Biblical Citizenship In Modern America, Week 3-Part 2 – Truth And Liberty: Truth is vital to the foundation of society. But, where do you find truth? Is Google a reliable source? We can no longer assume we are hearing factual information from others; we must be willing to search out the truth from original sources. Tune in to hear a segment from our Biblical Citizenship in Modern America course, and realize the importance of finding and defending truth!

Air Date: 08/02/2023

Guest: David Barton

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

 

 

Transcription note: As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Rick:

Welcome to WallBuilders Live. This is the place where we look at all the issues of the day from a biblical, constitutional, and historical perspective. And this week, we’re bringing you a really special program that does all three of those things. 

It’s a new course that we started in January of this year called Biblical Citizenship in Modern America. It’s an eight week course. And it’s an opportunity for you to bring friends and family together and discuss the hot topics of the day from a biblical perspective, and talk about what we should be doing as Christians to be salt and light in our communities.

What we’re doing here on the radio program is we’re bringing you the third week of that eight week course all throughout this week. So today is part two of that. So if you missed yesterday, you might want to go back to our website at wallbuilderslive.com, click on the archives and listen to yesterday’s program. But we’re going to dive right back in where we left off yesterday. This is Biblical Citizenship in Modern America.

The Search for John Clum

I had been up as a search servicer I look for John Clum Christian, couldn’t get a single hit. That’s interesting. So I just went over to DuckDuckGo and tried it on DuckDuckGo, and all sorts of articles popped up about John Clum, the Christian. Interesting. I look for that topic on Bing and it’s cut out.

It’s same way as writing about Hollywood and how different Hollywood used to be. As a matter of fact, there’s about two dozen guys who won the Academy Award back in the Golden Age of Hollywood that were veterans. We loved America. We promoted America. So many faith movies back in those days, we believe it is George Washington said that religion and morality were the foundation of patriotism. That’s what he said in his farewell address. So Hollywood used to promote that.

And one of the guys who helped do that was a guy named Cecil B. DeMille. Cecil B. DeMille directed 81 movies. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, the greatest show on earth and the Ten Commandments and all these great movies he did. 

And he’s a strong Christian guy. As matter of fact, after he did the movie, Ten Commandments, Yul Brynner who was one of the stars in that movie, Charlton Heston, and other star, the three of them went around the United States erecting Ten Commandments monuments all over the United States.

Some accounts say they erected more than 4,000 Ten Commandments monuments and parks everywhere. Now when the case went to the Supreme Court a few years ago about whether Texas could have a Ten Commandments out on its courtyard there in the Capitol area, it was Ten Commandments that was part of what had been erected back there when the Hollywood guys were actually erecting Ten Commandments, this is what lead to the spring court case.

So I know that Cecil B. DeMille, very strong faith guy, so on Bing, I look up Cecil B. DeMille, Christian, nothing comes up. I go to DuckDuckGo, Cecil B. DeMille, Christian, listing all over the place. So you actually now have to find out how do you find truth? How do you go to a source of truth because you can’t just trust the first thing that pops up anymore, because algorithm has changed such a way? 

This is where you have to go back to original document. If it was a trial, what you do is you throw out all hearsay evidence, and you have to have primary first source evidence from an eyewitness. We don’t allow somebody who are second or third hand or whatever. You got to go somebody who is an expert on that, who actually saw it happen was there.

How Do We Find Truth?

That’s why with what we have at WallBuilders, a collection saw last week, we’ve got more than 100,000 items that predate 1812. So if you want to know what the Founding Fathers thought about judicial activism, or what they thought about immigration or anything else, let’s just go get the original documents and read it in their own handwriting. That’s one way you find truth.

So what happens is to find the truth today is now becoming hard work because you’re going to hear all sorts of things, and then you’re going to hear even conservative media pick it up and say it. And just because three or four conservative channels say it doesn’t mean it’s more any, right than if three or four progressive channels say it. 

You have to be able to say what is the truth. And I find as, I tend to be a conservative, that’s not what I call myself, that’s what everybody else calls me.

I just hold beliefs that I think are consistent with the Constitution and the Bible, which that would put me in the conservative camp today. I would point out that that actually being called a conservative, progressive, anything else was helpful for identification, it really means nothing. 

I’ve got a friend who serves in Parliament in Australia who believes exactly what I believe, which over in Australia, that means you’re a member of the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party is the party that believes in biblical morality, in biblical principles.

