Transcript

Preborn has helped save 38,000 babies this year

>> Bobby Roza: I want you to picture this. Her name is Kayla. She's 17, alone, terrified and pregnant. Sitting in a clinic, tears blurring, thinking abortion is her only option until she was offered a free ultrasound, paid for by a hero just like you. The moment Kayla heard her baby's heartbeat, the decision was made. And today, her little boy Gabriel is thriving because preborn walked with Kayla every step of the way. Now multiply that by 38,000. That's how many babies preborn has helped save just this year. How many mothers preborn has come alongside with practical and spiritual resources to make, motherhood possible. But here's the most important thing you will hear today. Their goal Is to save 70,000 babies and by the end of the year. And they can't do it without us. Every $28 provides that ultrasound. The moment everything changes, will you be the reason the next Kayla chooses life? The reason Gabriel fulfills his destiny. To donate, dial #250 and say the keyword baby. That's #250 baby. Or donate securely at, preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr.

>> Walker Wildmon: We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions no matter where they are. We quit.

>> Rick Green: Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth to live out your free speech.

>> Bro Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering for uses perseverance, perseverance, character and character hope.

>> Jeff Chamblee: This is at the Core on American Family Radio.

>> Rick Green: Welcome to at the core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green.

Rick Green: On Rebuilding Liberty, Patriot Academy course

>> Rick Green: I'm Rick Green, America's constitution coach. We're going to be jumping right back. In today to rebuilding liberty. So we played the first two episodes of this four episode course by Patriot Academy. It's our new one for the 250th. So this takes you through the Declaration of Independence, gives you the foundation for how to rebuild Liberty in the 250th. The right bricks to lay the right mortar to use all those things you need to rebuild liberty in your community. Last week we did week one and week two of that course. And then on Tuesday this week we had Chris Dunham and we talked about the Patriot Institute that is starting at the campus and Patriot Academy campus in Fredericksburg, Texas, soon to be Constitution City, Texas. We've got a new class coming in in just the next couple of weeks and we still have a couple of scholarships to give away. So if you're interested in applying for that, go to patriotacademy.com institute. That's our nine month program in residence at the campus and it literally start starts in about a week and a half. So you've got to get your application in and we'll be awarding the last of those scholarships by the end of this week. So throughout the weekend you'll have an interview, all that good stuff. If you're interested.

We're not rebuilding a structure without giving the right foundation

Patriotacademy.com institute now let's jump into rebuilding Liberty Week 3.

>> Rick Green: The purpose of this course is to make sure that they know why that flag is worthy of being waved wherever. You are watching from. We're not rebuilding a structure without giving the right foundation. And our burden should be to transform. A moment into a movement. The entire globe is moving towards the right. Recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States. I thought our founding fathers a bunch of atheists, agnostics and deists who wanted a secular public square who didn't want the Bible in schools.

>> Rick Green: Fight like it's your last breath. But know this, the truth is over. The facts, that God's not giving you a spirit of fear, but a. Power loving, assigned mind.

>> Rick Green: What do I want my legacy to.

>> Tim Barton: Be on the way out? That I was safe or that I was dangerous?

>> Pastor John Amanchukwu: No, this nation is not perfect. I'll take America for any other country or nation on the face of this planet. How about you?

Week three of Rebuilding Liberty features a great master bricklayer, Tim Barton

>> Rick Green: Welcome back. Week three of Rebuilding Liberty. Anybody enjoy the first two weeks of so far, pretty good man. David Barton had so much great stuff for us last week. We're getting to learn all these action steps and things we can do to rebuild Liberty in our country. I hope you're already thinking about people you can invite over to your house to do this course and get as many people as possible to go through Rebuilding Liberty. We got a great master bricklayer tonight. In fact, I would argue he's probably the best bricklayer in the country right now for such a time as this. He is the Elijah to David Barton's Elisha. And now I get the privilege of locking shields with him and going into battle quite, often. I truly believe for such a time as this wall builders has been raised up and I dare say the Barton family has done a better job of generationally passing that torch in a ministry than I've ever seen from any ministry in our country. So we are super thrilled to have Tim Barton with us tonight. Y' all welcome Tim.

>> Tim Barton: Yes, man.

