Faith Culture And The 250th

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture, where we throw in a lot of American history, a lot of constitution along the way. My name is Tim Barton. I am the president of Wall Builders. I'm also joined by my dad, David Barton, the founder of Wall Builders, and normally our third amigo, Rick Green, the founder, president, CEO of Patriot Academy, is with us. But uh he and I were both on the road this weekend. My plane made it back. Uh his plane did not want to make it back yet. So he is stuck in route, in travel, out. I think uh Sacramento, California, I think is where he was. Uh anyway, he will, Lord willing, be with us later this week. But we want to dive into a lot of the stories of what is going on this week. And I don't mean maybe what's happening with Iran and why the peace still isn't working. I don't mean the drama maybe of politics. I mean what every American should be celebrating this week. 250 years since the Declaration of Independence coming up this weekend, this coming weekend on July 4th. And Dad bring into a lot of those details. Uh, but last week, you and Rick were discussing. I actually had some travel problems this last week as well, which I don't know uh if anybody that's uh maybe a leader and an executive with American Airlines is listening. Hey, American Airlines, if you guys could figure out a way to not delay or cancel like every other one of my flights, that would be awesome. Um, so just in case somebody happens to be listening to American Airlines, we'd appreciate the support, but not to digress.

Texas Bible Passages In Literature

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Dad, last week you and Rick were talking about a lot of the things happening from the state board of education, um, some of the details that unfolded. And uh you and I were talking about that because we saw a lot of people over the weekend losing their mind. Now, for those listening, we are gonna get to the 250th. This is actually gonna be a really nice setup and transition into some of the 250 because we talked about the influence of the Bible. That that's that it seems like where people really lost their minds the most was the idea that school kids might actually learn something about the Bible and how the Bible influenced Western civilization, how the Bible influenced America. And of course, uh leftists and liberals' brains begin to melt in that moment, saying that this was unconstitutional and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Obviously, Dad, for nearly 40 years, you've been trying to help people understand the actual true history and the Christian foundation, the implement of the Bible in America. But Dad, for those who maybe haven't been listening for nearly the last 40 years, what would be your advice, recommendation, the information that you would give them uh of why these leftists and liberals should not be losing their mind? And this actually isn't step with a lot of the history, tradition, and foundation of America?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Well,

Bible Context For Classic American Writing

SPEAKER_01 3:01

it's it's an interesting question. I'm gonna back up because uh as these guys are going left, I've been reading ABC and NBC and all these guys, they're just going through the roof that that the new standards passed in Texas um will include Bible passages, Old and New Testament, and as as explained clearly in the passage is to help understand Western civilization. And so it's part of the literature, is to understand Western civilization. And you know, it's interesting. It a reaction like that shows how little they actually understand of Western civilization, but I'm gonna take a real easy one. Um one of the things that that everyone expects to be in in textbooks, literature reading, are some of the great uh pieces by Martin Luther King Jr., particularly because of the civil rights stuff and the emphasis has been on that in a recent decade or so. You look at his letter from the Birmingham Jail. Why was he thrown in jail, unjustly thrown in jail because of race? And so when you look at that type of stuff, in this letter from Birmingham Jail, which they routinely have the students read. That's part of it. It's interesting that in the letter from Birmingham Jail, he talks about being in jail like Paul was in jail. Now, if you don't know who Paul is or being in jail, what what is he talking about? And then he talks about the same kind of a fiery furnace like Shadrach, Meshach, and Nabinigo. Well, who in the heck are those guys? If you don't know the Bible, you don't have a clue what he's referencing. So actually, what the literature is is simply choosing Bible passages that are referenced in big historical works so that you understand those works and what they're talking about. And I was looking at the uh a lot of the posts that followed the news and the people commenting and said, this is Christian nationalism. They're trying to cram Christianity down. No, we're just explaining the literature that they're already reading, that they don't have a clue what it means. And so it's it's it really is it's almost funny to see how how berserk they go, how triggered they get if you say something out of the Bible, even if it's historical, even if it's not theological per se, if it's just literature, but how else can you understand the Western civilization without

