Stephen McDowell looks at education in early America

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today we will continue the story that we've started in the past few podcasts on Christ's ever increasing kingdom. We've been looking at how ever since Christ Jesus set foot in the world, there's been no end to the increase of his kingdom, his rule, his government, and that everything was impacted by the coming of Christ, by the incarnation, which we celebrate this time of year. We remember that God himself became a man, was birthed into the world to transform everything. He ushered in a new age, a gospel age. And that that coming of Christ has transformed millions and in recent times, hundreds of millions of individual lives. But it, also has affected every sphere of life. Everything from government and law and education and politics and family and philosophy and sanitation and law. Everything, that there is has been impacted by the Christian faith. And we began to just give an overview, a highlight of this story. We were talking about how the concept of education for all is a biblical idea. And where Christianity has gone. Literacy rates have increased because people, have recognized, the value of knowing truth. And people have been given a written language. Most written languages we've been given by Christian individuals, gospel preachers, missionaries if you will, who are carrying out the mission of Christ to disciple nations. We looked at many, many, many languages that were first given in written form by them from the Cyrillic language, really, the English language was solidified m many Native American languages and so many more. And that, people began to become illiterate, learning how to read and comprehend ideas because now they had truth available to them when the Bible's available. And this is something we need to know. And so early Christians set up schools to educate Patrick in Ireland, a disciple, Patrick, set up many schools, throughout, Western Europe and trained. Many of the first universities in Western Europe were Christian as they were started in the 1000s, 1100s, 1200s, 1300s. And with the birth of America, schools began to be started to train everyone how to read the Bible. And the first colleges were started for that reason as well. And we've looked at some of that in past podcasts. Because what is the purpose of education? Well, one, the purpose of education is to transmit truth. And that only comes through a knowledge of God's word. And that's what the early settlers of America understood. The first school laws passed by those people in NewSong England and Massachusetts in the 1640s, the preamble says it being one chief project of that old delude or Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures so they recognize Satan wants to keep people ignorant because he can keep them in bondage when they're ignorant. We can't have that. So everybody has to have some way to be educated so they can read and understand the truth themselves. So education is to transmit truth by knowledge of God's word. It's also to transmit a living knowledge of the truth. And it's because God's word is living, it's active. We need, God to open our eyes, to really see truth. And one of the original rules of Harvard College said, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life. John 17:3. That was a foundational rule of Harvard College. And so the living truth is Jesus Christ himself. He is truth, as he declared to Pilate and other places. And so that's why education spread rapidly in early America, because they wanted everybody to know the truth. And the textbooks reflect this Christian aspect of education. Again in earlier podcasts in the year, we look more deeply at education in early America. But just as a brief reminder, the primary textbooks used in early America were thoroughly Christian. And the 1600s, the primary teaching tool was a hornbook. These were used in Europe as well. But in America, it's called the Colonial hornbook. It was just a piece of paper that had Alphabet on it. Some of them had a pictorial Alphabet, had listing all the letters and some syllables. Child would learn the sound that the letters make. And then their first reading lesson. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, Amen. And then they would learn the Lord's Prayer. That was their first reading. lesson 1690, the NewSong England Primer was first published. It was the most popular textbook. Certainly for the next hundred years. The founding fathers of America would have used the NewSong England Primer. And it's thoroughly Christian in its content, even the way it taught the Alphabet. it had used biblical examples. One edition says, a, in Adam's fall, we sinned all. B, having defined the Bible mind, C, Christ crucified for sin, sinners died, and on and on. So you learn the Alphabet with biblical examples that had biblical lessons with biblical truth. The Ten Commandments were taught. The catechism, question and answers dealing with the fundamentals of the Christian faith were presented in that as well. Then beginning 1783, in the next century, Noah Webster's blueback speller became the most popular textbook, sold over 100 million copies. It was thoroughly Christian, taught lessons such as, God will forgive those who repent of their sins and live a holy life, examine the Scriptures daily and carefully, and set an example of good works. Another place the student would read. Those who enjoy the light of the gospel and neglect to observe its precepts are more criminal than the heathen. Webster was also known for his original exhaustive English Dictionary published in 1828 that we've touched on before, where he gives biblical definitions, uses thousands of scriptural references. And so where Christianity has gone, the truth of Christ has gone. Where the Bible has gone.

