America's Providential History Podcast explores the hand of God in American history

>> 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. Now, in the last number of podcasts, we've been looking at God's hand in the history of the United States of America. We looked at how God moved in the colonization period, the first couple of hundred years and people began to settle the colonies. We looked at God's hand in our struggle for independence, and then in the birth of our new nation, the new form of government. God gave us the United States Constitution. We saw how we were a nation birthed in liberty, unlike any that the world had seen. And in this environment of liberty, we began to examine the last few podcasts, the fruit that came forth in liberty. And we saw advancements in every sphere of life begin to take place. It was brought about flourishing within our nation. And as over time, as those principles and ideas and inventions began to flow to other nations, they positively influenced them as well.

We're going to examine how the Bible educated America to live in liberty

But I, want to reiterate in this podcast something that I've touched on before, but it's very important for us to understand. And that is, what is the source of the liberty that gave birth to the United States? And how do we pass on that source that produced liberty in the first place? How do we pass it on to future generations? In particular, we're going to examine how the Bible educated America to live in liberty. See, it's very important that wherever, education takes place today, in homes m churches, schools, in the marketplace of ideas, that, that education must prepare people to live in liberty. Liberty is not the default state of fallen man. Left to himself, man will not advance toward liberty. Rather, he will devolve into bondage and lack. He will spiral downward, left on his own. So in order for man to live in liberty, to live free, he must be, given the correct character and worldview to live in liberty. He must be educated to live in liberty. What is education? Now, if we gave a definition based upon at least my experience in government schools in recent times, would be something like, you know, being given a lot of information and facts to, equip you to do a job or something like that. But, the Bible in Colossians 2, 8 says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. And so what we see in this scripture in Colossians, we are taught that a worldly philosophy brings captivity. Paul warns, see to it no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world. So worldly philosophy, worldly principles, philosophy according to man brings captivity. But a Christian philosophy brings liberty. Liberty comes forth from biblical character and biblical worldview, biblical understanding. Noah Webster, in his original 1828 dictionary, defines education really in a biblical manner. He said that education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper form, the manners and habits of youth fit them for usefulness in their future stations. So to Webster, he talks about education. It involves discipline, involves instruction. So it involves impacting the inner man, his character, discipline, and also, impacts how he thinks. What does education do? He give tells us four things. It enlightens the understanding. It gives us insight into how life functions based upon the truth of God's word, enlightens our understanding. So we can see, we can understand our purpose, our mission, who we are, who God is, how we are to live enlightens the understanding. It corrects the temper, forms the manners and habits of youth and fits them for usefulness in their future station. So biblical education first deals with the inward man. It deals with correcting our temper, forming our matters and habits. It deals with our mind as well, enlightening us with truth. So we know how to think, how to view life, how to function. As a man thinks, so is he. We'll live out, our life based upon how we view things, how we think, and the character within us. But these things, preparing the inner man and our thinking, fit us for usefulness in their future stations. In other words, they equip us to fulfill the calling that God has for us, the general calling that to, take dominion over the earth, rule over the earth, be a good steward over the earth, be productive. That's the mission God gave man into Genesis 1, but also to fulfill our unique calling. And we've examined some individuals in the past, whether it be medical doctors, inventors, scientists, who were, fulfilling their calling by providing needed goods or services to mankind that has brought flourishing and blessing. Now, this definition that Webster gives us coincides with what the Bible tells us that Scripture does for us. In second Timothy 3, 16 and 17, it says, all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good Work. Now that Scripture does what Webster says education does, what does Scripture do? It's profitable. It teaches us, that is, it enlightens the understanding. It's good for reproof, for correction. In other words, that deals with the inner man. Correcting our temper, forming our manner and habits in youth, and then training us for righteousness, training us with the character and worldview we need to live according to God's righteous standard. And why is that? So that we might be equipped for every good work. So that we might be equipped to fulfill the calling that God has for us. So education, according to the Bible and according to Webster's dictionary, which corresponds with the Bible, its purpose is to give us the character and the worldview necessary to fulfill the mission that God has for us. Shaping the inner man in accordance with the word of God, shaping our thinking in accordance with truth in the Scripture, preparing us to accomplish the mission. Now, I can tell you that my experience in education in government schools did not do that. It was in spite of my formal education that, over the years that God began to truly educate me. And you see that this type of education prepares people to live in liberty, the source of liberty for mankind. First internal liberty, but then also external liberty, is implanted in us or is built in us through biblical education. So biblical education prepares men to live in liberty, to flourish, to accomplish the things that God has called us to do. It was this type of education that gave birth to the free nation of America in the very beginning. The reason that America became the most free and prosperous nation ever in history, the reason it flourished as it has, as we've discussed in the past, is because of people adhering to the truth of God. they didn't do it perfectly, as we said, but that's their heart. That was their desire. That's why they started the schools and the universities to provide that type of education. That education, that equipping occurred in the homes, that occurred in the churches. Thomas Jefferson said on January 6 in a letter 1816, if a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. An ignorant people cannot be a, free people. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins, as Benjamin Franklin said. And the type of ignorance that they speak of is not just ignorance of reading and writing. we might be able. People may be able to read and write, or they may be an academic teaching at a university and have a lot of facts and knowledge in their head. But if they don't know what it, know what it takes to live in liberty. If they're not given the internal character, they're not given the correct biblical worldview. They can't live in liberty and they can't impart to others what's necessary for them to live free as well. See, education is a sowing and reaping process. It's like a seed. The seed you plant determines the fruit that's produced you. You plant good seed and good soil, then it will produce good fruit. It's very important that we understand the potential impact of seeds. God created the seed, the concept of a seed, and we see it all around us. He taught this idea in the Bible. We see it working every day. If we're a farmer just driving down the road, we recognize that the power and the impact of one seed, I love the same. You can count how many seeds are in an apple, but you cannot count how many apples are in a seed. The potential impact is massive. One seed can produce millions of pieces of fruit. And this is what biblical education will do. You plant good seed, the truth that was revealed in scripture, that potential can transform the whole world. And in fact it has. The seed that Christ planted has produced fruit that is engulfing the world today and has impacted everything in that. Someone once said the philosophy of the schools in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. I'm not surprised at what's being, of the. In recent decades and generations, what's been going on in our government with $30 trillion debt, deficit spending, increased encroachment in everyday affairs of our life and violating our rights, God given rights to life, liberty and property in many ways that I'm not surprised we see that happening because I know it's been taught in our schools in past generations. It's not the liberating seed of truth in the Bible, but it's socialistic seeds of man centered ideas of big government and man is his own savior, concepts. See, biblical education will implant morals in the people as well as a biblical worldview. We need both.