Why The Founders Quoted Scripture

SPEAKER_01 5:10

that? And that brings us to 250. How in the world can you understand the founding fathers if you don't understand the Bible? Since people like Donald Lutz at the University of Houston have documented that in the seminal writings of the Founding Fathers, the Bible was represented 34% of the founders' quotes in their seminal writings. Well, if they're quoting the Bible that often, how in the world do you know what they're talking about unless you know a little bit about the Bible to know what they're quoting in these political settings? These aren't church settings we're talking about. These are political settings and political documents. So that's kind of the background on the whole 250th. You really miss out on a whole lot of how we got here and what it means if you really don't understand what they used to come to the decisions they did.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Now, Dad, you're articulating something that has been historically documented, that the Bible was the most quoted source by the founding fathers. But, but just because the founding fathers quoted the Bible, it doesn't mean that they wanted the Bible to be in public schools, right? And I'm saying this because I can just hear uh, you know, the the the leftist keyboard warriors right now being like, wait a second, no, like maybe they quoted it some because they grew up in that Puritan culture, but but really they wanted a secular government that the founding fathers, they never in like Thomas Jefferson, who gave us the separation of church and state, as people would argue, they would say like they didn't want the Bible in schools. So Dad, what is what is the answer, maybe, if someone thinks, well, the founding fathers, number one, didn't want the Bible in schools? And like guys like Thomas Jefferson, right? They worked very hard to make sure we separated religion from anything government-oriented. What is the the correct, obvious, and easy answer that is the rebuttal of why all those leftist liberals are incorrect?

Jefferson And Public School Bible Reading

SPEAKER_01 7:03

The easy answer is Thomas Jefferson, when he was president of the United States, when he wrote that famous Separation Church and State Letter, was also president of the school board of Washington, D.C. Public Schools. He authored their original plan of education because D.C. was a brand new city. Uh, he became president about six weeks after they moved into the Capitol. And so, in setting up the plan of education for D.C., he put the Bible in as the primary reading text, and he put Isaac Watts Hendel in as the second primary reading text, both of which are completely Bible-based. All right, yeah, Dad, hang on.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Like that needs to sink in for more people. Thomas Jefferson, as the president of the school board in Washington, D.C., while he's also the president, which also is just really funny for lots of reasons, you're the president of the United States. You're like, oh yeah, by the way, one more item in your job description is you need to be the president of the school board. And as like the side note on that, I don't think there was a mayor of Washington, D.C. until like the 1970s, because it was always under federal government control, which meant the president Congress always was over a lot of that stuff that was happening. But Thomas Jefferson, the one that people think is this like enlightenment secular guy who didn't believe the Bible. People today accuse him of cutting out the parts of the Bible he didn't believe in, which is not what he did. But there's all these accusations surrounding him. Thomas Jefferson said when he was president that every child should learn to read using the Bible. And and that is as you have said so often, the problem is that people don't know history. We we know we've been told things about history. In fact, this weekend I was speaking at a church in Northern California, and after one of the services, a guy came up and he was giving me all these lectures about how the founding fathers weren't really religious because all of them were Freemasons, which of course is not correct. How George Washington was a deist, and he just starts going off. And every time I'm like, Well, okay, but what about this? Well, let me ask you this. And he could not answer, he couldn't repeat it. He said, Oh, well, I you know, I I said, Didn't George Washington pray? And like, didn't people see him pray? Like, isn't that kind of a famous thing? He said, Oh, yeah, I guess he did. I'm like, Well, then he can't be a deist because theist don't believe God answers prayers. He says, Oh, yeah, that's a good point. But we know he wasn't a Christian, and he just keeps going. I I'm saying this because there's a lot of people that have bought into the narratives, but the narratives are not often or usually based on historic reality. It's a distorted narrative that has been changed often for intentional purposes. So that looks back up because the reason we brought this up was looking at what happened this last week with the Texas State Board of Education, where they said, we think the Bible should be part of this. And there were a bunch of leftist liberals that lost their mind. Again, even though presidents like Thomas Jefferson instructed that every kid in Washington, DC use the Bible as their primary reader, they didn't think the founding fathers did not think the Bible shouldn't be part of education. And yet there are people literally losing their minds over this.