Since America was built upon biblical Christianity, we see advancements here

In the past 2,000 years, we see advancements in every sphere of life. And since America was built upon biblical Christianity, we, we especially see advancements here. And in earlier podcasts. We looked at, in detail at some of those advancements, in science and technology, for example, and we, talked about Cyrus McCormick and the McCormick Reaper. We talked about Samuel F.B. morris, who invented the telegraph. These were just, two of many, many very significant technological inventions that, have taken place and, you know, since the Protestant Reformation. And we discussed how the Protestant Reformation, its focal point was the giving the Bible to the common person in a language he could read. And that, when truth was released through those printings of the Bible, it led to an avalanche of new inventions and discoveries. From the early first century to around 1400, there were perhaps three or four significant technological inventions per century. In the 1500s, there's six significant technological inventions. In the 1800s, there were 13. Excuse me. In the 1600s, 13 in the 1700s, 37 in the 1800s. 112. Of course, this is when America and the fruit of liberty coming forth in America. So many of, those new inventions and discoveries came out of the United States because of the great Christian liberty that existed here, the 1900, 129. So these are significant. There are obviously a lot more inventions, than those, but these were significant things. Like, you know, in the 1400s, one of those would have been the Gutenberg press. And the Gutenberg press was used to mass produce God's word. Johann Gutenberg, when he invented movable type in the 1450s, the first complete book printed on the printing press was the Bible. And he said, through the press, God will spread his word. A spring of pure truth shall flow from it like a new star. It shall scatter the darkness of ignorance and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine. Among men. So that's one of those significant advancements clearly came from a Christian person with a Christian culture for a biblical reason. And God used it to mass produce his Word. But we also see, you know, scientific advancements and men that were significant in bringing scientific advancements were a product of Christian culture. Isaac Newton, probably the greatest scientist of all time, was able to develop his law of gravity and laws of motion. He's the one who developed calculus to explain the motion of the planets. His, particle theory of light. He built the first reflecting telescope. These are just a few of the things he did. But he was a product of Christian culture. So was the greatest experimental scientist of all time, Michael Faraday. Michael Faraday was a Christian and the product of Christian culture. Where Christianity has gone, liberty is gone. And advancement in every sphere of life, including the sciences, inventions and sciences as well. Michael Faraday laid the foundation for new fields of science. Electromagnetism, magneto, optics, diamagnetism. He invented the dynamo and electric motor, which became the foundation of the modern day electrical industry. And we have him to thank for so much of things that made us more productive and made life better. We mentioned in past podcasts how a proliferation of inventions and discoveries and advances came after the birth of America because of the great Christian liberty that existed here. There were scores and scores of these new discoveries and inventions that have brought flourishing, they've brought advancement and, made man more productive and life better. We see Samuel FB Morris invented the telegraph. He's the first person to harness the use of electricity. It was a product of Christian culture, of Christian America. We told that story in an earlier podcast. And his faith could be summarized by the plaque that hangs in the U.S. capitol building today. Because the first inner city message was sent from the capitol in Washington D.C. to Baltimore in 1844. And that plaque honors Samuel F.B. morrison. It has the first message that went across that plaque there at the top of it, which says, what hath God wrought? Look what God has done. Because Morris was a Christian man operating in a Christian society, bringing forth this significant advancement in, not only communication, but in harnessing the use of electricity. And we looked at George Washington Carver, another Christian man in Christian America who applied the truth and transformed the economy of the South. So we'd see where Christianity's gone. There's advancements in education and extension of truth and bringing civility to mankind and inventions and technology. There's also been great advancements in business, in the marketplace. The Adam Smith is considered to be the father of Economics and his book on the wealth of Nations. It's considered to be kind of the first really economics textbook. But his writings contain biblical ideas of economics. Talking about limited taxation, there should be no public debt, individual and national frugality, the free market and trade, productivity. These are general themes that he mentions in his book. And all these themes are biblical. And again they came forth from a Christian culture, Christian society. As I mentioned in a previous podcast, I told the story of Cyrus McCormick. He's the man who invented the reaper, a machine that would elevate men out of poverty, bring flourishing to the earth. And he's also not only invented a machine, but he created new species of commercial organization. He brought advancements in business thoughts and ideas as well. He was the fruit of the Christian faith. And so again we see America. What happened here is indisobly linked with the birthday of the Savior. as John Quincy Adams said in an oration he delivered in 1837, the founder of modern merchant business was a man named John