Biblical education produces components necessary for people to live in liberty

We need moral people, the inward man, enlightening the understanding, correcting the temper. We also need to have our understanding enlightened. We need to think as God thinks. We need to study the scripture and extract all those liberating principles that God has given to us and apply them in our life, our family, our business, our community, our churches, our civil society, our institutions, institutions of life. because biblical education prepares us to live in liberty. This is what produced the exceptional nation of America in the very beginning. Biblical Education, it prepared Americans to know how to live in liberty. Unfortunately, that's not what's happening today. See, biblical education produces components necessary for people to live in liberty, produces Christian character, a biblical worldview, and a biblical understanding of vocation. You know, we might say that Americans today need a liberal arts education. Now, when I use that term, I use it in its original classical sense, not in the modern sense. Because, today when you go to schools and state schools and universities, you are being prepared to be a liberal, a leftist in your political philosophy, a, socialist. But see what liberal used to mean? It used to mean that you were educated to know how to live in liberty. You were given the character and ideas necessary to live free. So the early colleges, from Harvard and Princeton and Dartmouth and William and Mary and others, they taught a liberal arts education. They prepared people to live in liberty. This is what we need in our education. But unfortunately, we are being educated to live socialistically. You know, a majority of young people think socialism is, is the way to go. That's because that's what they've been taught by, educators and secondary education and, and universities as well. This is one prominent ideology that is being communicated, to youth today. And that's why we've been losing our liberties. We've not been educated to know how to live free. We've been educated to know how to live in bondage. And so biblical education was the key to America's great liberty, prosperity, virtue and justice. It is what caused us to be a flourishing nation.