So the names we stick on labels really doesn’t matter as much as what the beliefs are. So even as a conservative, I find that there are so many of my conservative news outlets I go no, that’s actually not true. Actually, here’s what the Founding Fathers said about the issue of filibusters in the Senate. 

And while you may be conservative and you may be chewing up Schumer in the Senate for trying to break the filibuster rule, here’s actually what the Founding Fathers said about that. That’s not the mere conservative liberal issue. That’s a truth issue that goes back to what the actual debates were when it actually happen. So that’s part of what we have to do is we have to put hard work in it.

Good Intentions

You see it in America, we have had good intentions for so long that we’ve really been coasting on these good intentions. We know that our teachers are not lying to us. We know the media is not really lying to us. Well, not anymore. 

We can’t make this assumption in any area anymore. See, as good-hearted people, we want to assume the best of other people. And in doing that, we often buy a lot of garbage, it’s really not true, because we’re assuming. I’ve got a good car. I wouldn’t deliberately lie to somebody. They wouldn’t do it to me. Yeah, they would.

And so what has to happen now is you can’t coast with good intentions anymore. You have to say, wait a minute, timeout. I need to find out if that’s true. I love the passage in Acts 17:11, Acts 17:11, where Paul on a second missionary journey as he’s going from place to place, remember, Paul is the most credentialed apostle in Christianity. 

He’s the guy with all the PhDs after his name. He was raised at the foot of Gamaliel, who is a great thinker, great legal scholar, great biblical scholar. Paul had all the credentials. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees as he. I mean, everything was there.

And when he was talking about the Bereans on his second mission journey, he said, I love these guys. He said, they don’t believe anything I tell them till after they go check the scriptures to see if I was telling them the truth. Paul said that those in Berea were more noble than those even in Thessalonica. 

And we have the books in the Bible of First and Second Thessalonians of those in Thessalonica said, Paul said, these guys in Berea are more noble than even the guys in Thessalonica because they won’t believe anything I tell them until they go check the Scriptures for themselves to see if it’s true. See, that’s the adage you get.

What I’m telling you tonight, you need to go check and see if this is true. You need to find out if I’m telling you, you can’t just assume that people telling you the truth. That’s what we’ve coasted on for a long time and look where we are now as a result: we don’t even recognize evil intent when it comes to anymore.

Defending the Truth

So what has to happen is we have to find the truth. So you have to love the truth, you have to find the truth. And third thing we have to do is we have to defend the truth. Defending the truth takes a lot of courage. This is a different time in our history unlike any other time. Recent polling tells us the 77% of traditional value Americans now self-censor because of the current hostility that’s out there. 

We’ve seen 70,000 people in groups be deplatformed. I’m going to have to tone it down a little bit otherwise, I won’t have any friends love to talk to you. You know, I’ve got 200 reach that I can get here, and so I got tune it down so I can keep my 200.

And so what happens is we’re backing away from the message, we’re backing away from confronting what the truth is, and we’re going more into what they want us to say so that we can keep a position and we’re not losing all of our voice. That’s not the right thing to do. You can’t be backed up and you can’t be intimidated. 

And now that’s what we find, is Americans are self-censoring because the climate is that, and if I say this, I’m going to get attacked on Facebook. If I say this, they’re going to launch on me. Whatever it is, you can’t self-censor anymore.

It’s interesting that in the Bible, and the Bible tells us so much, and not even just about the practical things like economics, the other things we talked about, government, law, but it tells us even about spiritual things like heaven and hell. And according to the Bible, heaven and hell, they are very real places. 

We know about heaven. We know about Jesus, and how we get to heaven. But hell, we don’t always spend a lot of time on hell. We know that it exist, and yet the Bible tells us that is a very real place. I mean, it’s just as real as what we believe happened to be.

Matter of fact, if you look in the book of Revelation chapter 21:8, in the book of Revelation, it talks about the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is a second death. That’s hell. That’s describing hell. And that verse, who is it that goes to hell? According to that verse, you read the first part of the verse, it says well, the faithless, the detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters and all liars. That’s bad folks. A murderer, and liars and perjurers, those are folks who go to hell. You may notice that there’s a blank at the top there. See that blank at the top?

Cowards

What is it this starts the list of who gets sent to hell? The first thing on the list is cowards and fearful. All the other people go there for what they do. They kill someone. They are liars or perjurers. 

These folks go there for what they didn’t do. They didn’t have any backbone. They wouldn’t stand up. They were cowards. They were fearful. It’s interesting to me that God puts out at the top of the list of stuff he doesn’t like. And this is what gets you sent to hell. Wow!