Tim Barton suggests the Founding Fathers were influenced by their pastors

Well, it's my pleasure to be with you guys tonight. I want to start with a Bible ver. I have several. I think we'll know Some of these, Psalm 121, or excuse me, 127:1 tells us, unless the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain that build it. Now, this is a very important idea for us to wrap our minds around, because in the midst of everything we're talking about, of rebuilding and restoring liberty, how do we do it? If God's not a part of the equation, the Bible tells us it's not going to go very well. Well, to go even further, the Bible tells us in Psalms 11:3, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? It asks an important question. If you remove the foundation, that structure, that building is not going to stand. And a of Americans do not know what the foundation of America actually is. fortunately, the Founding Fathers wrote everything down. If you go back to John Adams, in 1813, he was writing a letter to Thomas Jefferson. And, and at this point, they've both been presidents, right? They've gone through the revolution. It's 40 years since they first got together in Independence Hall. And John Adams writes a, a reflective letter to Jefferson says, remember when, when we were first together, we were so much younger then, and we had all these conversations, all this energy and this vigor, and we debated all the time. Collective Founding Fathers. He. We had so much we disagreed on. But it's interesting in this letter that he acknowledges and identifies where they found the common ground. And part of the letter he explains the general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence. Were the general principles of Christianity the common ground he acknowledges to Thomas Jefferson 40 years later, remembering, he's like, where we found common ground were the principles of Christianity. And the idea that John Adams would suggest that Christianity was somehow unifying for the Founding Fathers seems odd. For most Americans today, it didn't. An odd thought even in academia. If you go back to the early 1900s, a lady named Alice Baldwin, she was a professor at Duke University, started the woman's program at Duke University. And she wrote a book in 1928 called the New England Clergy and the American Revolution. And in this book, she identified that when you look at the Declaration, every major issue in the Declaration, she points out, had been preached from American pulpits prior to 1763, which is over a dozen years before we even get the Declaration of Independence. And what she acknowledged in her book is back then, the pastors were so outspoken on the. When the Founding Fathers got together, they didn't come up with a single new idea. Instead, they repeated all of the ideas they had been learning from their pastors, building up to this Moment. Now, again, it's kind of a weird thought for most Americans today to think, wait a second. So the Founding Fathers, like. Tim, are you suggesting the Founding Fathers were influenced by their pastors? This. This is not a normal thought for most Americans because we don't know that much American history. But actually, if you go back, the very first time the Founding Fathers got together was September 6, 1774. There was a painting depicting this opening meeting. This is the famous painting from 17 or depicting their meeting from 1774. Now, for those not familiar, when you look at this painting, this is. This is a very specific posture they're taking. If you're not familiar with Christianity, this is prayer time. Right? Like, this is what's happening right now. In fact, John Adams wrote Abigail a letter, just a week or two after this meeting had happened. And he was explaining to her part of what happened. And what he said was that that when we first got together, Mr. Cushing made the very first motion. And the motion was, we should with prayer. And John Adams acknowledged there was some debate because there were some people from different denominations, and they're like, well, I don't want that pastor praying. Finally, Sam Adams broke this divide and, And. And acknowledged that even though he was this congregationalist, really coming from a devout Puritan background, he said that he heard there's a. An, Episcopalian bishop in town who as long as he fears God, believes in the Bible and. And supports the calls he had to come lead us in prayer. And what happened is that John Adams acknowledged to Abigail that they spent the next couple of hours in prayer and Bible study. In fact, in the midst of their two hours. Ah, and. And just also ponder and process for a second. This is the political leaders of the nation coming together. And they spent two hours in prayer and Bible study. If we went to a church service one Sunday morning, and we were like, all right, everybody, the next two hours is prayer and Bible study. There would be a, like, audible groan in the room from Christians, people that know and love Jesus. I know and love Jesus. But two hours is a long time to spend in prayer and Bible study. Well, these aren't even the spiritual leaders of the nation. These, the political leaders, but they recognized the significance of what they were doing, and they knew they needed a connection in faith. And so they take time in prayer and Bible study. John Adams writes, Abigail, that of the passages they read that morning, he says, one of them, it was as if God himself had ordained that passage to be read. And here's part of the letter he wrote to her, he said, I must beg you to read that psalm. Read the 35th Psalm to your friends. Read it to your father. Well, Psalm 35 is one of the psalms that King David wrote while Saul was chasing him, trying to kill him. And David writes and essentially says, God, I've done nothing and he seeks my destruction. Lord, you rise up, be my shield, my buckler, my strong right arm. On it goes. And part of also why that's significant is because they had found out that the night before, the British had surrounded Boston and begun to cannonade bomb Boston Harbor. Which also then makes sense why the next morning they're like, we should pray. We, we, we're gonna need God's help and what's going on? But then when they're reading, he says they read from the prayer book the assigned passages for the day. Well, the Anglican prayer book they're reading from was written in the 1600s. So they just get together and pick some chapters to read. They're like in a Bible reading plan and are the chapters assigned for the day. And they read it, and Psalm 35 is one of them. And they read it and they're like, God is speaking to us right now from this. In fact, one of the things that then happens. John Adams writes Abigail another letter, and he tells her, one of the decisions Congress made. He said, we've appointed a continental fast. He continued, that millions be upon their knees at once before their great creator, imploring his forgiveness and blessing his smile on American council and arms. Not only does Congress open up with prayer and Bible study, one of the things they then subsequently do is they call on the nation to a time of prayer. And also this idea of having a time calling people to prayer, this was a very normal activity in the founding era. By the time you get to 1815, there were more than 1400 official government prayer proclamations done by governors, by presidents, even by the Continental Congress. In fact, virtually any founding father that became a governor issued prayer proclamations. And this is important for a couple reasons, but this is my favorite example to use when someone would argue, well, the Founding Fathers weren't really religious. They were primarily atheists or agnostics or deists. And I'm like, okay, let's just, let's just think for a second. A deist says there's a God, but he doesn't get involved in our world. An agnostic says, well, we're not really sure if there's a God.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress made prayer proclamations