Wanamaker. He was a Christian man who applied biblical principles of business. He built, I guess you might call the first super Walmart, stores and brought great transformation in the merchant business. And one of my little books, I tell the story of John Wanamaker that you can find on our website if you're interested in reading that. You know, biblical principles which were the foundation of the United States in America, they produced a nation, a people who came to, had and still do have the highest standard of living in the world even today, even as we've rejected many of our founding principles, still underlying our nation are these biblical ideas and biblical concepts. So here in America, even poor Americans are better off than middle class Europeans in the sense they have bigger homes, more drive cars, they own more appliances. so poor Americans who are, you know, considered poor by the arbitrary number that's pulled out of the hat, but nonetheless they're better off than most everyone in the world. Here in this free nation of America, you have the greatest number of patents issued to America, certainly historically, but it still continues to today. And the greatest productivity where 5 to 6% of the population of the world produces over 20% of the output of the world. And some decades ago it was way up to over 40% of the output. But it's these biblical economic ideas have brought greater prosperity to many nations. It first began to flourish in America as it was birthed as a Christian nation. But as Christianity has spread in the last 200 plus years to nations all over the world, and biblical principles of economics, liberty have spread. It has impacted other nations, and they began to increase in their productivity. So you could look at the world's gdp, the, gross per capita. So that's the gross domestic product per capita shows you kind of as a measure of the output of every citizen, in the world. It's for, you know, 15, 16, 17, 18. Really up until 1900. It's basically about the same. Just, in modern dollars, maybe $500 per year. But in the past, especially 50 years, it's just shot up, markedly gone from, you know, $7,000 per capita as output.

Many nations have increased their productivity as they embrace biblical Christianity

So many, many nations have increased their productivity as they've embraced biblical ide that have worked their way into nations, as the truth of the gospel has impacted those nations as well. And the most prosperous nations, the most productive nations are those that most embrace biblical Christianity. I've had the privilege to travel to, over 40 different nations. And, I have witnessed over the past 30 years, years since I've been traveling to many nations, the increasing prosperity that has occurred in so many places. So I've witnessed this expanding prosperity within the nations. We also have seen where Christianity has gone. Advancements in medicine have saved millions and millions of lives. biblical ideas of medicine have come forth from Christian people. We could look at such people like Dr. Ephraim McDowell. He was a, doctor in America. Performed the first abdominal surgery in 1809 in his hometown in Danville, Kentucky. The patient, Mrs. Crawford, when he was performing the surgery, had no anesthesia. So before removing a huge ovarian cyst, Dr. McDowell prayed, asking God to bless his patient and guide him in the operation. And Mrs. Crawford sang Psalms while being operated, on. So here's a Christian doctor who is, bringing innovation and advancements in medicine. And, there's an English doctor by the name of Dr. Joseph Lister, who, during the 1500s, mid-1800s. Excuse me. That he began to apply biblical medical principles. And in so doing, saved millions of lives. He was the founder of antiseptic surgery. He was concerned that when people went to the hospital, that a huge, percentage of them would die. About a third of those who would undergo operations or surgery, where you had open wounds, they would die not from the surgery itself, but from the infection that set in after the surgery. And so he began then to think, what. What. What can I do to help save this life? So he began to apply biblical medical principles of cleanliness and sanitation and quarantine. Because the Bible teaches that if you come in contact with the Dead, you have to go through certain procedures to get cleaned, sit, outside the camp and wash and running water and sit in the sun to do that for a week before you were to touch anyone else. Why did God do that? Because he do all about germs and the spread of germs. That's why he talked about what happens when you come in contact with the dead. But he also told the children of Israel where and how to go to the bathroom. He's concerned with sanitation. He said, you have to go, go outside the camp, cover up your excrement. This is in Deuteronomy 23. The cleanliness part was in Numbers 19. And he also talked about quarantine in Deuteronomy 24, verse 8, Leviticus 13:15. So the cleanliness, sanitation and quarantine were some general biblical principles that Joseph Lister applied. And he developed antiseptics. And these antiseptic bandages he would apply to people who had open wounds and found out that infection didn't grow because, this antiseptics that he was using killed the germs. But he was applying biblical ideas. But his work came forth in a Christian society, in a Christian culture that had been impacted over, really over hundreds of years, brought about this growing liberty within the nation. There's another, an American, Dr. Crawford W. Long. He's honored by a statue in the United States Capitol. And on the base of his statue, it tells what he did first. He was the discoverer of the use of sulfuric ether as an antithetic in surgery on, March 30, 1842, at Jefferson, Jackson County, Georgia, USA. So here is the man who invented anesthetics. That is, remember Dr. Ephraim McDowell? When he was operating on that lady, she had