What The Constitution Actually Allows

SPEAKER_01 10:05

There are. And I was even looking at some of the various posts that were out there and how unconstitutional was the word they kept using. Unconstitutional based on what? On the Constitution, or based on what a bunch of progressive justices said for about 30 years, which is a big difference between the two, because the court is now back out of that.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

Well, and dad, let me even point out that that what you're acknowledging, it's actually even it's not as bad as people think, because even when the Supreme Court said that the Bible could not be taught in public schools. This goes back to the 1963 um, the dualistshipment decision, Abington Shemp and Murray Corlet, where they said the Bible could not be taught. What they did say in their decision is that the Bible could still be studied in history or literature because of the Bible's history and literature, but it couldn't be taught as a religious text, therefore it was removed. So even the crazy liberal court of the 1960s acknowledged that Texas can do what we've decided to do because it's including the Bible in history and literature. It's not teaching it as religion. And even though that is what often the founding fathers intended for it, this doesn't even violate the 1963 dual decision of Abington Schimp and Murray Corlet, which again, it's the accusations so often of the left are just incorrect for so many reasons.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

You know, the other thing that goes with that is what Texas did this weekend, and the literature course was only doing what the state legislature had passed a law on last year. It was last year the state legislature said, Hey, you're going to teach the Bible and in literature. Nobody sued against that law. Why is it that nobody sued against that law? Because attorneys know they can't win if they sue on the basis on which the law was passed. And yet all these people were just getting triggered like crazy. And this is why we don't even understand really what the 4th of July is about in so many occasions, or at least the way it was previously celebrated in previous generations. Because

The Fourth Of July As Sacred

SPEAKER_01 11:57

as John Adams pointed out, well, John Quincy Adams particularly, I love what John Quincy Adams did in 1837. He he told the crowd he was talking to, he says, why is it that our top two religious holidays in America are Christmas and the Fourth of July? He says, because Christmas, Jesus had brought in the world, and the 4th of July, we took those principles and moved them to the civil government. Now there's a guy who's there from the very beginning, and he says our top two religious holidays are the 4th of July and Christmas. Nobody thinks the 4th of July is a religious holiday now, but they did back then. Yeah, and we will get into that.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

We're coming up, we need to take a quick break. But when we come back, Dad, I want to ask you some maybe some history trivia related questions, and they're not going to be trick questions for you. But these are things I think a lot of Americans don't know about the 4th of July. And as we are coming up on the 250th anniversary, in fact, this week, there's a lot of 250th from a lot of things that happened in the Continental Congress from actually Independence Day to then Declaration Day, uh, reviewing the original draft uh that Jefferson submitted, those four pages, removing the longest grievance, which was a grievance against the slave trade, arguing for the humanity, Balduring Slave. There's a lot of things this week as we go on. We're gonna get into a lot of this. We have a lot of friends that are gonna join us this week as well to talk about a lot of American history-related things, but also things happening in Washington, D.C., things happening around the nation, ways that people can get involved and celebrate. But this week we are focusing on a lot of 250-related stuff. So you guys hang out. We'll be right back in just a minute.