And an atheist says, there is no God. Okay, if you're an Atheist, agnostic and dish. You know what, you're never going to do that, right? I mean, you wouldn't even do one proclamation, much less 1400 by 1815. And this is something that was very common in that era. Well, go, back to the American Revolution. Just during the American Revolution, the Continental Congress did this 15 times. And there were two kinds of prayer proclamations. The first was for prayer and fasting, which, is not surprising if you need God's help and intervention. You get serious, you pray, you fast, you seek God's help. But then one of the things they thought was very logical is after we've prayed and asked for God's help, we need to be the ones that go back and say, God, thank you for what you did. They would have a day of prayer and thanksgiving. This tradition continued on for centuries in America. But this, this very first call that John wrote to Abigail about, it was a call for prayer and fasting. And what's really great about this is at this point, early stages of the unfolding of the Revolution, America is not really having any success. But John Adams writes Abigail and says, Abigail, it's kind of amazing what we've just seen happen. And he goes through and lists what in our mind might be rather insignificant. that there was a Colonel Green who was able to like, repel the British, and then Colonel Smith, that they defended a fort and things, again, we might feel insignificant. But when, when you don't have a military and you're going up against the number one military power in the world, and all of a sudden you held your own twice. John's like, this is a miracle, right? This is amazing. To go further, he told her that we have just destroyed a 20 gun British man of warship and a 60 gun British man of warship. Those are British naval vessels. One that had 64 cannons and one that had 20 cannons. And the reason that's so impressive, if you ever go to Washington D.C. the Smithsonian Museum of American History up on the third floor has one of the very first ships of the American Navy. It's called the Gunboat Philadelphia. This is the Gunboat Philadelphia. And John Adams says, abigail, it's amazing. We just destroyed a 64 cannon ship and a 20 cannon ship. And you look and you're like, how? Right? Like, how did you pull this off? Right? This is what he was acknowledging. Like, this is part of the miracles that we are already seeing. And this is what's happening. They're going to God asking for help. They're seeing things and they're acknowledging where this is coming from. Well, John Adams writes her another letter. And he says, abigail, I was eating dinner tonight, and I heard men in another room. And they were eating dinner and they were discussing all kinds of important things. Things. And then one of them, in the midst of their discussing all these things that have been going on and happening, he. He said something that I think is probably the best explanation of what's actually happening that I've heard anybody say. Well, here's what he wrote, Abigail, was the best explanation of what was actually going on. It appears to me the eternal Son of God is operating powerfully against the British nation, right? When these guys in the room are like, how do you explain this? And somebody's like, oh, I know it's Jesus, right? Like, that's the only explanation. Because there's no way this makes sense. That there's no way when you look at what was happening that they would have any level of success. And they didn't have a lot of level success early on. But the fact that any of this was happening, they acknowledged God must be helping us in the midst of this. And God's hand of the revolution was so obvious. And I don't have time to go through the hundreds of examples, but I do want to point to a couple acknowledgments. George Washington in 1778, he wrote to General Thomas Nelson Jr. who is another sign of the Declaration. He was a general in the revolution. But this is still early stages. 1778, we're not that far into the thing yet. We still have a long way to go before we win. But he told them, what we're seeing is so obvious right now that God is moving on our behalf. Here's part of what he wrote in the letter. He said, the hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. So for anybody looking and seeing what's actually happening in the revolution, if they can't acknowledge that God's been a part of. Of this, he says they must be worse than a non believer or more than wicked to not acknowledge what God has done. His next line is my favorite. He says, but it will be time enough for me to turn preacher when my present appointment ceases. And therefore I shall add no more on the doctrine of Providence. When George Washington is like, I've seen enough miracles. I could be a pastor. But for now, I'm going to try to win the war. I mean, this is this is genuinely remarkable how much he is seeing and recognizing the hand of God. Hot. He's getting the reports every day of what's going on. He's hearing the stories. He's seeing it firsthand. It's so obvious to them.

>> Rick Green: Quick break, everybody. We'll be right back.

>> Rick Green: This is Rebuilding Liberty week number three. You're listening to Tim Barton teaching during Rebuilding Liberty. If you'd like the full course, go to patriotacademy.com we'll be right back on F core with walkaway.

>> Jeff Chamblee: At the core podcast are available@afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio. We're back.

>> Rick Green: Thanks for staying with us here on at the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green.

Rick Green: What would be the key to America's success?

>> Rick Green: I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach. Let's jump right back in with Rebuilding Liberty. We're listening to week three of Rebuilding Liberty. Tim Barton teaching during this week. He's the master bricklayer for this week. Make sure that you're learning the right bricks to lay and the right mortar to use to rebuild Liberty in your community. Let's jump back in with Tim Barton.