Scripture teaches parents have right and responsibility to govern education of children

Well, if biblic education does this, what is biblical education? Now, in future podcasts, I'm going to explore this in much more detail. We've touched on this in past podcasts as well. Just to make some general comments. You know, what is biblical education? One education is, primarily the responsibility of the family, and then it can be delegated to others. Scripture teaches us that parents have the right and responsibility to govern the education of their children. You know, Jesus said we're to go and make disciples of all nations. And certainly the first people we need to disciple are our own children. this is the disciples. We first must build those that God entrusts to our care before we can go and disciple anyone else. And so, from many scriptures, Deuteronomy 6:4, 7, Ephesians 6:1 4, and a lot more, reveal to us that parents have the right and responsibility to govern the education of their children. See, the home is really the first place of education. As Noah Webster wrote, families are the nurseries of good and bad. Citizens and it's the status of our nation today is based upon the families and how the, what the families are doing to prepare those who, citizens who live in our nation. See the home is the first church, it's the first school, it's the first business, it's the first government. It's where children learn how to relate to one another, how to get along with one another. God is life, what education is all about, how to conduct business, how to be self governed, on and on. So as the family goes, so goes the nation. Now in early America, education was centered in the home. It was home based. Some of our founding fathers, you know, that was the, the primary place of their education. George Washington, the father of America, was basically homeschooled his whole life. He may have gone to school for a brief little while, never went to college, but he was TR by his parents and his brother and others equipped him with the character and worldview to accomplish his mission that impacted liberty not only in America, but all over the world. Thomas Jefferson was primarily first educated at home, though later it was supplemented by tutors. Those tutors were ministers. For so many of our founding fathers, that was true for Thomas Jefferson. But Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, we could look at all of these and their education began in the home that formed the foundation. Some had that education supplemented by schools or teachers, some few, maybe a quarter of those who signed the declaration went on to higher education, to college. But all education in early America began in the home. Not just for our political leaders, but every person. Benjamin west, the father of American painting, he said that my mother's kiss made me a painter. He was inspired by his mother to really fulfill what God called him to do, to become an excellent painter. John and Abigail Adams are a marvelous example of a husband and wife who trained and discipled their children. John Quincy Adams was one of their children. And they equipped him with biblical character and a biblical worldview in order for him to accomplish the mission that he had. We'll look at him in much more detail in future podcasts. But John Quincy Adams was a product of Bible based moral and academic education. And when you look at what he accomplished, it's quite phenomenal. At the age of 14 he received a congressional appointment to become the secretary to the Ambassador of Russia. In his life he is ambassador to England, France, Holland, Prussia, Russia, Secretary of State, member of the US Senate, sixth President of the United States. After his presidency he served many years in the United States House of Representatives. To the very last day of his life. In fact, he died there, inside the Capitol. And during that time as member of the House, he was a leader in the anti slavery movement. So we see one component of biblical education, it's primarily the responsibility of the family, then may be delegated to others to supplement that home education. Two second thing is schools are an extension of family education. So as a means of providing, education that you might not be able to provide in the home, then it's fine to look and say, I'm going to need tutors, I'm going to have different school options for my children. But it's still an extension of family. Educated cation. And early Americans understood this. See, the first schools were started by the church to teach people to be able to read. First private schools were for, to