Faith, Culture, And The Goal

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Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. This is the Wall Builder Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. And today we're going to get the second half of week two or episode two in Rebuilding Liberty. It's called Restoring Religious Liberty. We're going to jump right back in where we left off yesterday with Rebuilding Liberty.

Benjamin Rush On Education And Liberty

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So when you look at Benjamin Rush, one of the things that makes him significant, there's a whole lot of stuff, by the way. He is an awesome guy. But one of the things is he's called the father of public schools under the Constitution. And that's because in 1790 he did this piece. He said, you know, we used to be 13 nations. Now we're one nation. What do we need to be teaching in our schools for us all to remain one nation? What do we have to teach to keep us unified rather than having 13 different nations? And so he goes through and lays out in this. And he says in this, he says, the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this, there can be no virtue, and without virtue, there can be no liberty. And liberty is the object in life of all Republican governments. He gave a dozen reasons why we would never take the Bible out of schools in America. And this piece explains the Bible contains more knowledge to man in his present state than any other book in the world. It has all the stuff you need to know about medicine, about science, about ethics, about law, about business, and whatever. And that's what we believed about the Bible. That's why we taught it for so long. Go to 1816. And in 1816, what you have is the report from New Jersey. Now, all the schools have reports every year, just like we still do today. You can go online and see the reports annually. If you want to see the report for New Jersey in 1816, they're talking about how the kids have done in the first and second classes, or what we would call the first and second grades. And so how have the kids done, according to the Superintendent of Public Education, New Jersey? He says very simply, all the scholars of the first and second classes commit to memory, portions of the New Testament are Psalms, a lesson of the catechism, several hymns, and the text of the preceding Sabbath. So all the kids in the first and second grade, that's what they're memorizing in New Jersey public schools in 1816. We're now a generation after the founding fathers. It's not the founding fathers anymore. We're much later. And he continues. He says, one of the scholars, first and second grade, one of the scholars has committed to memory the book of John and the first 30 Psalms together with the 119th Psalm. Anybody here memorize the Gospel of John and 30 Psalms and Psalms 119? Nah, you're not as smart as second graders back then. Amazing. And and and by the way, we all know that there's some kids that are smarter than other kids in classes, right? He's one of those kids, obviously. How about the rest of the kids? The majority have committed to memory the gospel by John. All the first and second graders memorized the gospel of John, but we had one kid who also memorized 30 chapters of Psalms and Psalms. All the kids memorized the Gospel of John in first and second grade in New Jersey public schools in 1816.

Noah Webster And A Bible-Based Dictionary

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Let's move to 1828. 1828 involves Noah Webster. This is when Noah Webster came out with his original dictionary, the Noah Webster Dictionary. No, Noah Webster did so many works that educational works. He's called the father, uh he's called the schoolmaster to America. He's so much of the father of the English language as far as what happens with the structure of it. And so in that dictionary, he defined 70,000 words, 40,000 never before been defined. He learned 28 languages so that he could tell you the root of every word that he takes in that dictionary. Awesome what the guy did. So when you take words and look in Webster's dictionary, for example, take his dictionary, let's take a word like you see up top, chief. See, he gives you definitions, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven definitions there. And look what he does. Right up there, you see that one? It says chief. He's quoting from 1 Chronicles chapter 11. So if you want to know how this word is used in context, go look at 1 Chronicles 11. And here's another example here. You see there? Go look at Numbers 3 and Job 29 and Matthew 20 if you want to see how this word is used in context. And if you want another definition, here, look at 1 Kings 9. And down here at the bottom, uh, you need to go to Psalm, that'd be Psalm, what's that, 58? He takes you back to the Bible. 27% of the definitions he used, he took to the Bible. So this is our dictionary in the day. It's not the secular thing that we have today. Webster's dictionary today only has his name in common with what it used to be back then. It was a very biblical, biblic dictionary that he had. So Noah Webster, that 1828 dictionary, and by the way, with all the other textbooks he did, he was very clear. His his philosophy, his view of America, his view of education. He says, all the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, they