>> Tim Barton: And part of why this also is significant is because this wasn't a surprise to them. They've been praying for this very thing and acknowledging. And so also, it's not a surprise when you come to the end of the revolution. When you get to 1783, this is when we signed the peace Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution. The Peace Treaty of Paris, is actually still on display up in Washington, D.C. it's at the State Department. It's up on the sixth floor, known as the John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room. If you look over on the left side at the top, you see Article 10. That's the very end of it. And then you see all of the signatures. The top one is David Hartley. Then you have John Adams, then Benjamin Franklin, John Jay. Those were the three American ambassadors that helped in the American Revolution. And this is a document that ends the American Revolution, brought peace between us and Great Britain, established America as a free nation. Look at the title of the document. It says, in the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity. Do you know America became a nation in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? That is the weirdest title I've ever seen on a peace treaty. Genuinely. Why would you do that now? I don't know, but I think it's possible somebody had read Proverbs 3 recently, which says, in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your steps because literally, they put it on the top of a document. And I am saying this again to draw attention to the fact that when you see quotes like from John Adams to Jefferson, where he said the general principles on which the Fathers achieved independence were the principles of Christianity, where they found common ground, where they found unity with Christianity. Today we look at that, and a lot of people think, well, you're just promoting your Christian nationalist ideas or whatever the argument might be. The reality is we just have spent so little time actually studying the actual story, reading the actual documents from the Founding Fathers, we don't recognize the significance of the role faith actually did play. But even the documents that we do know, George Washington delivered what's considered the most significant political address ever done, the Farewell Address. And in his Farewell Address, where he gave lots of really great advice that we should have remembered a long time ago, where he talked about things like avoiding foreign entanglements, focus on American problems, let the rest of the world solve their own problems. He talked about avoiding debt. He talked about make sure you love principle, more than you love party. And this is something that's important for all of us to remember because we live in an era that is so polarized that we see both sides more concerned about their side winning at times than what the principle actually is. And we want to make sure we are more driven by a principle than by what party or right identification somebody might have in their political system. No, no, it's a principle that drives us. But what's the most significant in my mind about this? He. He has one point where he says of all of the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity. Now, keep in mind, we're talking about politics and. And prosperity. So really, we're saying, how can, America as a nation politically succeed? Do. Well, what. What would be the key to America's success? This is what he's writing about. So he says of all of the things we could do that would make Americ. He said, religion and morality are indispensable supports. If you read the Farewell Address, there's only once he said something was indispensable, meaning you can't do it without this. Apparently everything else, he was like, ah, give or take this. He said, no, this is indispensable. We will not succeed without religion and morality. In fact, he went further. He said, in vain would that man claim a tribute of patriotism. Who should labor to subvert these great pillars? Anybody that opposes religion and morality. George Washington said, they're not a Patriot. Patriot. They don't love America because people that love America, that are patriots, they would want religion and morality. Now, this seems maybe a little extreme for a lot of people today. That's literally in the farewell address. And that was his last year in office. The following year, John Adams becomes president. John Adams in the next year writes a letter to the militia of Massachusetts where he says, our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is holy and adequate to the government of any other. John Adams acknowledges what they fundamentally knew in America. Just to connect the dots, in America, we believe in freedom, but freedom only works if you have immoral people. If you give freedom to immoral people, it looks like Chicago every weekend. Right? Like, that's not a good scenario. Freedom only works if you have a moral people. Well, how do you have a moral people? It's only through religion. And also worth noting, when they say religion and morality, they're not ambiguously saying, well, whatever religion you identify, whatever religion you choose. No, they're very specific. It was the religion of Jesus Christ. It was a religion of Christianity. And the morals were the morals of Jesus from the Bible. What they're saying is Christianity and the Bible. And we can go further with that. But this is something that earlier historians used to identify. back in the 1800s, there was a author, a historian, his name was Stephen Caldwell. He wrote many things about the Founding Fathers. But in one of the books, he was acknowledging the Christian influence on the Founding Fathers. And here's part of the way he explained it. It was in the spirit of true Christianity that the hospitality and blessings of the United States were offered to all the world. All, were invited to enjoy it. Okay. Already acknowledging, like, what was happening in America. This was something bigger than America. But he continued, the Christian men of that day intended the nation should continue to be a Christian nation. They did not place Christianity beneath nor over their political institutions. Rather, it was to be the atmosphere which they breathed to administer them. Now, already, like, let's just acknowledge, they said it wasn't about. Was the government more important than Christianity?

