going everyone? This is Pastor Dylan Oz from Anchor Baptist Church and I just wanted to get on
here this evening and talk about a topic that's very interesting to me. Something that I've
definitely studied a lot and cared about a lot in my life and that is the religious history of the
United States. The question of was the United States of America founded as a Christian nation?
Now if you go to the public school today, yeah the answer is going to be absolutely not. When I went
to public school I was taught of course that we were founded as a strictly secular nation and I
even talked to one of my church members today and asked him hey when you were in public school did
they tell you that America was founded as a secular nation? And they said yes. Even last year
Pastor Jonathan Shelley and I, pastor of St. Vas Baptist Church, we went to the University of
Austin or the University of Texas rather in Austin and we spoke to a lot of college students and it
was just baffling to us to see how many of them were just so vehement in their belief that the
United States was founded as a secular nation. And so I kind of want to address a lot of those
issues tonight. If you're someone who's really into history, I think you'll find this stream
interesting. If you just despise history, then you might as well just tune into something else
because it's going to be pretty historical this evening. But I want to start off by showing
everyone a video real quick from this guy Neil deGrasse Tyson. There's no mention of Jesus in our
constitution. There's not even mention of God in the document that forms our country. We live
in a Christian nation. That's actually an objectively false statement. If we were self-aware
as a Christian nation, there'd be some references to Jesus who's the foundation of Christianity,
but there isn't. There's one mention of God in the constitution, but a very minor, extremely minor.
What was it? At the very end, Anno Domini, 1789. All right. So there's his perspective. And of
course, Neil deGrasse Tyson is an atheist, obviously does not believe in Christianity
himself personally. So it's very, you know, not surprising that he has some sort of agenda there
in those statements. And what's also funny is at the end of his statement, he debunked himself.
He's saying that, you know, Jesus isn't found anywhere in the constitution, but at the end,
it says Anno Domini, which means in the year of our Lord. Who's the Lord that it's speaking of
there? It's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, you know, he debunks himself there, but we're
actually going to talk about a lot more than just the federal constitution and the federal bill of
rights. Though I do think it's a good place to start because when people have this conversation,
it's usually only about the federal constitution, you know, or it's about the declaration of
independence or it's about the bill of rights and oftentimes the state constitutions are completely
ignored in this conversation. But when people today will talk about this idea of was America
founded on Christian values or was America founded as a Christian nation, a lot of times people who
deny this or scoff at this will say, well, you have separation of church and state. And what's
interesting about that, first of all, is that separation of church and state is found nowhere
in our founding documents, that phrase at least. Now, I do personally believe and agree that the
principle of separation of church and state is something that is found in the constitution,
but not the type of separation of church and state that the liberals or the atheists today
want you to believe. So if we just actually go to the constitution here, to the bill of rights,
let's see if I can pull this up. Let's scroll so you could actually see something here. So we're
going to look at obviously the first amendment. Now what's interesting about the first amendment
is that a lot of people when they talk about the first amendment they say oh you know the first
amendment is what gives us our right to freedom of religion and freedom of assembly and redress of
grievances and all the things that are listed there. But the truth is is that the first
amendment of the constitution does not grant any rights whatsoever. You read it carefully,
does not grant any rights whatsoever. The reason being is that if you read the Declaration of
Independence, you'll understand that the founders believed in something called natural rights.
They believed that we have natural rights given from God and that these rights are inalienable.
They cannot be altered or taken away by government. So the first amendment was not the government
saying, hey, let us bestow these rights upon you. The founders of our country already recognized
that we have certain rights from God. And I've thought about this a lot. The idea of natural
rights. Is this a biblical concept? And I think it is because, you know, for example, if God says,
thou shalt not kill, that implies that I have a natural right to live. You know, it would be a
sin to murder me. Why? Because I have a natural right from God to live. So when God's commanding
us to do something, there is a level of natural rights there, I believe. So I think that that's a
biblical concept. But the first word, if you just notice the first word of the first amendment,
you see that word right there? Congress. This amendment is being directed toward the federal
Congress, the federal legislature. And what this amendment does is it actually restricts
the power of the Congress. It does not give people rights. It restricts the power of the
Congress and it tells that it tells Congress that there's some things that it's not allowed to do.
So it says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. So the federal
Congress of the United States is prohibited by the first amendment from establishing a state
sanctioned religion. This is known as the establishment clause. And this is a good thing.
I 100% agree with the establishment clause in the first amendment of the United States.
Recently I preached an entire sermon called Freedom of Religion and I definitely recommend
that you give that sermon a listen. Freedom of Religion. So the idea is is that you know a lot
of the people who came to the United States they came from England or that region. And those
European countries, England especially, had a state sanctioned religion. They had the Church
of England where the government is instituting this religion and the government is often levying
taxes upon people for the support of ministries against their will. Yeah, a state established
religion. And so the federal congress is not allowed to make a state established religion.
Meaning that the federal congress cannot say thou shalt be Baptist or thou shalt be a Methodist.