We need to develop a backbone. Imagine if the Founding Fathers had the same attitude that so many conservatives today have? We’d still be British colonies. And I’m not saying that we need to go out and have confrontation and we need to have violent stuff and have a revolution. 

By the way, we don’t even understand that. Those guys worked 11 years to not get into a conflict. After the British started coming after them, 11 years later, they’re still trying peaceful reconciliation.

Matter of fact, six years after the British started firing bullets at them, they were still trying to reconcile. They weren’t looking to split. But once they get pushed so far, that’s the only thing they could do and stand with integrity. And so you have to have some point at which you say, you know what, I’m not crossing this line with social media.

I’m not crossing this line with the school district, they’re not going to talk me into whatever. Whatever it is, you have to take a position. And you can’t be fearful and you can’t be a coward. So that’s what the Bible tells us. And that’s why courage is the third thing that I’ll point out.

So in talking about truth, just to hit this again real quickly, you have to love truth above your own opinion, you have to be willing to change. There’s some of the hardest decisions to make is that I have to give up something I’ve believed for much of my life because I now find I’m wrong. You have to be willing to love the truth. 

But then you now have to be able to find the truth. And this is, we’ve never been at a point in America where that this is the situation we have now.

Lies Presented as Truth

There are so many lies out there that are presented as truth, that how do we know what’s true and what’s not? This is what’s going to take a lot of hard work to find the truth. We’ve got to put more effort into being a citizen than we’ve ever had to do in our entire life, more effort into being a Christian than we have our entire life. 

And then once we do that, we have to defend the truth. And defending the truth takes a lot of backbone, a lot of courage, particularly in a nation that’s as polarized as we are now.

You see, when three out of five Americans believe there is no absolute truth for you to defend it, it means 60% is going to be against you, because they think absolute truth is determined by them, not by any objective standard. So just tell you, you’re going to be in the minority when you start standing up for truth, even if it’s among your own folks.

And you know, I kind of look at what happened with Moses is a great example. I’ve been involved in politics. I’ve been involved in church, held a lot of church positions, held a lot of political positions. In both positions, the motto I put up in my office wall is I don’t need enemies. I have friends. 

Friendly Fire

And often is the friends that attack you worse than your enemies do. I’ve learned in both politics and church I really need bulletproof vests. And I always wear them to the back, because it’s a friendly fire that kills you.

You look at Moses, Moses only had to fight the Egyptians one time, he fought his own people for 40 years. And that’s the way it is. You start standing for truth and you’re going to have a lot of opposition, even from people that should be on your side. Just because they oppose doesn’t mean they won’t change eventually, just keep standing firm, and keep making your articular arguments.

You keep reasoning. Keep present truth, and you’ll find that people eventually shift and come back in the right direction. Because what you’re saying the first time they’ve never heard before, so they’re going to reject it, because I’ve never heard that. Understand? So let me explain to you a different way. Let me come at it from this direction.

So you just have to be faithful to hang in there and keep saying the truth, keep defending the truth, keep speaking the truth, to keep encouraged with truth, you’ll find that you’ll start developing a following, they’ll come behind you say you know, you’re right. I used to believe you’re really crazy.

But now, I find that what you said is true. That’s the kind of tenacity we have to have with truth. So I encourage you to love the truth, to spend the effort to find the truth and then to defend the truth.

Great Resources

If you’re interested the book, we have The American Story, it’s all about truth of what happened in America. That’s a counter narrative, the 1619 project, and it’s not based in our opinions, is more than 1,000 footnotes in there, they go back to original sources. So you can check it yourself. We encourage you to do that. 

And then seeing how the Bible relates to every aspect of life is why we did the Founders’ Bible. It takes the Bible verses, it shows what goes with emigration or economics or civil justice or education or anything else. Bible is a great book. So I encourage you to get into those books and study them, if you need resources, this is a great place to go. God bless you guys thankfully and share with you.

Rick:

Alright, friends, quick break today. We’re only doing one break today. We’ll be right back with more of Biblical Citizenship in Modern America.

CONSTITUTION ALIVE!

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the United States Constitution, but just felt like man, the classes are boring, or it’s just that old language from 200 years ago, or I don’t know where to start? People want to know, but it gets frustrating because you don’t know where to look for truth about the constitution either.

Well, we’ve got a special program for you available now called Constitution Alive! With David Barton and Rick Green. And it’s actually a teaching done on the Constitution at Independence Hall in the very room where the constitution was framed. 