Presidents Praise The Bible Publicly

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all proceed from despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible. So again, going back here, 1940, 1849 is a significant year in the sense of President Zachary Taylor. He's known as old Rough and Ready. He's a war hero to become president of the United States. Look at the declaration from a president. He says, The Bible is the best of books. I wish it were in the hands of everyone. It's indispensable to the safety and permanence of our faith. Oh no, he didn't say faith. He said of our institutions. The Bible has secular application. It's the basis of our institutions. He continued. He says, especially should the Bible be placed in the hands of the young. It is the best school book in the world. I would that all of our people were brought up under the influence of that holy book. Zachary Taylor will never be accused of being part of the religious right as a president. That was not who he was. He was old, rough, and ready. He was a tough old codger. And nobody thought of him as a religious person. And yet, look at the rhetoric that we have from the president of the United States back then. And by the way, best school book in the world. Apparently the Supreme Court didn't consult history. We know they didn't. That's why they arrived at the conclusion they did. So 1876, the president now is Ulysses S. Grant, another very tough president, very adequate guy, very able guy as a military commander. He headed the Union forces in the Civil War. But he's the president for the centennial of the United States. 1876, he's president. We were founded in 1776. He comes out with this card. You see this little card right here? This is a centennial card. It's the message of President Grant. This message of President Grant, see there, Centennial, 1876, 1776, 100 years. It's to the children and youth of America. What does President Grant want to tell all the students of America? He says, Hold fast to the Bible as a sheet anchor of your liberties. Write his precepts in your hearts and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book, we're indebted for all the progress made in true civilization. And to this we must look as our guide in the future. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sins are reproached to any people. By the way, that's a Bible verse, Proverbs 14, 34. There's your president of the United States saying, kids on the scentilla of America, get back to the Bible.

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This is what's made us who we are as a people. Quick

Break And WallBuilders Resources

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break, everybody. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

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Okay, we want to let you know about a new product we have here at Wall Builders called Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honors, the Signers of the Declaration. Like most Americans, you might be someone that you recognize some of the names of the Founding Fathers, but do you know their story? We want to help remedy that. My dad and I have written biographies on all 56 signers of the Declaration to help reintroduce people to the men who literally sign their names on the line for the sake of the nation. And when they did this, they knew that they were essentially signing their death warrants. They were risking everything for the hope that they might be able to purchase freedom for the rising generation with their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honors. In spite of the hardship that every one of them endured, none of them recantored or backed away. Now, if you don't know their story, you can get to know all 56 of them. Go to wallbuilders.com and look for the book Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honors, the signers of the Declaration. This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. The Reverend James Caldwell was a famous minister during the American War for Independence. His sermons taught liberty and God's opposition to tyranny. The British hated him and tried to kill him. So for his own protection, he would actually take loaded pistols with him into the pulpit and laid them beside his Bible as he preached. In the 1780 Battle of Springfield, the Americans ran out of wadding for their guns, which was like having no ammunition. Pastor Caldwell ran inside a nearby church and returned with an armload of Watts hymnals, the pages of which would provide the much needed wadding. He took this great Bible-based hymnal, raised it in the air, and shouted to the troops, Now put Watts into them, boys. This pastor's ingenuity saved the day for the Americans. For more information on Pastor James Caldwell and other colonial patriots, go to wallbuilders.com.

Bible Courses In Public Schools

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We're back here on the Wall Builder Show, jumping right back in with Rebuilding Liberty, the new course being offered by Patriot Academy and Wallbuilders.

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In 1947, these two textbooks right here.

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These two textbooks were being used. You can see on the cover here, this is the Bible study course for the Old Testament Dallas Public Schools, 1947. And the one behind it is the one for the New Testament in 1947, Dallas Public Schools. Now, these are not just Dallas textbooks. They were used in Cincinnati and St. Louis. They were used in Indianapolis. They used major cities across the nation. And as you go, and these are courses for credit in the public schools. As you go through, you see here, memorize. There's a memorization section for each lesson. Memorize the preexistence of Christ. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word was God. All things remain. This is what we're memorizing in public schools, as a course in Dallas and Cincinnati and all these big cities. And then it has questions at the end of every lesson. You study some of the Bible and you have questions, questions on lesson number one on the pre-existence of Christ, John 1 1 through 14. Where was Christ before he was born on earth? What titles does John apply to Christ in this chapter? For what purpose was John sent by God? And on and on it goes. I'm gonna get myself in trouble here. I'm gonna bet most ministers couldn't answer the questions that were answered by Dallas Public School High School kids. This is what we had till 1947 all over the United States. And we think that the way it is now is the way it's always been, and that people who want religion back in public life are crazies. No, it's because we don't know history. And so if you look at the Bible in schools and look at where we are at this, we're at this point where the long-standing religiously expressive practices require a strong presumption of constitutionality. If you can

