the mistreatment. And it's like nearly none died in the American camps. As a matter of fact, when we won the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, we captured 6,000 British prisoners and we told them if you guys will promise not to shoot at us anymore, we'll we'll let you go home and and be with your families and you won't have to be in any prison. And we we took 6,000 British prisoners and they gave their word and so we believe their word, and it was just ho totally different. Uh in the American Revolution, you're three times less likely to be killed as a soldier in the middle of a firefight than if you're made a prisoner of war and and incarcerated by the British. So there's such a moral difference between us and the story just is not told well, and hopefully that's gonna be some of the stuff that's coming out over the next few months as part of the American story.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

David, as we're closing out, do you think that has anything to do with God's blessing on the country? Just that we we had more of a moral compass from the very beginning.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Yeah, there's no question we had a moral compass, and that that's uh that's indisputably documented, and that that's gonna be some stuff that they're gonna pound through the National Park Service over coming weeks. So it's gonna be publicly available with all the documentation and footnotes to it.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

What a great year to cover these topics. Be sure and get on our email list, folks, wallbuilders.com, as the new materials come out, and we'll of course have more guests on to talk about this very same subject. Thanks so much for listening. You've been listening to the Wall Builder Show.