Christianity was the atmosphere in which everything worked, he says

No, this wasn't a competition. Christianity was the atmosphere in which everything worked. They continued, or he continued, it was a source of their inspiration, and they sought to make it the blessing available for human advantage. These institutions and laws were to be the instruments of Christian men for the good of the whole human family. Now, the Founding Father was trying to do something big picture, but. But let me draw your attention to the fact he acknowledged Christianity was the atmosphere. This was not gonna work right it's just like the oxygen that we breathe. It doesn't work without oxygen. And there's a lot of people that are very divided about how resolve some of the problems in the nation. And I think we've confused some of the issue, right, where if we were talking to a vehicle and they're like, well, you, you need a different engine in this vehicle. And I'm like, I think you just need gas, right? Like, I think that's a problem. Where's that a gas. Right. It doesn't matter how souped up you make your vehicle. It doesn't matter what kind of tires or lift. It doesn't matter if you don't have gas, it's not going to run. This was Christianity. It was the atmosphere of which everything was birthed out of this notion. And when we look at this today, most Americans would go, ok, that just seems extreme. Well, again, it's probably because we don't know that much history. If you even look at this painting, this is a very famous painting. It was commissioned actually back in the earlier 1900s. It's not that old, relatively speaking, to some of the other paintings that we could highlight along the way. But the guy who did this painting, he, in wanting to do a good job representing the Founding Fathers, he actually did some research and he studied the Founding Fathers. And one of the things he put in this that a lot of people have never paid attention to, in the bottom right corner corner, there's a book open on the table. That book is a Bible. It's open to Matthew, chapter five. And part of what we that study history understand, the Bible was the most quoted source by the Founding Fathers, and it wasn't even close so far above and beyond everything else. In fact, even in the Constitutional Convention, they quoted the Bible often in their speeches, their conversations, their debates. The Bible was a part of everything going on. Well, this is what the painter discovered in his research. And there's actually no record of what all books were there or weren't there as they're doing the convention. But what he, concluded was that I can't imagine that people that were this influenced by the Bible, that knew the Bible this well, would have done something so significant and not have the Bible with them. Now, again, the reason I want to point this out is because even when we look at things that we think are obvious, it's an obvious painting. We've all seen it before, and yet most people have never noticed there's a Bible literally open on the table in this painting. We've overlooked so often the influence of Christianity and the vital role it has played in forming the nation. And the God who were doing this, they knew the Bible. I mean, really knew the Bible and their writings and their quotes and so much of what they did.

>> Rick Green: But.

>> Tim Barton: But also what they learned from the Bible is that as you study the Bible, it's very clear that God made the world on purpose. And in order that certain ways, God created different institutions. it's obviously from God that he created the family, God created the government, God created the church. And as we look at those, we can as Christians hopefully acknowledge, yeah, God made all those. And the reality is that because God made them, God intended to be central in all of those. And we live in an era today where people are far more ready to say, well, yeah, God belongs in the church, but we're questioning a little bit about the dynamic of the family, because now we're not sure, like, what families are supposed to look like and who's supposed to be part of what families. Right. And even the gender of different things related to this. But also, when you went to government, there's a lot of Christians who would suggest, well, we're not really supposed to have God in government. As if the argument is, now wait a second, are you suggesting like, the government's going to legislate morality? And I, I just got a news flash for you. If you're concerned and you think the government shouldn't legislate morality, you misunderstand legislation. Every piece of legislation is reflective of somebody's morality. The reason it's passed. Somebody thought it was right, somebody thought it was wrong. It's not a question of are we going to legislate morality. It's only a question of whose morality are we going to legislate? And with the Founding Fathers knew is we want an objective standard that we can rely on, that we can look to. Because if there's not an objective standard like the Bible, which is consistent and does change, then how do you determine morality? What you think is good, somebody else else might think is bad. There needs to be an objective standard we can point to. And this is what used to be known. So the Founding Fathers knew America was built on an objective standard. And this was from our inception. If you go back to the very first columns, the very first people that came to America, it was so clear, so much so, that even when John Winthrop came in 1630, he was the one that led so many of the Puritans, they're coming over. And one of the things he does is a very famous sermon, a model of Christian charity. And in this sermon, he acknowledged to the people coming, he said, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world. John Winthrop is telling everybody coming, hey, we're making a covenant in this. And if we do right, we know that God's going to keep his part. But if we don't do the right thing and. And right, just to help connect some dots, people, this is not all that dissimilar from what Moses tells the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28. Right? If you do it God's way, you enjoy the blessings, and God's blessings, they will chase you down, they overtake you. You can't even escape God's blessings. But if you don't do it God's way, you can't escape the judgment that will come your way from rejecting God's standards. And I would point out that if, if you look in American history, there were moments when it felt like we couldn't escape God's blessings. And then there were moments when it felt like we couldn't do anything right. There was a covenant made at the very beginning. And by the way, this just wasn't just the Puritans, the Pilgrims. There was a lot of people, early America. This was the foundation of the nation, saying, God, we want to be connected to you. This was the American covenant from the very beginning. And this was what the Founding Fathers understood coming through. So much so that when you jump forward, when you have guys like John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams, he grows up in the Revolution. He knew every single Founding Father. In fact, right as he's six years old, he's at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He and his mom are watching it from. From an adjacent hill. They watch as their family, doctor, Joseph Warren, he's bayoneted by the British as he grows up. He's with his dad over in Europe during the American Revolution. At the end of the Revolution, George Washington chooses him as America's diplomat, actually over to Russia. But then at the end of Washington's presidency, he said, john Quincy Adams is the diplomat America has. He's a diplomat under his father, under Thomas Jefferson.

