Faith And Culture Introduction

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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. We're going to jump right back in to where we left off, which was the middle of Rebuilding Liberty. Tim Barton teaching and the Rebuilding Liberty course. It's a four-week course available right now at patriotacademy.com. We're going to jump back in and get the conclusion of week three of Rebuilding Liberty.

The Bible Hidden In Plain Sight

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The guy who did this painting, he actually did some research and he studied the Founding Fathers. And one of the things he put in this that a lot of people have never paid attention to, in the bottom right corner, that book is a Bible. It's open to Matthew chapter five. The Bible was the most quoted source by the Founding Fathers, and it wasn't even close. So far above and beyond everything else. In fact, even in the Constitution Convention, they quoted the Bible often in their speeches, their conversations, their debates. The Bible was a part of everything going on. Well, this is what the painter discovered in his research. And there's actually no record of what all books were there or weren't there as they're doing the convention. But what he uh concluded was that I can't imagine that people that were this influenced by the Bible, that knew the Bible this well, would have done something so significant and not have the Bible with them. Now, again, the reason I want to point this out is because even when we look at things that we think are obvious, it's an obvious painting. We've all seen it before. And yet most people have never noticed there's a Bible literally open on the table in this painting. We've overlooked so often the influence of Christianity and the vital role it has played in forming the nation. And the guys who were doing this, they knew the Bible. I mean, really knew the Bible and their writings and their quotes and so much of what they did, but but also what they learned from the Bible is that as you study the Bible, it's very clear that God made the world on purpose and in order that certain ways, God created different

Law Always Reflects Moral Standards

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institutions. Uh, it's obviously from God that He created the family, God created the government, God created the church. And as we look at those, we can as Christians hopefully acknowledge, yeah, God made all those. And the reality is that because God made them, God intended to be central in all of those. And we live in an era today where people are far more ready to say, well, yeah, God belongs in the church, but we're questioning a little bit about the dynamic of the family because now we're not sure like what families are supposed to look like and who's supposed to be part of what families, right? And even the gender of different things related to this. But also, when you went to government, there's a lot of Christians who would suggest, well, we're not really supposed to have God and government, as if the argument is, now wait a second, are you suggesting like the government's gonna legislate morality? And I just got a newsflash for you. If you're concerned and you think the government shouldn't legislate morality, you misunderstand legislation. Every piece of legislation is reflective of somebody's morality. The reason it's passed, somebody thought it was right, somebody thought it was wrong. It's not a question of are we going to legislate morality? It's only a question of whose morality are we going to legislate. And what the founding fathers knew is we want an objective standard that we can rely on, that we can look to, because if there's not an objective standard like the Bible, which is consistent and doesn't change, then how do you determine morality? What you think is good, somebody else else might think is bad. There needs to be an objective standard we can point to. And this is what used to be known. So the founding fathers knew America was built on an objective standard. And this was from

The American Covenant And City Hill

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our inception. If you go back to the very first college, the very first people that came to America, it was so clear, so much so that even when John Winthrop came in 1630, he was the one that led so many of the Puritans as they're coming over. And one of the things he does is a very famous sermon, a model of Christian charity. And in this sermon, he acknowledged to the people coming, he said, For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so calls him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world. John Winthrop is telling everybody coming, hey, we're making a covenant in this. And if we do right, we know that God's gonna keep his part. But if we don't do the right thing, and and right, just to help connect some God's people, this is not all that dissimilar from what Moses tells the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28. Right? If you do it God's way, you enjoy the blessings, and God's blessings, they will chase you down, they will overtake you. You can't even escape God's blessings. But if you don't do it God's way, you can't escape the judgment that will come your way from rejecting God's standards. And I would point out that if if you look in American history, there were moments when it felt like we couldn't escape God's blessings. And then there were moments when it felt like we couldn't do anything right. There was a covenant made at the very beginning. And by the way, this just wasn't just the Puritans, the pilgrims, there was a lot of people, early America, that this was the foundation of the nation saying, God, we want to be connected to you. This was the American covenant from the very beginning, and and this was what the founding fathers understood coming through, so much so that when you jump way forward, when you have guys like John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams, he grows up in the revolution. He