History And Tradition Legal Standard

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show that it's been part of the American fabric for a period of time, we're going to presume that it's constitutional. And this comes, we're talking religious practices here. So that is the history and tradition test. And why does that matter? Because when you look right now, did you know that based on the 19 on the 2019-2022 Supreme Court decision, you can be teaching the Bible in schools right now? Your public schools can teach that with no trouble. And as a matter of fact, one of the groups that does this, uh Bible Schools.net, they have currently teaching in 4,000 public schools, and they have 600,000 students going through, and the only textbook they use in the course is the Bible. You just teach the Bible. Bible speaks for itself. This can be done. Nobody hears about this. We didn't know this was going on. You got a public school near you, go talk to the superintendent, talk to the school board. You're gonna have trouble with school board attorney. School board attorney knows only the modern stuff, not the historical stuff, and they usually don't keep up with recent Supreme Court decisions. They may be good on personnel or administration or insurance, they're not good on constitutional issues. So you may have to teach them some of this, but this is something you can do to schools. Same way, Nativity Saints, that used to be part of schools, and then we said, Oh, no, no, no, Christmas, that's too religious. Christmas is a federal holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ. It's not a federal federal holiday to celebrate the birth of Rudolph and Santa. That's not what it is. So we can go back to singing Christmas carols, and choirs can do that, and they can have Christmas programs and all this stuff they haven't been able to do in decades. Talk to your choir teachers, talk to your school teachers, talk, talk to your principal about this. Same way with the prayer in schools. As long as students are praying, it's fine. Student-led prayer. It's constitutional. Now, they can't pop up and start praying in math class, and nobody else is doing anything in math class except the teacher, but you can't have prayer at school again. You can have prayer at graduations again, you can have baccalaurices, all the things we used to not be able to do. We have a long-standing tradition of history, uh, history and law on this. And another example is balanced science. But you know, creation, evolution debates don't go to Darwin, 1859, they go all the way back 500 BC to Aristotle. Everything Darwin set forth had been set forth hundreds of years before that. There's nothing new about what Darwin did. He just synthesized 2,000 years of teaching and made it really simple, brought it down to something really easy. It's not that there's new teaching. As a matter of fact, if you'll check the 1801 senior paper for Daniel Webster, it's a 17-year-old senior at Dartmouth. His senior papers over the evolution creation debate in that day. Nothing new about it. Founding fathers speak very openly of evolution creation, something they address. This is not a new issue that comes from Darwin. We can go back to teaching creation science if we want to, because that's history and tradition. That's something that scientists have taught for thousands of years. It goes back a long time. This is not just religious teaching. So all these things are available. Long-standing, religiously expressive practices require

What Schools Can Do Now

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strong presumption of constitutionality. I encourage you to be forward-thinking, be aggressive. I realize you've got a lot of tools at your disposal, maybe we haven't used in recent years, but I just want you to know what the Supreme Court has said, and in this area, what the history and tradition is, so that we can move forward and move these things back into helping America be a wholesome nation. All right. God bless you guys, Rick.

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It is astounding to me how many people in America have been indoctrinated into a condition of complete ignorance, uh, completely unaware of the extent to which the Bible and ancient Jewish wisdom shaped the founders. It's not an accident that the uh the uh crests of these old schools like Yale and Harvard uh contain Hebrew words. Because to these people who came here and set things up, the the people we think of as the founders, um, Hebrew was uh was was something they knew. The second governor of the Plymouth colony was Sir William Bradford, and um the first 19 pages of his manuscripts, his history book, the history of the Plymouth Plantation, uh, is actually in his own handwriting in Hebrew.

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Oh, you're gonna learn all types of wonderful things as you've already learned in this class about our founding fathers, about the freedoms of liberties, about what people paid for, what does it mean to be a constitution, what does it mean to have a bill of rights, what does it mean to have a declaration of independence? What does it mean to have a free nation? What does it mean to fight for your freedoms? What does all that mean? That's what you're learning so that you can take it out into the streets. But I say none of this matters if it's not Jesus first. That's where the miracle takes place.