James Madison appoints George Mason to be a Supreme Court justice

He's a U.S. senator under James Madison. He brings him out of retirement to negotiate the end of the War of 1812. Actually, under James Madison's presidency, James Madison appoints him to be a Supreme Court justice. He's unanimously confirmed in the Senate, but he's over in Europe and he turns it down. He says, I'm doing more important things over here. Right. we don't need to worry about the Supreme Court. Which says a lot about what he thought the Supreme Court really was and where their value was. But then under James Monroe, he's Secretary of State, state. He's in president after president. He goes back to Congress. While he's in Congress, he's invited to go give a speech. It's up in Connecticut, and it's an anniversary speech. July 4, 1837, when he goes and gives this speech, I'm only going to show you a couple sentences from the speech. I'd encourage you go read the whole thing. I want you to see the connections he makes. He says, why is it that next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerable festival returns on this day? Now, this is Fourth of July. July, right. He says the two most important days for you as Americans is the birth of Jesus and the birth of the nation. He continued on and said, is it not that in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indisolibly linked with the birthday of the Savior? It forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation. Now, hang on a second. He's saying that the birth of the nation is linked to the birth of Jesus, and then America is somehow connected to a gospel. This is that the spreading and sharing and the teaching of the gospel? He continued, is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon the earth, that it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity? John Quincy Adams, the one who knew every Founding Father, the one who had grown up in the midst of this, on an anniversary speech, fourth of July, he's saying, I know why we celebrate this. I know why it's a big deal. It's because of the Christian connection. Too few Americans recognize the Christian connection anymore. And in the midst of all that, we're talking about, as we talk about America being the one of the most successful, prosperous, stable nations in the history of the world, there's a reason we've enjoyed more blessings than almost anywhere else in the world. There's a direct connection and correlation. And just to be clear on this, you can take any Founding Father virtually you want to and learn their story. Benchmark. Franklin, considered one of the least religious Founding Fathers. But least religious is totally different than anti religious because as, as you can go and look and see the records of the Continental Congress. Excuse me, not the Continental Congress of the Constitutional, Convention. When the founding Fathers come together the first several weeks when, when every state has brought their own idea for the way government should operate and nobody likes anybody else's idea and all they're doing is arguing, disagreeing and in so much frustration. It was reported that some of the delegates from Virginia, they got up and the delegation is just going to leave. George Washington chases them down and says, george Mason, please come back. We didn't fight a war to give up now. And George Mason tells them, because I respect you, I'll come back. But I think we're wasting our time. I mean, how divided we are. There's no way we're going to come together. And it was at this point, June 28, 1787, that Franklin, the old man of the convention got up and gave the longest speech he gave during the entire Constitution is going to mention. And here's what he said in his speech. He said in this situation of this assembly groping, as it were, in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it and present it to us. How has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understanding? Now let's already pause because when the least religious guy is like, I think our solution is we should pray.

>> Rick Green: One more quick break today, folks.

>> Rick Green: Stay with us. By the way, patriotacademy.com /institute, want to make sure you get those last minute applications in. We still got a couple of scholarships to give out. Those are $15,000 scholarships. So don't miss this opportunity to spend a year with us at the Patriot Academy campus. Check out patriotacademy.com institute. Back in a moment on at the Core. You're listening to Rebuilding Liberty. It's week three. Tim Barton doing the teaching. When we come back on at the corner.

>> Jeff Chamblee: At the Core podcast are available@afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.

Tim Barton leads the Rebuilding Liberty course, which runs through 2026

We're back here on at the Core.

>> Rick Green: With Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. Thanks for staying with us today. Our final segment of the day will close out the Rebuilding Liberty course. Week number three. So this is a four week course. You need to be doing this at your home, in your church, wherever you can, anywhere in your community, multiple times, times between now and the 250th, which is July 4, 2026. But for now, let's just listen and learn. Here's Tim Barton teaching in rebuilding liberty.