We take you both to Philadelphia, the cradle of liberty and Independence Hall and to the WallBuilders’ library, where David Barton brings the history to life to teach the original intent of our Founding Fathers.

We call it the Quickstart Guide to the Constitution, because in just a few hours through these videos, you will learn the citizen’s guide to America’s constitution, you’ll learn what you need to do to help save our constitutional republic. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, and it’s going to inspire you to do your part to preserve freedom for future generations. 

It’s called Constitution Alive! With David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more information on our website now at wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live, Biblical Citizenship in Modern America is the topic this week. We’re sharing with you week three out of an eight week course called Biblical Citizenship. Let’s jump right in where we left off before the break.

Welcome to Constitution Alive! The citizens guide to America’s founding documents. We are here in one of the most amazing libraries on the planet with one of the foremost experts on the Founding Fathers in our founding documents, David Barton. David, thank you so much for having us…

Why Is History Important?

David:

Hey, good to be here, Rick, thanks for having me, bro.

Rick:

So why do you dive into so much history? Why spend so much time in the past?

David:

You know, the reason we do that is because we have been the most successful nation in the history of the world to this point. And there’s a reason for that. And our objective with what we want to do, our objective is really well stated by John Jay. And John Jay became the original Chief Justice of US Supreme Court. But at the time, they wrote the Constitution, he and James Madison, Alexander Hamilton did the Federalist Papers.

 And that was to explain to America what the Constitution is all about. So he’s really one of the three guys most responsible for the adoption of the Constitution through those Federalist Papers. He had a great statement on why we study this type of stuff. And this is a statement he made.

He said, “Every member of the state ought diligently to read and to study the Constitution of his country, and teach the rising generation to be free.” Now, it’s interesting he relates to being free to knowing the Constitution. 

You ought to know the Constitution and teach the next generation if you intend to be free. He says, “By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when they’re violated and be the better prepared to defend and assert them.” Now, that’s really the objective of what we’re doing all these next lessons that come along. And there’s six verbs that he has in there that will be really the guideline for what every citizen needs to shoot for. So the six verbs…

Rick:

So this really drive everything we do for the rest of the course then, this is our outline?

Why Read the Constitution?

David:

This drives the course. That’s the outline. He says, first, you want to read the Constitution of your country. You want to read and study it. And it’s one thing to read, it’s another thing to study it. So read is like a quick perusal but study is get to know it. 

And then he says, and then you want to be able to teach it. You want to be able to take the next generation and say, hey, guys, here’s what you need to know. Here’s the document you need to know. Here’s the principles. This is what will keep you free. And this is the formula that’s produced American success.

Then he says, when you do that, then you’ll know your rights, and when you know your rights, you’ll perceive when they’re being violated, and then you’ll be prepared to defend and to assert them. And there’s a big difference between defending and assert. Defend is on defense. I’ll defend my rights. Assert them is I’m going on offense to make sure I defend your rights…

Rick:

Because we need to do more right.

David:

And that’s what we need.

Rick:

If that’s what’s going to keep us free, this part is where we’re really losing out, teaching the rising generation to be free. If we don’t have a good education system, if we’re not teaching what’s in this room, we’re losing the…

David:

Well, you hit the education system, let’s just be real blunt. We spend up to $120,000 over the educational course of a kid to go to school for 12 years. We’re not getting our money’s worth…

Education is Failing Us

Rick:

Less than some of our less expensive districts.

David:

Well, that’s right. That’s the average nationally, so it’s going to be up or down in some Washington D.C. is way more than that. So it depends on the district you’re in. But what we know is that every state Constitution says that the purpose of public education is to prepare active and informed citizens.

Rick:

So we started those education systems to do exactly what John Jay is saying here?

David:

But what we know right now is if you look at recent elections, those who have gone through our public education system, you’re looking right now is 70% that do not know the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. So…

Rick:

So we’re definitely failing not teaching the rising Junior to be free…

David:

You’re looking at 65% that cannot even tell you what the role of the judiciary is. That’s one of the three branches. As a matter of fact, speaking one of the three branches, 62% of those who have gone through public education cannot even name the three branches of government.

Rick:

More than half, and so you definitely don’t know what those branches are supposed to do if you don’t even know what they’re…

David:

And by the way, 48% of elected officials cannot name the three branches of government.

Teach the Rising Generation to Be Free

Rick:

That’s half of our actual public servants in office.