no anesthetics, so she had lots of pain and agony. in 1809, that happened. But a few decades later, he developed anesthetics. I'm sure Mrs. M. Crawford wished that he had done it before. But so many of millions and millions of people that have had surgeries since Dr. Long discovered the use of sulfuric ether for an anesthetic. They have been spared the great pain because of the action of this Christian doctor. And then engraved on his statue below what he did is a quote from Dr. Long saying, My profession is, to me, a ministry from God. So he understood that God calls us to, serve him in every sphere of life, that we have a calling, a unique calling. And our calling is to advance the Christian faith, to apply biblical truth. When we do, we will Elevate mankind and bring flourishing in every area, just as what we're talking about, how Christ, when he came into the world, it brought flourishing to every sphere of life, transformed men, transformed governments, transformed law and education and medicine, technology, invention, economics. Every area of life has been impacted and transformed by Christ coming into the world. And so with increased prosperity, medical advances, more knowledge, better food, more ability to have good, cheap food that have come forth from these things that we've touched on over the centuries as the fruit of the, of Christian truth or Christian seeds. The fruit of these seeds that have been planted in the last 2,000 years, it has brought flourishing in every area, including increased life expectancy. You know, for centuries and centuries and centuries. The average life span of, people just about in everywhere they lived was around 30 years of age. And that's the case all the way up until really the last, century to century and a half. And so gradually, it's almost very rapidly, you know, compared to the history of mankind, where that's been the case for thousands of years. But with the application of biblical truth and as it has began to grow and produce great fruit, we see that life expectancy has gone from 30 years to 70 years. So again, Christ increasing kingdom has brought flourishing and advancement and blessing in every sphere of life. It's also brought advancements in music and arts. You know, some of the greatest musicians and artists there were were Christians. Volvaldi, Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Johan Sebastian Bach, George F. Handel, Benjamin Rest, just to name a few. You know, Christianity has formed and preserved the language of music, just like Christianity gave us written languages with the Alphabet to read. It was also Christianity and Christians who gave us the musical notation. Back around the early 1000s, there was a, a Christian monk named Guido of, Arizo. He was, he's known as the father of modern musical notation. He used a familiar hymn, Latin, and created a mnemonic as a means of teaching notes. So he used do re mi FA sola and each of those of those mnemonics of this hymn began to represent notes that we sing. Do re mi faso la and on, So now with this development, notes could be taught, music could be written, theory developed, and new discoveries made because of the work of that Christian monk. Some centuries later, we have perhaps the greatest musician of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach, could transform music and writing and things that he introduced to music the Western world uses today. And every piece of music he wrote, he concluded with the scored S D period, G period, which was abbreviation for the Latin sola Deo Gloria to God alone, the glory. And that's why he was writing music and bringing transformation.

What we see since Christ came into the world is a progressive expansion of Christianity

So what we see since Christ came into the world is a progressive expansion of Christianity. Where it began there, of course, with Christ and in Israel today, what is today Israel. And it spread from there in the early centuries throughout the Mediterranean area, and then we. And then spread out into Europe, jumped Northern Africa, jumped across in, the 1415, 1600s, to the western hemisphere. And it's continued to expand rapidly in recent generations. And we see this progressive expansion of Christianity has impacted every sphere of life. The church, the family, the marketplace, media, education, government, science, and so on. And so the parables of the leaven and the mustard seed, which we read a number of podcasts ago, this is what Jesus taught. They show that Christianity is destined to grow and grow. See, these start very little, can barely see them. They're small seeds. But over time, the Christian faith has grown and grown and grown and grown so that this huge tree has provided shade and comfort and advancement for all peoples and all spheres of life. Increase of his kingdom will never end. Luke 1:33 tells us so. The great movement of God today that is occurring with the greatest number of people converted to the Christian faith or people converted in our lifetime than throughout all of history before. This great movement of God today includes the restoration of biblical truth and the expansion of his kingdom in every sphere of life. Isaiah 11, 9 tells us, the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And this is the speaking of what's going to happen after the Messiah comes. Isaiah was. And the Messiah has come, and that knowledge has spread around the world and is continuing to spread. So we can expect to see a continued, gradual expansion of the kingdom of God on earth. It's happened in the past 2,000 years. We've just given a brief overview in these podcasts, and we can expect that the. The parable of the Leaven will continue to take place. There will be spiritual advancement, continued growth of believers, the extension of the Bible, the spread of biblical truth and worldview, and by the way, a corresponding decline of false religions as well as the truth is combating