provide education for those that might not be able to get it, at home. Orphans, widows and others. The first common school schools had the same thing, in mind as well. The first school laws there in Massachusetts passed by the puritans in the 1640s. The preamble, as we've mentioned in previous podcasts, was it being one chief project of that old eluder Satan, to keep man from the knowledge of the scriptures. The reason they started school is because they knew. Satan wants to keep people ignorant because if he can keep them ignorant, he can keep them in bondage. It's in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. As Benjamin Franklin said, our founding fathers understood that we don't want people to be ignorant of truth, so we're going to make sure everyone has an opportunity to be educated. Colleges were started to train ministers in a knowledge of the Bible. Harvard College, as we've mentioned in the past, was started to train godly ministers. One of its original rules said, let every school student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. That's the first college. The second was William and Mary, started in 1692 for similar reasons. Train godly ministers equipped people with truths to equip young Native Americans who become Christians with these ideas of liberty as well. Yale, the third college, Princeton, a college that came out of the great, awakening. Brown, Rutgers, all the early colleges were started in order for a biblical reason. Princeton University, its motto under God's power, she flourishes. Dartmouth College, started in 1770 by a minister was to train young men for missionary service among the Indians, among other things. And so we see components of biblical education. First, it's the responsibility of the family. That family can delegate that to others in schools and tutors. That's just an extension of the family. Third component, that you're preparing them for a calling, fitting them for usefulness in their future stations, to equip them for every good work, as the scripture in Webster's definition tells us. So you're giving them character, you're giving them correct knowledge so that they can provide needed good or services, fulfill the call and be a blessing, bring flourishing, practically love their fellow man. Dr. Crawford W. Long, whose statue is in the United States Capitol, is a great example of a man who fulfilled his calling. We've mentioned him before, but on the base of the statue it tells what he did. Discoverer of the use of sulfuric ether as an anesthetic in Surgery on March 30, 1842 at Jefferson, Jackson County, Georgia, USA. Then a quote from Dr. Long which says, my profession is to me a ministry from God. And so he understood, as the founders of America and citizens of America understood, for centuries we understood that the goal of education is to give people the character, the worldview, to accomplish their mission and purpose, their biblical calling and mission. Because, all of our profession, all of our calling is a ministry of God. Not just if you're called to the pulpit ministry or to be an evangelist or go minister to the lost in other nations, that certainly is a calling and very important. But if you're like Dr. Crawford Long and he calls you as a medical doctor and Dr. Long, he's the one who discovered the antesthetics. And so if you've ever had surgery, and you, so you didn't have to endure the pain, you had anesthetics, thanks to this Christian doctor who understood what education was all about. And so biblical education equips us to fulfill our calling and duty, whatever sphere of life we're called to, to fulfill our duties to the family, to the church, in the marketplace and media and education and government and science, you name it. God wants us to be equipped to, fulfill and accomplish that purpose. And as we do, we'll bring flourishing as we do, we'll provide needed goods or services, we'll bring liberty, we'll protect God given rights and liberty and provide new and better goods and services to make life, better, for us. Fourth component of biblical education or aspect of biblical education is that the philosophy, methodology, curriculum and model will all, be biblical. Now we could take weeks just exploring that, but true biblical education, well, every aspect of the component of education will be biblical. The philosophy, why you educate, the methodology, how you educate the curriculum, what you use to educate the model, how you, set up, going about, training, training. The next generations will be in accordance with biblical truth. And in future podcasts we're going to, we'll explore this much more.