>> Tim Barton: Okay, that says a lot when that's your least religious. Also, it says a lot when people say he was a deist because a deist doesn't believe God gets involved. So why is a deist saying we need to pray and ask God to intervene in our situation? Well, let's keep going. He continued, in the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for divine protection. They're an independ. That was the same place where 11 years earlier they did the Declaration. And Franklin's reminding them, remember when we were here and we prayed every single day? Also significant, Franklin says during the Revolution they prayed every single day for divine protection. He says our prayers were heard and they were graciously answered. Again, that's not a DS God. Right? If God is answering your prayers, then then you believe there is a God who intervenes in the affairs of men. Let's continue. He said, all of us engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintend providence in our favor. And have we now forgotten this powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire could rise without his aid? We have been assured in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. And I also believe without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better, better than the builders of Babel. And we shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. I, therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business. Now, again, when the least religious founding father is suggesting the way to resolve our conflict is we need to get God involved in this. It says a lot about their idea. And this is where I would go back and point out that's why earlier historians, when they pointed out that Christianity was the atmosphere upon which this whole thing was birthed, the founding fathers understood something that I think a lot of Christians in America have even forgotten. It. It's what the Psalms tells us, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain, that build it. Why does all this matter? Because last week we talked about some really practical things that we can do to restore some of this faith foundation. And I think that there's a lot of people that have misunderstood what should be our greatest priorities. Because there's people looking, going, hey, we need to solve this economic. I agree there's a lot of economic problems we got to deal with. maybe domestic policy, foreign policy, immigration. There's a lot of problems we have to deal with. But if we don't restore the atmosphere that allows freedom to work, if we don't restore religion and morality, then the American experiment will go the way that every other nation has gone in the history of the world, which after 250 years is the lifespan of, nations. Or, or we can have a rebirth. And this is where we want to encourage and challenge everybody watching. Wherever you are watching from, where our name comes from is the Bible, book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 2:17. He's calling. Everybody says, come, let us rebuild, that we will no longer be a disgrace. I think everybody in this room, probably most of you watching, can agree there have been some moments that were pretty disgraceful over the last many years, decades, century, however far back we need to go. But we are at a unique moment that we've never had before, that we can rebuild like we've never rebuilt, rebuilt before. But I want to encourage. What we have to make sure we remember in the midst of our rebuilding is that we're not rebuilding a structure without giving the right foundation. The foundation has to be. The Founding Father said, George Washington said, the indispensable support is religion and morality. If you oppose that, you're not a patriot. But for every patriot, understand the foundation that we build from. We restore religion, morality, and after that, then let's target every other issue we need to get after. But we have to restore the faith foundation. If we don't have a faith foundation, we lose the idea. Like the Declaration says, there's a God who gave us rights. Government exists to protect those rights. If there is no God, there are no God given rights. If there is no faith foundation, there is no freedom. This is the way the American system was built. But we are in a unique place that we can rebuild like never before. It's time for us as believers to roll up our sleeves and let's go back and rebuild.

Rick Green: Western civilization is built on the Bible and on biblical principles

Thank you, guys. Rick, let me give it back to you.

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

>> Tim Barton: Why?

>> Rick Green: Because you're going to be a republic. And that means that you are going to be the ones that get your leaders elected. You're going to be the leaders, and you're the ones that are going to have to hold them accountable, which means you have to be a moral people. So you go to church. That's where morals come from.

>> Tim Barton: From God.

>> Rick Green: And here's what I love about Texans. Not only do you people go to church, when you go, you're packing. So that right there, that has got to make your altar calls a lot more effective, doesn't it? Would you like to accept Jesus as your savior? I don't. Yeah.

>> Tim Barton: Yeah.

>> Rick Green: Like to do that.

>> Pastor John Amanchukwu: So this culture wants to rid us and rob us of, of our love for America. No, this nation is not perfect. We had a rocket start. I'll, take America for any other country and nation on the face of this planet. How about you? What is the answer? Is there hope for this nation? And the Bible tells us.

>> Tim Barton: Us.

>> Pastor John Amanchukwu: In Second Chronicles, chapter 7, verse 14. He says, if my people, which are called by my name, would humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal the land. Tomorrow is not promised. All we have before us is the here and now. So let us govern ourselves as if there is a God. Because, my friend, there is.

>> Rick Green: I, found over the years, that, the only really reliable, matrix to reality is the biblical blueprint. I think it is true. And I think it is the blueprint that adequately explains what the evidence is that we see with our own eyes. President Ronald Reagan once said, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. That statement is more true now than ever before.

>> Tim Barton: Biblical principles are what produce freedom in society. But you won't have biblical principles in society in which you don't have citizens with a biblical worldview.

>> Rick Green: We've relegated to say, look, politics is dirty.

>> Rick Green: That's what pastors say, politics is dirty.

>> Rick Green: I don't do.

>> Tim Barton: I don't do politics. Well, the church is dirty. What's your point? If you're a Christian, a person of faith, you must care about what's happening in our culture, and you begin to.

>> Rick Green: Love what God loves and hate what he hates in the scriptures because your heart is lining up with the heart of God because of the gospel.

>> Rick Green: The founders knew this nation was already.

>> Tim Barton: Very diverse, and federalism allows that diversity to flourish. The further we move away from biblical principles, the further we move away from liberty and freedom. I think biblical citizenship as a Christian would be stewardship that God has given us this republic to be stewards over.

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

Tim Barton: Rebuild Liberty starts with restoring limited government

Everybody, welcome back to the tavern portion of our Rebuild Liberty. Remember, we're having those revolutionary conversations about the strategies and tactics not necessary to rebuild the walls, to actually lay the bricks, use the right mortar, and build this thing strong for future generations. So here in our tavern, we're going to talk about the action items. What can you do in your community this week to implement what Tim was talking about tonight? Really, what David talked about last week, what we've been talking about throughout the course, it all comes back to this idea. When you learn that history, you realize that the founding fathers of America, they had this concept of jurisdiction. They believe that our freedom came from God, not government. That really important line in the Declaration of Independence that we're endowed by our creator, and then that really important line that says that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. You put those together and it gives you a really clear chain of command, if you will. The freedom comes from God to you, and then you give to government the power to protect your rights.

>> Tim Barton: That's.