John Quincy Adams On July Fourth

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knew every single founding father. In fact, right, as as he's six years old, he's at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He and his mom are watching it from an adjacent hill. They watch as their family doctor, Joseph Warren, he's bayoneted by the British. As he grows up, he's with his dad over in Europe during the American Revolution, at the end of the revolution. George Washington chooses him as America's diplomat, actually over to Russia. But then at the end of Washington's presidency, he's a John Quincy Adams is the top diplomat America has. He's a diplomat under his father, under Thomas Jefferson, he's a U.S. senator. Under James Madison, he brings him out of retirement to negotiate the end of the war of 1812. Actually, under James Madison's presidency, James Madison appoints him to be a Supreme Court justice. He's unanimously confirmed in the Senate, but he's over in Europe and he turns it down. He says, I'm doing more important things over here, right? I we don't need to worry about the Supreme Court, which says a lot about what he thought the Supreme Court really was and where their value was. But then under James Monroe, he's Secretary of State, he's then president. After president, he goes back to Congress. While he's in Congress, he's invited to go give a speech. It's up in Connecticut, and it's an anniversary speech, July 4th, 1837. When he goes and gives this speech, I'm only going to show you a couple sentences from the speech. I'd encourage you go read the whole thing. I want you to see the connections he makes. He says, Why is it that next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerable festival returns on this day? Now, this is 4th of July.

Patriot Academy Leadership Invitation

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Tocqueville On Religion And Freedom

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This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. Alexei de Tocqueville, a political official from France, traveled to the United States in 1831 and penned his observations in the now famous book Democracy in America. Being from France, what he found in America was completely unexpected to him. He reported, upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. And the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this. In France, I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America, I found that they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country. De Tocqueville recognized that it was biblical Christianity and the morals it produced that made America great. For more information about Alexe de Tocqueville and the positive influence of Christianity in early America, go to wallbuilders.com.

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Welcome

Independence And Christianity Linked

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back to the Wall Builder Show, jumping back in with Tim Barton teaching during the Rebuilding Liberty course.

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Right? He says the two most important days for you as Americans is the birth of Jesus and the birth of the nation. He continued on and said, Is it not that in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? It forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Now hang on a second. He's saying that the birth of the nation is linked to the birth of Jesus and that America is somehow connected to a gospel dis that the spreading and sharing and the teaching of the gospel? He continued. Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized a social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon the earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity. John Quincy Adams, the one who knew every founding father, the one who had grown up in the midst of this on an anniversary speech, 4th of July, he's saying, I know why we celebrate this, I know why it's a big deal. It's because of the Christian connection. Too few Americans recognize the Christian connection anymore. And in the midst of all that we're talking about, as we talk about America being one of the most successful, prosperous, stable nations in the history of the world, there's a reason we've enjoyed more blessings than almost anywhere else in the world. There's a direct connection and correlation. And just to be clear on this, you can take any founding father virtually you want to and learn their story. Benjamin

Franklin’s Prayer Proposal At Convention

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Franklin considered one of the least religious founding fathers. But least religious is totally different than anti-religious. Because as you can go and look and see the records of the Constitutional Convention, when the founding fathers come together, the first several weeks, when every state has brought their own idea for the way government should operate, and nobody likes anybody else's idea. And all they're doing is arguing, disagreeing, and so much frustration. It was reported that some of the delegates from Virginia they got up and the delegation is just going to leave. George Washington chases them down and says, George Mason, please come back. We didn't fight a war to give up now. And and George Mason tells them, Because I respect you, I'll come back. But I think we're wasting our time. I mean, that with how divided we are, there's no way we're going to come together. And it was at this point, June 28th, 1787, that Franklin, the old man of the convention, got up and gave the longest speech he gave during the entire Constitution Convention. And here's what he said in his speech. He said, In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it and present it to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the father of lights to illuminate our understanding? Now let's already pause. Because when the least religious guy is like, I think our solution is we should pray. Okay? That says a lot when that's your least religious. Also, it says a lot when people say he was a deist. Because a deist doesn't believe God gets involved. So why is a deist saying we need to pray and ask God to intervene in our situation? Well, let's keep going. He continued. In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for divine protection. They're in Independence Hall. That was the same place where 11 years earlier they did the declaration. And Franklin's reminding them. Remember when we were here and we prayed every single day? Also significant. Franklin says during the revolution, they prayed every single day for divine protection. He says, our prayers were heard and they were graciously answered. Again, that's not a deus God. Right? If God is answering your prayers, then you believe there is a God who intervenes in the affairs of men. Let's continue. He said all of us engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintendent providence in our favor. Have we now forgotten this powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire could rise without his aid? We have been assured in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this, and I also believe without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel, and we shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business. Now, again, when the least religious founding father is suggesting the way to resolve our conflict is we need to get God involved in this, it says a lot about their idea. And this is where I would go back and point out. That's why earlier historians, when they pointed out that Christianity was the atmosphere upon which this whole thing was birthed, the founding fathers understood something that I think a lot of Christians in America have even forgotten. It's what the Psalms tells us. Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. Why does all this matter? Because