with falsehood. truth will prevail. Christian life and conduct will gradually become the accepted standards in public and private life, as it gradually did in Europe when Christianity came there. There'll be advance of true education, increase of Christian schools and hospitals, which, by the way, most hospitals were started by Christians in the Western world. There'll be continued elevation of men, women and children Recognition of the great value of life, advance of international goodwill, Christian charity, increased productivity, wealth and economic prosperity for all. there'll be advancements of liberty, personal liberty, civil liberty, political liberty, economic liberty. Many new inventions and discoveries will continue to take place for the betterment of mankind. we'll see establishments of godly government that administer true justice and principal, perform their purpose to protect life, liberty and property. This is what we've seen in the past 2,000 years. Now, some I know may say, well, we can take a look at this particular nation and like Western Europe, for example, doesn't seem to be advancing, it's advanced some and then become stagnant in nations that it impacted in the past and maybe even declining. but if you look in individual nations, it may have advance or decline here and there, step forward, a step backward. But when you look at the world overall, this is what we see taking place over 2,000 years. There's been no end to the increase of his kingdom. In Matthew 16:18, the scripture tells us that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. Now, ah, we must remember that gates are defensive. See, the gates of hell cannot keep the saints from trampling down the destructive activities of Satan. Over the centuries, that's occurred. Remember, Jesus said he bound the strong man. Once we bind the strong man, then you can go and plunder his property. Satan was bound when Jesus came into the world. In the past 2,000 years, his saints have been plundering the property of Satan. And his gates can't prevail. That the advance of this truth of God, the gospel, has broken down so many gates, of the enemy. See, we're destroying vain philosophies in all things contrary to the word of God, as 2 Corinthians tells us will occur and we are to do. The church is on the offensive, establishing God's truth and righteous standards in the nations, in all spheres of life. Now, some in the church have failed to understand the clear message from the Scripture, that of the victorious nature of the saints. The victorious we're kings and priests that we're ruling and reigning. With him. We've been given all authority. And this unfortunately has made some of the church ineffective in recent times to carry on the mission that's been clearly occurring in the past 2000, years. History shows us that there is this great advancement, this increase, that the earth is becoming full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, that Christ's kingdom is ever increasing. And so we have the task to go as his ambassadors and exert the crown rights of King Jesus and reclaim every square inch of the earth for him. It is his earth. He created it in the first place, gave it to man who squandered it away when he disobeyed God. But through God's plan and because of his mercy, he came back into the world and made the way to reclaim it for himself again. Now, of course, the ultimate reclamation of all things will occur when he, returns and we're resurrected. We have our new resurrected bodies and rule and reign with him in the new heavens and new earth. But, as we see from the last 2,000 years, there has been a progressive advancement of his kingdom, of his truth and the fruit that comes for forth from it in the earth. And if we see what has happened and embrace what the scripture tells us is our mission to disciple nations as his ambassadors, then we'll continue to see that take place and have the understanding and vision that that is our mission. The people gave birth to the United States of America, by and large understood, this is the view they had of history. This is a providential view of history. This was an understanding they had and were so excited about and the uniqueness of the birth of the United States. You know, it's interesting, when America was birthed as a nation, there are some ministers who began to preach, hey. That the millennium had come because, something new and unique had taken place, taken place in the world. Now I'm not going to go in and explore different views of, the end times. What I want us to see is what has happened in history in the past 2000 years. How has Christ's kingdom advanced? clearly it has, and every sphere of life has been impacted. And that should give us great hope as we set about performing the part that God has played each one of us to, because we're all called to fulfill that first, admonition of the Lord's Prayer for thy kingdom to come, Thy will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Christ has been bringing his kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. It starts by transforming individuals, but then when it, transforms lives. As we live out our faith, all aspect of life will be transformed. So it will give us great hope, great encouragement to carry on the mission that God has for us at this time in history. Well, I invite you to visit our website, look at some of our books and materials that will, I believe, provide hope and great encouragement and insight to you as well to understand what has God done in history and when we understand that, then what he's called us to do, our mission will become much more clear. So providencefoundation.com that's where you can visit our website and learn much more of the great work of Christ, not only in America, but Christ in the world. Well, God bless you and hope to see you next week on another America's Providential History podcast. It.

Christ’s Every-Increasing Kingdom, Part 4