Patriot Academy Leadership Invitation

SPEAKER_00 13:40

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SPEAKER_02 14:39

Welcome

Independence Day Was July Second

SPEAKER_02 14:40

back to the Wall Builder Show. My name is Tim Barton. I'm the president of Wall Builders, joined by my dad, David Barton, the founder of Wall Builders. And Dad, and in the first portion of the program, we were talking some about the foundation of the Bible in America, Western civilization. We really didn't get too far. We talked for a little bit about it, but we we talked about how in Texas the State Board of Education has said that students will once again read some of the Bible and literature. Maybe even there could be some in history, but really it's literature to help them see the connection of how the Bible shaped a lot of things in Western civilization in America. And you pointed out that really you can't even understand the declaration if you don't understand the Bible. You don't understand the founding fathers if you don't understand the Bible, because the Bible was the number one source they quoted. The Bible was the most influential source in their writings and their thinking, etc. But as we look at the big picture, uh, there's a lot of things happening this week that I think a lot of Americans maybe they didn't learn in history class, or maybe it's just been a long time since they had that history teacher. And so I want to review some of these things. So, Dad, we talk about Independence Day, and we we think of July 4th as Independence Day. But historically, Dad, when did Independence Day happen? And why was it different maybe than what we are celebrating today?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Yeah, that's a great question. And I'm gonna set up by saying from the time that they made the motion we become independent till the time that we see the document that we recognize the day is is approximately 27 days. And eight days across that 27 days are seminal days. The day that we became independence and declared our independence was July, wait for it, the second. It was not July the 4th. July the 2nd was Independence Day. July the 4th was Declaration Day, which back up. June the 7th, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia said, Hey, I've had it, we've all had it, let's declare independence. And Congress said, Um, good idea, but I don't think we're ready yet. So on the 7th of July, when he made the motion for independence, they tabled it and said, wait a minute, if we're gonna do this, we got to think about how we're gonna tell the world, how we tell Great Britain, how we tell our own people. And so for the next several days, they thought about it. And then on the 11th, four days later, they said, let's appoint five people to write a document that gives the reasons that we want to separate. And so at Committee of Five on the 11th of June, they started working and writing. And so Thomas Jefferson and the others worked for 17 days, and at the end of June, they say, All right, we've got a document ready. And so at that point, they picked up on July the 1st and said, All right, let's go back and debate that that thing of independence. And July the 1st, they debate independence, July the 2nd, they debate and vote on independence. And on July the 2nd of 1776, they say, we announce ourselves to be independent. And that's when John Adams said, This is Independence Day. He wrote Abigail, said, We've done it. This is Independence Day. I think July the 2nd is going to be celebrated as Independence Day for generations to come. And that was a guy who was key in writing that document. He says July 2nd is Independence Day.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Now, Dad, along those lines, um, that there were two letters that John wrote Abigail on July 3rd. John tells Abigail that what they did was incredibly historically significant. He thinks people are gonna look back on it one day and they're gonna notice that this is one of the greatest things that's been done. And he says they're gonna celebrate this. And as you mentioned, he called it Independence Day. But dad, in that letter, he actually, and I mentioned again, there's two letters he wrote on July 3rd. So it's in the longer of those two letters, but he tells her how he thinks they're going to celebrate Independence Day. What did John tell Abigail was the way he thought they would celebrate independence in in future generations?

John Adams On Devotion To God

SPEAKER_01 18:32

He thought Americans would celebrate this as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. So John Adams says, Hey, Abigail, yesterday we did it, and I think everybody's gonna celebrate this as a religious holiday with solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty, and he called it Independence Day, July the 2nd. So that was his expectation. What does he know? He's just one of the guys who helped ride it. He's one of the guys who voted on it, he's one of the key guys. What does he know? And by the way, contrast that with what we were talking about a few minutes ago with all these people that are going berserk over separation church and state, and you can't have this religious stuff. What he's seminal to it, and he says it's a religious holiday. Who's crazy here? The current people or the past people, certainly the current people who don't know.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Well, and and dad, if we continue on with some of the story of what happens when they declare and agree, they vote on independence, they celebrate it, they then have to get into the the wording of the declaration. And this is when they are reviewing uh Thomas Jefferson's original draft, they're debating it line by line. They finalize the wording, and and I think we'll probably talk more about that this week. Um, and and then there's a reason. Actually, if if you are not familiar with Thomas Jefferson's original draft, we have um reprint of it for sale at wallbuilders.com. Uh, there's actually uh a little kind of article uh card that comes with it. There's a QR code on that card that has a longer article. But I would encourage uh everybody to go to the Wall Builders website and look for that um article on the original draft of the declaration. It has some really great insight, giving some details on that longest grievance. And so you can find that on the website. But that they they debate what is in Jefferson's original draft. It's where also Jefferson grieved that they took out what he thought was the most significant, the longest grievance against the slave trade, arguing for the humanity of all and were slaved. And again, we'll probably cover that later this week. They finally come to July 4th. And Dad, July 4th is what today we think of as Independence Day. But what happened on July 4th? And how did the people find out about what Congress had done?