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On average, there's about 8,000 requests a year for the Supreme Court to take your case. And the last few years they've taken 57 and 67. The idea that they would take one of your cases is your odds are not good. Well, they just took four. Wow. And we won them all, right? And I mean God, like you said. That's only God. And so what you know, what I like is wherever God is moving, I'm just gonna jump in the middle of that. Yes. Right? And he, and you know, so there's a lot of bad things going on in our country right now. But something's changing here. I mean, this why is God doing this in the religious liberty arena? Why is he opening up all these protections? It's not so people won't step in that protection and act, but he's got a plan. There's something going on, and so I just encourage people to be encouraged. Um, it's it's not the war is not over. I the way almost the image I have is it's like all of our children and our grandchildren are in a castle. Uh, they've been they've been stolen away,

A Moment Of Hope And Momentum

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and we've been blocked from getting in. And God just blew holes in the wall of the castle. So it's not over. We still have to, we can't stand at the opening and go, wow, that's a really neat hole. We I mean, it it but God is really providing this new opportunity for us to change our country and to restore religious freedom in a way we haven't seen in in our lives, really, at this point.

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You know, you're hearing it everywhere. It's around us at a depth and velocity like we've never seen in our lifetime. It's literally taking people down a spiral of destruction. And it's what we call deception. Just take a look around. Look at the young people in your life. Look at the people all around you where deception is after them with a vengeance. You know, we have a responsibility as parents, grandparents, pastors, educators, mentors, and coaches. We can feel the urgency now more than ever. It's an urgency to inoculate this next generation against those same old ideas that have led to bondage throughout the course of history every time they've been tried. And we got to ask ourselves: do our sons and daughters know how to detect the lies in the culture? Do they know how to apply timeless, life-giving standards of truth rooted in the gospel to the problems of today? Are they ready to step out and courage

Patriot Academy Training And Challenge

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when it's their turn, their chance, to influence and lead a generation away from bad ideas with dangerous consequences? The real question is, has their education prepared them for this reality? Look, if you're between the ages of 16 and 25 and you're within the sound of my voice, this message is for you. No matter your personality, what your passions are, or the station of life or career you find yourselves in, the fight has come to you. The preparation you need does not happen by accident. It takes purposeful sharpening, role play, and intentionality to train for battle. And that's where Patriot Academy comes in. It's not a summer camp, it's a boot camp. Patriot Academies take place in state capitals across the nation throughout the summer, and we teach you essential communication skills and how to assess the ideas around you, but through a lens we call the Lyft Principles. That's limited government, individual liberties, the free enterprise market system that rejects dangerous ideas like socialism and communism. And then lastly, it's timeless principles of truth. Our three-day boot camp is just the beginning of a lifelong journey of learning on how to influence and take action to advance freedom, no matter where God leads you. Because of the connections you'll make, you're going to have full access to a network of leaders who stand ready to engage the culture and stand with courage with you. Make the decision today. Be the influencer that God has destined you to be. Be that one person who's equipped, strategically placed, and takes actions.

250 Years Of America Tools

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If you go to wallbuilders.com, there is a little box that says Wall Builders is celebrating 250 years of American freedom and independence. Click on that little box and it will take you to the landing page for 250 years of America. And on the landing page, there are several different little boxes you can click on. One of them is for events. It will let you know of some major events that are that are coming up that are going on that you can actually come and participate in. You can come here. My dad or I give speeches, telling the stories about the birth of the nation, about the founding fathers, the faith connection in America. There's also a tab for resources that you can click on, and it will take you to lots of different speeches and sermons and documents and proclamations from the founding era. And then there's also a little tab that will take you to the wall builder store with lots of resources, all the things that maybe a hat you want to wear, a shirt to wear, or other wall builders products to read. This is a place to go to celebrate 250 years.