Rebuilding Starts With Faith Foundation

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last week we talked about some really practical things that we can do to restore some of this faith foundation. And I think that there's a lot of people that have misunderstood what should be our greatest priorities. Because there's people looking going, hey, we need to solve this economic issues. I agree. There's a lot of economic problems we got to deal with. Maybe domestic policy, foreign policy, immigration. There's a lot of problems we have to deal with. But if we don't restore the atmosphere that allows freedom to work, if we don't restore religion and morality, then the American experiment will go the way that every other nation has gone in the history of the world, which after 250 years is the lifespan of nations, or we can have a rebirth. And this is where we want to encourage and challenge everybody watching, wherever you are watching from, where our name comes from is the Bible book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 217 is calling everybody, says, Come, let us rebuild that we will no longer be a disgrace. I think everybody in this room, probably most of you watching, can agree there have been some moments that were pretty disgraceful over the last many years, decades, centuries, however far back we need to go. But we are at a unique moment that we've never had before that we can rebuild like we've never rebuilt before. But I want to encourage what we have to make sure we remember in the midst of our rebuilding is that we're not rebuilding a structure without giving the right foundation. The foundation has to be, the founding father said, George Washington said the indispensable support is religion and morality. If you oppose that, you're not a patriot. But for every patriot, understand the foundation that we build from, we restore religion and morality. And after that, then let's target every other issue we need to get after. But we have to restore the faith foundation. If we don't have a faith foundation, we lose the idea. Like the declaration says, there's a God who gave us rights. Government exists to protect those rights. If there is no God, there are no God given rights. If there is no faith foundation, there is no freedom. This is the way the American system was built. But we are in a unique place that we can rebuild like never before. It's time for us as believers to roll up our sleeves and let's go back and rebuild. Thank you guys. Rick, let me give it back to you.

Biblical Lens And Civic Responsibility

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You can't have an accurate view of the world and history, especially, without it being from a biblical lens. It's just not possible. Western civilization is built on the Bible and on biblical principles. This goes back to the Hebrews. The nature of covenant was made by God. In order for us to truly understand history and understand our duty today, we have to look at really what it's built on. And the old adage is if you don't know your history, you'll make the same mistakes. I just believe inevitably you have to arrive at the truth that our country is founded on the Bible and its principles. And when you are confronted with that, it's impossible to ignore.

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Do you remember what was necessary for this nation to be great, saith every founding father? You must be a religious people. You must have a moral code. Why? Because you're gonna be a republic, and that means that you are gonna be the ones that get your leaders elected. You're gonna be the leaders, and you're the ones that are gonna have to hold them accountable, which means you have to be a moral people. So you go to church. That's where morals come from from God! And here's what I love about Texans. Not only do you people go to church, when you go, you're packing. So that right there, that has got to make your altar calls a lot more effective, doesn't it? Would you like to accept Jesus as your savior? I don't yeah, yeah, I'd like to do that.

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So this culture wants to rid us and rob us of our love for America. No, this nation is not perfect. We had a rocket start. But I'll take America for any other country or nation on the face of this planet. How about you? What is the answer? Is there hope for this nation? And the Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse 14. He says, If my people, which are called by my name, would humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal the land. Tomorrow is not promised. All we have before us is to hear and now. So let us govern ourselves as if there is a God. Because my friend, there is.

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I don't do politics. Well, the church is dirty. What's your point?

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If you're a Christian, a person of faith, you must care about what's happening in our culture.

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And you begin to love what God loves and hate what he hates in the scriptures because your heart is lining up with the heart of God because of the gospel.

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And the founders knew this nation was already very diverse. Federalism allows that diversity to flourish.

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The further we move away from biblical principles, the further we move away from liberty and freedom.

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Gotta take another break, folks. Stay with

Signers’ Stories And Sacred Honor

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us. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_11 19:03

Okay, we want to let you know about a new product we have here at Wall Builders called Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor, 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 signed their names on the line for the sake of the nation. 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 Honor, the Signers of the Declaration.

SPEAKER_09 20:06

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us on the Wall Builder Show. We're gonna jump back in and get the conclusion of week three of Rebuilding Liberty.

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I think biblical citizenship as a Christian would be stewardship. That God has given us this republic to be stewards over.

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As people are experiencing tyranny, we they they're asking why? What has happened? And there's just this feeling of being lost right now and not knowing where to turn. And you just gave us the foundation. This is truth.