The Bible was the central text for early early American education

Now, in early America, we had a biblical philosophy, biblical methodology, biblical content, biblical model. The Bible was the central text for early early American education. John Locke in 1690 said, Children learn to read by following the ordinary road of hornbook, primer, Psalter Testament and Bible. Now, hornbook was a piece of paper. They used hornbooks in Europe and hornbooks here in the, in the colonies they were called colonial hornbooks. But they would be a piece of paper that had the Alphabet on them. Some of them had pictorial Alphabet, little pictures, things representing each of the letters that had syllables. and then where you learn the Alphabet, you learn phonetically, you learn the sounds that the letters make. And then the handbook, the colonial hornbook, would had a reading lesson on this. And this piece of paper was placed on a piece of wood covered by transparent animal horn in order, to protect it. And the first reading lesson was the Lord's prayer. Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And so early on, those first teaching tools that assisted them, were thoroughly biblical. See, the Bible is the central text. We've discussed that, in the past every home had a Bible. But then when they began to produce different textbooks and teaching tools to assist parents and teaching, children, how to read and all kinds of knowledge, they were thoroughly biblical. The colonial horn book, the New England Primer, was first published in 1690. The most widely used textbook for 100 years. And it taught the Alphabet with biblical examples. A rhyming Alphabet. A In Adams 4 we sinned all B Heaven defined the Bible mind. C Christ crucified for sinners died and on and on and on. So in their first lessons learning the Alphabet, youth were taught a biblical view of life. Then in 1783, Noah Webster first published his famous blue back speller. And over the next century it sold 100 million copies. That is just phenomenal. He wrote it in order for every American to be self taught. And so when the west was settled, after we became a new nation, people carry a Bible and a Webster speller with them so they can go and teach themselves. And it's full of biblical lessons like 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. Those who enjoy the light of the gospel neglect to observe its precepts, are more criminal than the heathen. Just a couple of few of the things youth would read in, Webster's Blue Back Speller. Now, Webster wrote many textbooks. We've talked about him a little bit in previous, podcasts. In future ones, I'm going to look much more at this man's life. But he, of course, is the gentleman who wrote the first exhaustive English English dictionary. 70,000 words. And in these words, he gives biblical definitions. He uses thousands of scriptural references. He defines words biblically. Today, our dictionaries define words humanistically. So we're indoctrinated in an ideology of philosophy, of secular humanism, even when we define words. But you compare that with Webster's original dictionary. They were given a biblical understanding of words like education and law and government and morality and everything else. And you could look at the other prominent textbooks from Guffey readers, Young Civil Government, Murray's readers, and so many more. And again, we've mentioned these in the past. I'm going to cover some of this much more in future podcasts, but just giving you a brief overview of what biblical education looks like. Because biblical education produced the free nation of America, and biblical education is what is required to turn America around, pass on to future generations the character and worldview necessary for us to live in liberty. Government schools today are not doing this, and so alternatives must be set up. And we are just finishing a new film. The film is called Educated for Liberty. You will be able to see it free when it's, released. We'll certainly be telling you about that here in future, ah, podcast. And we look at this, we explore this whole idea, and we will provide resources for those of you who may be interested in how can I get involved in Christian education and provide biblical education for my kids or my grandkids?

Fourth component of biblical education is that education that produces liberty is biblical