>> Rick Green: That's the whole reason we created government in the first place here in America. So what we've got to do is figure out what is government really supposed to do. They're supposed to protect, not provide. They're not supposed to give us all these things. That's why it's pursuit of happiness, not guarantee of happiness. Pursuit of happiness, not redistribution of happiness. So if we're going to actually rebuild liberty in this country, what we've got to start doing is restoring that civic literacy, restoring the Declaration of Principles, restoring religious liberty. And then this week, we need to talk about restoring limited government, getting government back into its proper jurisdictional place. Instead of government solving all our problems, we need to say government, you do those things that only government can do and that we've given government the power to do.

One of the first steps I want to encourage you to think about is restoring parental rights

One of the first steps I want to encourage you to think about this week is restoring parental rights. That's a way of restoring limited government, because in too many places, we've given government the power to make decisions about our children, to make decisions about our children's education, decisions about our children's health, all of these things. And that is not the proper role of government. So we've got some work to do to restore the basic jurisdictional separation there, that parental rights means that the parent should decide, the upbringing of the child should make the health decisions, the education decisions, all of those things. And frankly, we need some amendments to state constitutions and we need a federal amendment. We need an amendment to the US Constitution that'll guarantee parental rights and stop the government from encroaching on our decision. So we write more about that in the blueprint and there's things that you can do to get involved with local organizations. Check that out in your workbook and in the blueprint and we'll connect you with those organizations.

Second step in our 12 step recovery is to restore property rights

Second May major step in our 12 step recovery for this week. It's actually step number eight overall is to restore property rights. This is just another one of those areas where little by little, we gave more and more power on the decision making to government. So now we have government bureaucrats and engineers that don't answer to us, telling us what we can do with our property that's wrong. You, the landowner, should decide what you want to do with your property. Obviously, you shouldn't harm your neighbor. And if you do, they should be able to take you to court and you should have to make it right. But this idea that we have to go to our local government and constantly get permission to do things with our land, that's wrong and it's not freedom. So there's a lot of things we can do locally. We've got some things in the book. We're working on a property owner's Bill of Rights that we want to get people to adopt at the local level. So make sure you're paying attention@patriotacademy.com get on our email List. And you can be one of our champions for that particular step as well.

Last step in abolishing federal duplicity is to abolish some departments

And the last step we're going to talk about the Tavern this week is a abolishing federal duplicity. I, talked about this in the first week a little bit, but the whole point is that the government at the federal level should not be doing the things that the government at the local or state level is already doing. Education, agriculture, I mean, you pick. Many of these departments at the federal level are actually duplicating what was already being done at the state or local level. This is one of those things where we've got to get rid of the waste and literally abolish the departments at the federal level, maybe some of those at the state level as well. But right now, the low hanging fruit is to abolish these departments at the federal level. You and I need to be working on that. Some of that's going to have to be done through constitutional amendments. Sometimes we can get Congress to do it, and sometimes the president will be pushing for some of these things to happen. But this is one of those areas where we have to start challenging the status quo. This is a revolutionary strategy and tactic to restore limited government.

In our first week, we talked about three steps of our recovery plan

All right, quick review before we close out our Tavern section tonight. In our first week, we talked about three steps, the first three steps of our recovery plan for the country. You host a Rebuild Liberty course. You get involved in planning a 250th celebration right there in your community. And yes, you help make the Constitution something that's studied at your local public schools, or get a Celebrate Freedom week going at your schools. That was the first three steps in our recovery plan. Talked about that in week one. Hopefully you're already working on one of those three. And then in week two, we talked about beginning to restore our religious liberty and God consciousness by getting the national motto in God we Trust, the Ten Commandments, chaplains, Bible curriculum in school. All of those things in week two that we talked about. And then this week we're beginning that process of restoring limited government, restoring parental rights, restoring property rights, and abolishing federal duplicity. That's a lot to cover for these few minutes that we have in the tavern. Hope you got you a good cup of Patriot brew. I'll see you next week here in the tavern to talk about our final action steps.

One more week to go for Rebuilding Liberty. Get signed up as a coach or host

Welcome back to Rebuilding Liberty. What a great week this has been. Week three. Now we got one more week left, and we got some great teaching for you next week as well. But I want you already thinking about where you're going to host the next Rebuilding Liberty course. Has everybody had a great time in the first three weeks? Yeah. One more week to go. We'll see you next week for Rebuilding Liberty. All right, friends, be sure and check.

>> Rick Green: Out, patriotacademy.com today. Get signed up as a coach or host and you can get that class for free. It's called Rebuilding Liberty. It's based on my book, A Blueprint for Rebuilding Liberty, Just in time for America's 250th. Learn more@patriotacademy.com and start hosting those classes between now and the 250th, which will be July 4th of next year in 2026. Last time I'm going to mention this because we're giving out all the scholarships by the end of the weekend. But patriotacademy.com institute, if you've got an 18 to 26 that would like to come spend a full year with us there on the Patriot Academy campus, getting some incredible leadership training, communication skills, worldview, figuring out what God's purpose is for their life, and getting plugged in, check it out today@patriotacademy.com institute.

>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.