Three Action Steps For Communities

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Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. All right, we're gonna get the conclusion now of the second half of episode two in Rebuilding Liberty. Hey, welcome back to the tavern portion of our Rebuilding Liberty course. I hope you got you a hot cup of Patriot Brew coffee and you're ready to discuss those revolutionary strategies and tactics to implement the things that we learned tonight in our class. Now, don't forget last week, we talked about restoring those declaration principles, rebuilding civic literacy in our country by hosting a rebuilding liberty course. I hope you've already started thinking about friends and family to invite to your first class by actually being a part of the 250th next year and being a part of uh creating a celebration, whether it's at your home or your church, your county courthouse, but hosting a 250th celebration July 4th, 2026. And then third, getting the Constitution back into our schools, whether you do that for Constitution Day or you get a celebrate Freedom Week passed in your state. Learn more about all of that in our blueprint book or in your work. Those are the things we talked about here in the tavern last week. This week, we want to capitalize on this opportunity that David was talking about. The Coach Kennedy case changed everything. We have the opportunity to get a God consciousness back into our culture. I'm going to give you three action items tonight. Number one, I want you to be a part of getting In God We Trust, the national motto, in every government building you possibly can, on the dais of the school board where they meet, or the city council or the or the county commissioners. At your state capitol. We have that in Texas. In God We Trust, above the dais there in the House Chamber. Everywhere you can, get In God We Trust displayed so that people will think about that national motto and restore that God consciousness. If you look in your workbook or the or the blueprint, we're going to connect you with the organizations that will send you a kit on how to do this. It's easy to do. You can get this one done. I promise you. So pick out a couple of places in your community where you can make this happen. Maybe that's the action item for you. As I said last week, 12-step recovery program. You don't have to do all 12. You just got to pick one or two. So this week I'm giving you three more in addition to the three I gave you last week. In God We Trust model, the Ten Commandments. We got a lot of states now that are doing 10 Commandments legislation to make it very clear you absolutely can display the Ten Commandments in the local schools. The Stone v. Graham case has been overturned. The Kennedy case has changed everything. Do your part to get the Ten Commandments displayed in schools, county courthouses, other government entities, and even in your own home. And then the third step tonight that I want to encourage you to do is help bring godly wisdom back into schools. This one's got some subparts, so you got to go to the workbook or the blueprint book to look to get the context of some of these organizations. But getting, for instance, chaplains in our local public schools, I encourage you to work with them to get a chaplain in your local public schools and local public school. And maybe you're the one that should be that chaplain. Maybe you're looking for that next adventure or that next assignment from the Lord. Maybe that's one of the things that you can do. Maybe you want to work with some of the time release programs out there and be one of the ones that hosts a program next door to the local public school where the kids can come to your place. Maybe it's a church, maybe it's right down the road. Lots of ways to do this, but it's absolutely constitutional and a powerful way to bring that God consciousness and that godly wisdom back to your local school. And then, of course, Bible curriculum itself. This is absolutely constitutional. Most of your schools don't know that it's constitutional. We want to help you get Bible curriculum into your local schools. In fact, Patriot Academy is providing a specific Bible curriculum that we're going to have available in the next few weeks. I hope you'll check that out at Patriot Academy.com. Lots of other great sources out there as well. But if that's that one that lights you up, then that's the one the one step out of the 12 steps to recovery for our country that you should get excited about. So lots of great options for you this week to restore religious liberty. We've got to do these things where we get this God consciousness back into our culture and we actually live out our faith. Think about it. What good is the freedom of religion if we're not living out our faith? So don't forget the three steps that we've added tonight. You can get in God We Trust, the national motto, hanging it up in your schools, getting it at your government, you know, on the dais or behind the leaders there. Get the Ten Commandments into your local schools and your local government buildings. Get a God godly wisdom back into your schools with chaplains at the schools, Bible curriculum, time release programs, all those options. Everything's in your workbook and in the blueprint. Look for a way to implement one of those steps. And don't forget the steps that we talked about last week. Already get signed up to host this class in your home or church, wherever you like. Make sure you're planning your 250th celebration. Great opportunity to restore civic literacy by bringing back those declaration principles and then get involved with getting the Constitution and the Declaration back into your schools. There's already a lot to do, folks, but get started. All right, I'll see you back here in the tavern next week for our action steps in week three. That should give you a lot of hope and a lot of solid ground to build on. So we there's a lot we can do in our community. So this whole course is gonna be about action, action, action. The things David's talking about it's not just head knowledge. He's given us things we can actually go back and do in our communities. This

Final Charge And Next Week

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has been week two, and we've got two more weeks to go in this amazing course. Next week, Tim Barton is our master bricklayer that's gonna be with us. Don't miss it. Have a great week, and thanks for helping us rebuild Liberty. The Rebuilding Liberty course is our new constitution course based on the declaration, all about the 250th, celebrating all those things. It's a four-week course, and uh we'll have more coming at you, and you're gonna want to host it for your friends and family. Get signed up today at Patriot Academy.com. Thanks so much for listening to the Wall Bowler Show.