And so a fourth and final component that's part of biblical education, that education that produces liberty is biblical education advances God's kingdom with good fruit. You know, Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's desire is to bring his kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. What is his kingdom? Well, it's his government. It's his rule. He wants to bring his rule, his government, His Sovereignty to this earth over every aspect and sphere of life on this earth, in our life first, nor mind and life that we surrender to his lordship. But his kingdom. He wants it to come over our nations. Every aspect of our nation, laws and the institutions of our nations need to come under the lordship, the kingship of Christ. That's the prayer that he taught us to pray. Biblical education will advance his kingdom. It will bring his kingdom to individuals. It will bring his kingdom to nations, his governance, his rule. Jesus also told us to make disciples of the nations after he arose from the dead and before ascending to heaven. In Matthew 28, he gave us the commission, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them. And then he says, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, first you go and see that they're transformed and having a living encounter with me. And then he says, teaching them to observe all that I commanded. So we disciple nations, we disciple our children, and others by teaching them to observe everything he commanded. So we must teach truth because education that produces liberty is grounded in truth, truth as revealed in the Scripture. So biblical education is a means of extending God's kingdom in the earth. In contrast, state education extends man's kingdom. You know, whoever controls the children controls the future. God has given that responsibility not to civil government, primarily to parents, for the governance of the children. The state, when it has a pagan philosophy, if it's governed by those who think contrary to Scripture, when they get in control through all the powers or mechanisms they have, and state education is certainly a very strong influence they have in determining the culture. But state education will extend man's kingdom. It will propagate a philosophy, a man centered philosophy. Remember Colossians tells us that man centered philosophies, according to the elementary principles of the world, bring bondage, bring captivity. Biblical education brings liberty, State education, man centered education brings bondage. Theologian John Gresham Machen said, if liberty is not maintained with regard to education, there's no use trying to maintain it in any other sphere. If you give the bureaucrats the children, you might just as well give them everything else. So if we turn over our children to the bureaucrats to educate them, we might as well give them our wallet and our bank accounts and our property, our liberty, our freedom, because they're going to end up taking it. That's what we see happening gradually, especially in the 20th century as state controlled, state compelled, state mandated education has grown and grown. It's taking control of the education of most of the, children in our nation. And that education that they're receiving is not biblical education. Biblical education will produce good fruit. A primary purpose of education is to build Christian character, to shape the man both internally and externally. Biblical education will not only affect individual lies, it will impact all spheres of life. One example of that can be seen in one of the founding fathers of America, Reverend John Witherspoon. Reverend John Witherspoon was the president of Princeton University. He is a minister, a pastor, in fact. Ministers were presidents of all of our universities for, for, for centuries. but he also was a signer of the Declaration. John Witherspoon served on over 100 committees, very influential and active there. But during his tenure as president of Princeton University, he trained people in biblical philosophy, biblical worldview, and these components that we're presenting and talking about here. But he trained, though not only gospel ministers, pulpit ministers, but he trained civil ministers as well. Paul tells us civil leaders are ministers of God to you for good. In fact, he trained one President, James Madison, one Vice President, 10 Cabinet officers, 21 Senators, 39 Congressmen, 12 Governors, one Supreme Court justice, one Attorney General, 1/5 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, 1/6 of the delegates of the Constitutional Convention and 1/5 of the first Congress under the Constitution were trained by John Witherspoon. This man literally discipled the nation. This is what, this is the fruit of biblical education. He was providing biblical education. And this biblical education, impacted the founders of America. He trained the men who gave us our founding documents, our Declaration, our Constitution. And so this is what pastors, ministers, churches need to be doing today, training, providing such training. And these churches and ministers need to be supporting parents in their primary role as the chief educators of the next generation. So biblical education is key to the advancement of liberty and prosperity in history. Many examples in history, we'll look at some of those in the future. But it's certainly true of the United States of America. Biblical education produced America as an exceptional nation. It produced the most free and prosperous nation in history. It equipped us to live in liberty. It produced kingdom fruit. Christian ideas have transformed America. And in the last 200 plus years they've been spreading and are continuing to spread to impact many nations of the world, where truth is embraced by individuals within these nations. See, biblical education will pass the baton to future generations. We are in a race today. And we're not in a hundred yard dash or 100 meter dash. We're in A relay race. And our goal for our generation is to pass that baton. We've got to one pick, up the race, understand we're in a race, understand what the race is all about, understand the racetrack and where we're going. And then we need to have this baton, take the character, the content, the worldview, get biblical education. And for a time, we run along the neck alongside the next generation. And as we run alongside them, we're equipping them, we're giving them the knowledge, the character that they need. We're giving them biblical education, whatever they need to live in liberty themselves, to bring advancements in society, but then show them how they are to pass it to the next generations. We are to teach our children how to pass the baton to their children. And to the extent that we effectively do this determines in part the extent to which his kingdom will come on earth and the extent to which it will be grow and cover the earth. So this is a very important lesson that we need to understand that we need to have education that produces liberty, internal liberty, but also liberty in every sphere of life, in our families, in our churches and our businesses, communities, and our laws and our government and our economic system. Man will not live free left to himself. So it's our task, it's our duty, to provide biblical education so that the generations that follow us will be able to advance liberty, to have more blessing, more liberty than we, have ourselves. Well, to learn more, I invite you to Visit our website, providencefoundation.com I have a little booklet on there, how the Bible Educated America to Live in Liberty, that reiterates what I briefly summarized in this podcast. And we have many other books and resources that will provide biblical education, equip you to live in liberty. And as I mentioned, look for our film. Will it be announcing it in the future? But our film, Educated for Liberty because it communicates, these ideas and will point people to how they can provide biblical education and education for liberty to their children and to others. Well, hope you can join us next week. God bless you.

How the Bible Educated America to Live in Liberty