Tavern Plan For Limited Government

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Everybody, welcome back to the tavern portion of our rebuild Liberty. Remember, we're having those revolutionary conversations about the strategies and tactics necessary to rebuild the walls. Actually, lay the bricks, use the right mortar, and build this thing strong for future generations. So here in our tavern, we're gonna talk about the action items. What can you do in your community this week to implement what Tim was talking about tonight, really what David talked about last week, what we've been talking about throughout the course? It all comes back to this idea. When you learn that history, you realize that the Founding Fathers of America had this concept of jurisdictions. They believed that our freedom came from God, not government. That really important line in the Declaration of Independence, that we're endowed by our Creator. And then that really important line that says that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. You put those together and it gives you a really clear chain of command, if you will. The freedom comes from God to you. And then you give to government the power to protect your rights. That's the whole reason we created government in the first place here in America. So what we've got to do is figure out what is government really supposed to do? They're supposed to protect, not provide. They're not supposed to give us all these things. That's why it's pursuit of happiness, not guarantee of happiness, pursuit of happiness, not redistribution of happiness. So if we're gonna actually rebuild liberty in this country, what we've got to start doing is restoring. That civic literacy, restoring the Declaration of Principles, restoring religious liberty. And then this week we need to talk about restoring limited government, getting government back into its proper jurisdictional place. Instead of government solving all our problems, we need to say, government, you do those things that only government can do and that we've given government the power to do. One of the first steps I want to encourage you to think about this week is restoring parental rights. That's a way of restoring limited government because in too many places we've given government the power to make decisions about our children, to make decisions about our children's education, decisions about our children's health, all of these things. And that is not the proper role of government. So we've got some work to do to restore the basic jurisdictional separation there, that parental rights means that the parent should decide the upbringing of the child, should make the health decisions, the education decisions, all of those things. And frankly, we need some amendments to state constitutions and we need a federal amendment. We need an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that'll guarantee parental rights and stop the government from encroaching on our decisions. So we write more about that in the blueprint, and there's things that you can do to get involved with local organizations. Check that out in your workbook and in the blueprint, and we'll connect you with those organizations. Second major step in our 12-step recovery for this week, it's actually step number eight overall, is to restore property rights. This is just another one of those areas where little by little we gave more and more power on the decision making to government. So now we have government bureaucrats and engineers that don't answer to us telling us what we can do with our property. That's wrong. You, the landowner, should decide what you want to do with your property. Obviously, you shouldn't harm your neighbor, and if you do, they should be able to take you to court and you should have to make it right. But this idea that we have to go to our local government and constantly get permission to do things with our land, that's wrong. And it's not freedom. So there's a lot of things we can do locally. We've got some things in the book. We're working on a property owner's bill of rights that we want to get people to adopt at the local level. So make sure you're paying attention at patriotacademy.com. Get on our email list, and you can be one of our champions for that particular step as well. Then the last step we're going to talk about in the tavern this week is abolishing federal duplicity. I talked about this in the first week a little bit, but the whole point is that the government at the federal level should not be doing the things that the government at the local or state level is already doing. Education, uh, agriculture. I mean, you'd pick many of these departments at the federal level are actually duplicating what was already being done at the state or local level. This is one of those things where we've got to get rid of the waste and literally abolish these departments at the federal level. Maybe some of those at the state level as well, but right now the low-hanging fruit is to abolish these departments at the federal level. You and I need to be working on that. Some of that's going to have to be done through constitutional amendments. Sometimes we can get Congress to do it, and sometimes the president will be pushing for some of these things to happen. But this is one of those areas where we have to start challenging the status quo. This is a revolutionary strategy and tactic to restore limited government. All right,

Weekly Review And Final Week Preview

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quick review before we close out our tavern section tonight. In our first week, we talked about three steps. The first three steps of our recovery plan for the country. You host a rebuild Liberty course. You get involved in planning a 250th celebration right there in your community. And yes, you help make the Constitution something that's studied at your local public schools or get a celebrate Freedom Week going at your schools. That was the first three steps in our recovery plan. Talked about that in week one. Hopefully, you're already working on one of those three. And then in week two, we talked about beginning to restore our religious liberty and God consciousness by getting the national motto in God We Trust, the Ten Commandments, Chaplains, Bible curriculum in school, all of those things in week two that we talked about. And then this week, we're beginning that process of restoring limited government, restoring parental rights, restoring property rights, and abolishing federal duplicity. That's a lot to cover for these few minutes that we have in the tavern. Hope you got you a good cup of Patriot Brew. I'll see you next week here in the tavern to talk about our final action steps. Welcome back to Rebuilding Liberty. What a great week this has been. Week three. Now we got one more week left, and we got some great teaching for you next week as well. But I want you already thinking about where you're gonna host the next Rebuilding Liberty course. Has everybody had a great time in the first three weeks? Yeah? One more week to go. We'll see you next week for Rebuilding Liberty.

Where To Watch And Listen

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All right, everybody, out of time for today, that was week three of Rebuilding Liberty, Tim Barton teaching in the Rebuilding Liberty course. Go to wallbuilders.show to listen or go to Patriotacademy.com to get the videos. Thanks so much for listening to the Wall Builder Show.