David:

If you don’t know the three branches, you don’t know checks and balances, you don’t know functions, you don’t know what the Constitution… And that’s why you read and study the Constitution, you teach it the rising generation…

Rick:

Well, maybe they devalue what is in here, because they think, look, this is old stuff. I mean, I hear that all the time. Yeah, it’s 200 years old, doesn’t apply today. Why should I pay attention to all this stuff that happened 200 years ago?

David:

Let me just one more time hit this because this is our objective and we’re going to look at old stuff. So number one, read the Constitution, two study the Constitution, three teach the Constitution, special rising generation, but maybe there’s burger flippers beside you, maybe the mechanics in the shop where you work…

Rick:

Not only the next generation, your generation…

David:

Because we’re at a point now, where public education is not taught us, so we got to just teach the Constitution. But once we do that, we want to know our constitutional rights, we want to defend our constitutional rights and assert our constitutional rights. Now, that’s what we’re after. 

The Ten Commandments

But you’ve raised the issue of, you know, it’s a really old document. We hear that. Because the Founding Fathers, when they did this Constitution, it didn’t have internet. I mean, fastest transport they have, horses, you know.

I’ve been involved in a number of court cases, state and federal courts on issues of history original intent. And one of those issues is the issue of the Ten Commandments, because for generations in America, you’re more likely to find a copy of the Ten Commandments hanging in a certain building than any religious building. 

And that’s just the way it was. I mean, the Ten Commandments considered the foundation of law. And so many of these places where the Ten Commandments has been hanging, there’s now lawsuits and oh, you can’t do that, that’s religious. You have to take that down.

So in going through and telling the Judge, no, here’s the first law book in America, goes back to the code of 1650, and of course, the Ten Commandments all the way through. Now you take the Ten Commandments and look at the Ten Commandments… You know, I think that thing about honoring father and mother still works. I think thou shalt not kill still works…

Rick:

There’s not one of those that doesn’t work today…

David:

Everyone of those still works today. And the reason is, they’re not drawn on specifics, they’re drawn on principles. They take timeless principles, because the nature of man doesn’t change, we still kill people, we still perjure, we still disrespect parents. And that’s why it works. That’s the way the Constitution is. 

They Gave Us Principles

The Founding Fathers didn’t give us all the specifics. They gave us these principles of jurisdiction, principles of all free. And that’s why it still works more than two centuries later. That’s why it’ll still work two centuries from now, if we know it and save it and pursue it…

Rick:

No, if they were thinking that way, though, I mean, if they were thinking, okay, we’re going to put something in place here that needs to be timeless that’s going to still work 100, 200, 500 years from now, how did they get to that point? Who were these guys to have that kind of?

David:

Let’s just take the guys who signed the Declaration. Now, you’re going to be doing this class in Independence Hall. Independence Hall is where they signed the Declaration and the Constitution. When I throw this up at major law school, really sharp kids, and I’ll say who you do recognize? 

Everybody can find Jefferson. Everybody can find Franklin. And that’s where it stops. I go wait a minute, 56 guys, give me some more. They don’t know them. Number one, we’ve been taught to recognize our two least religious Founding Fathers. So we don’t know anything about the…

Rick:

Those are the only two they really talk about in schools…

David:

That’s the only two they talk about in schools. We say, well, let me just take you across the front row. How about Benjamin Harrison here, great General of the revolution? Or let’s go here to Richard Henry Lee, the guy who actually made the proposal that we separate from Great Britain, he goes on to be one of the framers of the Bill of Rights. 

You’ve got the wealthiest man in America right there, Charles Carroll. You’ve also got one of the poorest guys in America right there, was Sam Adams.

Sam Adams is so poor that when they elected him in the Congress, he didn’t even have the suit of clothes. His neighbors took up a collection to get a suit of clothes. He had to go borrow a horse to ride to Congress. You have John Hancock, who is one of the most famous businessmen in America. So you got businessman…

They Were Patriots

Rick:’

Everything in every career…

David:

It’s everything. It’s everything.  As a matter of fact, 29 of these guys out of the 56 had a college degree, so nearly half of them didn’t have a college degree. And..

Rick:

That was my next question, was it education, because they didn’t all have the best education.

David:

One-fourth of these guys were home-educated, several guys. You know, this guy right here, Roger Sherman, the only guy to sign all four founding documents, completely self-taught. He never had any formal education. 

But they understood the principles. And they got those principles. And they wrote a document that didn’t reflect what was going on 200 years ago, it reflected human nature. And one thing about these guys is they were patriots. They love their country, no question about it. And…

Rick:

What does that really mean, I mean, when you say they’re Patriot? That’s a negative to somebody. It’s a big positive to others. What does it mean?