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Yeah,

Dunlap Printing And Signing The Declaration

SPEAKER_01 20:39

so on July the 2nd, they vote for independence. On July the 3rd, they said, well, now that we voted for independence, how do we explain this to the world? And that's where they picked up the Declaration of Independence and they started editing it as you as you pointed out, Tim. Um Jefferson had 24 original grievances. It ends up with 27. Some of his were taken out, other new ones were added in. But on July the 3rd and July the 4th, they vote on the wording of the Declaration of Independence. And on July the 4th, they said, okay, here's the wording we like. We all agree on this, and we're we're all doing this. And so on July the 4th, they they say, all right, here it is. Now we're going to tell the American people. On that day, the official printer of Congress, John Dunlap, went and printed 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence. Those 200 copies have no signatures on them. They have two names on them printed. One is the printed name of John Hancock, President of Congress, and the other is the printed name of Charles Thompson, Secretary of Congress, but it's all the wording that they approved on that day. It's the final wording. And so that's one of the rarest documents out there is the Dunlap Declaration. And so then as things keep going on, and they have trouble with states like Pennsylvania, uh, where that more than half the delegates at one point opposed independence. They had to replace them with new delegates. They said, you know what, we need to make every make sure everybody coming into Congress agrees with. With the declaration we just did, because new people were coming in over the next three or four weeks. Several states changed some delegations and delegates. And so what they did is here's what we're going to do. If you're going to be a delegate to the Continental Congress, you have to sign your name that you agree with the Declaration of Independence. And so on August the 2nd, that's when they started signing names. If you were in Congress and you were there August the 2nd, you put your name down as supporting the Declaration. Now, some of the guys who voted for the Declaration weren't there to sign it. Two of the New York guys, uh George Clinton and Robert Livingston, both voted for it, but they weren't there to sign it because they were both called back to New York. One was to be the head of the military in New York, and one was to be the head of the new judicial system. So they voted for it on July the 4th, but they didn't get to sign it because they weren't in Congress. And then you've got other guys who came in that weren't there on July the 4th to vote for it, but they support it, so they sign it. And you had some that even three and four months later were signing the declaration when they arrived at Congress. So there's 56 signers of the declaration, but that doesn't mean those 56 are the ones who voted for it. And there's some who voted for it that didn't sign it. But we're used to seeing the August 2nd version of the declaration, which has all the signatures on it. And that is the Great Declaration. I mean, there's no question it's awesome, but it's not the original July the 4th declaration.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Well, and Dad, as you're saying all of this, uh, we actually have a timeline for all of things declaration and even arguably kind of revolution related in our new book, Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honors, assigned to the Declaration. It came out last week and sold out on Amazon the first day. We sent Amazon this huge palette with uh additional books. I don't know when they're gonna get those in stock, but you can still purchase it on Amazon. They will deliver it when it comes in, or you can go to wallbrothers.com and we actually give a short bio on all 56 signs of the declaration. And as as mentioned, we give a timeline, number one of the declaration, number two of the revolution, so people can kind of see the sequence of where things fell, what happened along the way.

What To Read For The 250th

SPEAKER_02 24:10

And so it it is a really helpful resource to have. With that being said, yeah, this week we're definitely gonna dive into a lot of uh the history behind uh the 250s, but also that probably tomorrow, maybe a little later in the week, we will get into some of the events happening in DC, happening around the nation, things people can be part of. Of course, uh our buddy Rick Green, who's not with us today, they're doing a big Fourth of July event down at Patriot Academy. Um, but dad, big picture for people that are are buying in, they're man, we love America. Uh hopefully you love God more than America, but you love those two. You love God, you love America, you love your family. And for people that that want to help their family maybe reconnect with some American history, can you think of a good document? A good speech, because you mentioned John Quincy Adams 4th of July speech from 1837. I can think of some really good Fourth of July speeches from different presidents, or in this case, like a founding father kind of guy, John Quincy Adams. What is a speech or a document, a sermon, even, that you would recommend that would be really good for people to read to learn more about story this week?

SPEAKER_01 25:22

I I think if you were to go to Calvin Coolidge, President Calvin Coolidge, the message he gave on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, you get a really good tone from Calvin Coolidge. So that's that's a great document. Uh and and Tim, as you mentioned, those others, you can look online for John Quincy Adams' 4th of July speech, 1837. Uh, that's easy to find online. John Quincy Adams' 1821 4th of July speech is also an awesome one to find online. So those are goods. And as Tim, as you mentioned earlier, read both of John Adams' letters on July the 3rd, 1776. What he wrote Abigail saying, hey, here's what we did yesterday. Both of those letters are really good and they're really easy to find online.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Obviously, also there's the original draft of the Declaration of Independence. Uh, there's the final draft. Uh, if you have not read the Declaration of Independence recently, that would be something. Go back, read it, review it, and as you do, maybe even look for that, as you mentioned, the biblical ideas and references that are outlined in the Declaration, the idea that there's a God, our rights come from Him, government exists to protect those rights. So many biblical concepts there in the Declaration.

Final Takeaways And Next Steps

SPEAKER_02 26:29

Now, we are out of time for today, but we are so pumped for this week to be able to talk more about the 250th, about God's involvement in this nation, and certainly about incredible events happening around the nation. Until tomorrow, thanks for listening to the Wallbuilder Show.