Benjamin Rush

David:

Benjamin Rush, I think is the best guy to explain it. Because Benjamin Rush, John Adams said, he’s one of the three most notable Founding Fathers. John Adams said, there’s George Washington, Ben Franklin, Benjamin Rush will never stand there…

Rick:

And they get a name that most people are not going to know Benjamin Rush.

David:

And they should because he is the top doctor in American history. 3,000 students got their medical diplomas signed by him. He’s also the “Father of Public Schools.” Under the Constitution, he also started five universities, three go today. He signed the Declaration. He ratified the Constitution. He served in three different presidents’ administrations. He’s the director of the US man. He’s a huge…

Rick:

One guy doing that much? I know he’s one of your favorites, so you have a book on Benjamin Rush and his life?

David:

See why we have a lot of books by Benjamin Rush. This is one of original books that we’ll talk about in a minute. But what he does is he says, let me tell you what patriotism is. 

And so this is what he’s teaching the rising generation, because Founding Fathers understood, we get the principles. But if our next generation doesn’t understand this, it’s not going to work. So that’s why we put so much time in education…

Rick:

Got to instill it in this generation.

Patriotism

David:

So here’s his definition of patriotism. He says patriotism is as much a virtue as justice. Now who would be opposed to justice? You know, nobody. He said, that’s just as much a virtue as Justice. And it’s just as necessary for the support of scientist as natural factionist, but supportive families. 

Imagine trying to keep your family together if you didn’t have love in the family. He says, well, imagine trying to keep your country together if you don’t have love for your country. You got to have love for your family. You go to the deck for each other in family, and you got to be willing to do it.

And he says, actually, if you’re not patriotic, you’re selfish. And this is the way he explains it. He says, the more potrai, which is the love of country, the love of your country is both a moral and a religious duty. It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors, but of millions of our fellow creatures, not only of the present, but a future generation. 

In other words, if you love your country, you’re saying I want what’s best for all my neighbors, and I’m  going to work my tail off to have a good country, because I want my neighbors be prosperous and safe. 

I don’t want thugs and criminals overrun them. I want to make sure we got good government. I want to make sure they can keep the money they earn. I want to make sure they got a good education for the kids. And if I love my country, I’m going to fight for those things…

Rick:

So you’re not just thinking of yourself, you’re thinking about the other people?

Really Loving Others

David:

You know, if it’s just me, I’ll just go off the grid somewhere, I’ll get out and just live my life the way I want to. I’ll go right off the grid. 

No, if I love others, I’ve got to fight for my country. I’ve got to be willing to stand and say and that’s what it says, not just for the present, but for future generations. 

I want to keep these principles alive so that if the Lord tarries for 200 years from now, this country is still working, and still the most prosperous, the most stable, the most free in the history of the world. But that’s what patriotism is. And that’s why says it’s both a social and a religious duty.

Rick:

Man, there’s so much that wisdom in this room and in these books we got to come back to. Now our next part of this chapter, I have to thank you for, because we were actually sitting in a restaurant, I don’t know if you remember this, we’re in Nashville, Tennessee, we’d gone out there for you to speak to some legislators. 

And you and Cheryl and I were sitting in this restaurant, it’s that one where they have live music. Do you remember that?

David:

Yeah, I do…

Rick:

And I was telling you that, hey, we’ve been teaching this constitution class around, we’re going to record it again, you said, why don’t you do it at Independence Hall where the Constitution is framed? Oh, that’s a dream. There’s no way that would happen. 

Biblical Citizenship In Modern America, Week 3-Part 2 – Truth And Liberty

You know, I’ve done it. So you taught me to call it oh, my call them, it worked out. And we’re going to now be able to go to the very place where all of this happened, the actual room, Independence Hall and give folks a chance to learn and study the Constitution in the room where it happened. So let’s go to Philadelphia for Constitution Alive!

The Constitution is so unique. It is the only Constitution that actually limits government. You know, we don’t have to empower government, government on its own will seek power. It will take power, it will grow, as we’re seeing happening in the United States. But our Constitution limits the power of government.

Part of the problem with people not understanding our founding documents is then they want too much from their government. They want the government to provide things that government is not supposed to be able to provide. And I think that’s what we’re seeing in America today.

Rick:

Out of time for today, folks, we’re going to have to pick up where we left off. We’ll do more tomorrow, and the next day we’ll get the conclusion. Thanks so much for listening to WallBuilders Live.