Thou shalt be a Presbyterian. They're not allowed to make any law like that. Or it says prohibiting
the free exercise thereof. So again this is a restrictive amendment on the power of the
federal congress. The federal congress is not allowed to establish a religion or prohibit the
free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. So
kind of need to re-educate yourself a little bit here because unfortunately the education system
especially the public school does a really bad job of teaching the constitution I believe. But
get this idea out of your head that the first amendment gives us rights. It doesn't give us
any rights. It restricts the powers that the federal congress has. The declaration of
independence states that hey we already know that we have certain rights given to us by God. So
why bring this up? Because this is kind of where people go to say look it's obvious that we were
not started as a Christian nation because look we weren't allowed to have this establishment of
religion. But here's what you have to understand is that the founders believed in this principle
called federalism. And federalism you think well federal government? Not really. Federalism is the
separation of powers between federal and state governments. And so federalism was a very very
big thing in the US up till about the civil war. States rights were a big thing up till about the
civil war. But if you look at the 10th amendment you can see that there it says the powers not
delegated to the United States by the constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved
to the states respectively or to the people. So again federal congress these are the rules for
the federal congress but if if people take this amendment and run with it to say oh this is proof
that the founding americans the americans who were alive during the time of the revolutionary war
that they somehow did not want a christian nation or to live under christian values is insane when
you start to look at the contemporaries of those who signed the declaration and made the constitution
what am i talking about i'm talking about the original 13 colonies state constitutions because
obviously you have the federal constitution here that you're looking at your screen this is the
bill of rights it was added after of course but you know you have the federal constitution which
i believe was ratified yeah in 1789 but on top of that you have state constitutions now last year
just out of curiosity i did a lot of research on this and i went and just read almost all of the
state constitutions for the original 13 colonies only i didn't read obviously all 50 states and i
didn't read every single word of these constitutions but i did read the parts of the original 13
colonies state constitutions that had anything to do with religion whatsoever so as i show you some
of these examples of the state constitutions keep in mind that this is the same generation of
americans that were alive during the signing of the declaration of independence and the ratifying
of the federal constitution and the bill of rights so check this out in massachusetts state
constitution 1780 it says in every denomination of christians demeaning themselves peaceably and
as good subjects of the commonwealth shall be equally under the protection of the law
and no subordination of any sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law so when
you look at how the contemporaries of the founders in other states viewed the first amendment it was
obviously within the context of christianity and here it's saying hey all of the denominations of
christians are going to have equal protection under the law and they're not going to prefer
one denomination or one sect of christianity against another. so meaning they're not going
to have like a special tax just for presbyterians and they're not going to say hey massachusetts
we are strictly a quaker religion or we are strictly a baptist religion. no christians are
protected equally under the law in massachusetts and they're not going to have any special treatment
one over the other. now i'm going to read a whole bunch of this so like i said if you're into
history you'll like this if not then you might find something else. but chapter 5 section 1 article 1
this is talking about the institution of harvard college. it says "whereas our wise and pious
ancestors so early as the year 1636 laid the foundation of harvard college in which university
many persons of great prominence have by the blessing of god been initiated in those arts
and sciences which qualified them for their public employments both in church and state
and whereas the encouragement of arts and sciences and all good literature tends to the honor of god
the advantage of the christian religion it goes on and on and on and it's just interesting to see how
hey the government in 1780 was sitting here commending the college of harvard for providing
education and they're saying hey anyone who's truly educated anyone who is encouraging arts
and sciences and good literature that's going to tend toward the honor of god doesn't really sound
like a secular uh institution so far and it's going to get way worse for people to have this
idea that america was founded as a secular society chapter six article one this is this one's great
article one any person chosen governor lieutenant governor counselor senator or representative
and accepting the trust shall before he proceed to execute the duties of his place or office
make and subscribe the following declaration i state your name do declare that i believe
the christian religion and have a firm persuasion of its truth so anyone who's serving in the
government as a governor lieutenant governor senator representative you know any position
of power here in the government they had to before they took office declare that they believe in the
christian religion and that they were firmly persuaded of its truth now here's the thing
that is not massachusetts establishing a certain sect of christianity it's not saying like oh you
have to declare that you're a baptist or declare that you're a methodist declare that you're
whatever denomination but because the people at this time were by and large a huge majority
christians they wanted christians to represent them in government why because they wanted to have a
christian nation looking at these qualifications ask yourself would an atheist have been allowed
to serve in government in massachusetts in 1780 post revolution by the way and that's why i like
these state constitutions because you know i can show you a bunch more of christian doctrine and
ideology in the 13 colonies from way way before the american revolution but this isn't just british
colonies we're talking about now this is the united states of america this is 1780 all right
and you had to be a christian to serve in the massachusetts government in 1780 that was our
country's belief why because we absolutely were not a secular nation anyone who looks at this and
says we're secular is just completely dishonest and really a lot of people are just completely
uneducated about let's look at another one new hampshire bill of rights 1783 every individual
has a natural and unalienable right to worship god according to the dictates of his own conscience
and reason and no subject shall be hurt molested or restrained in his person liberty or estate for
worshiping god in the manner and season most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience
or for his religious profession sentiments or persuasion provided he does not disturb the public
peace or disturb others in their religious worship so new hampshire is kind of backing up with the
first amendment of the constitution was saying where they want to recognize that we have freedom
of conscience and you know this is biblical as well because in order to be saved what do you
have to do you have to believe on the lord jesus christ what must i do to be saved believe on the
lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house christianity is not a religion that you can
force you cannot pass a law and just force people to worship god you know proverbs actually talks
about how the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the lord but the prayer of the
upright is his delight so we don't want to just have people doing religion because they're forced
to going through sacrifices or prayers or going to church and it's not coming from their own heart
or their own desire you know the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the lord but the prayer
of the upright is his delight and so new hampshire is saying hey you have the right to worship god
any way that you can now that doesn't mean that every other religion is going to be allowed to
serve in government or have positions of power or have equal protection under the law and that's
what people don't understand it's like it's not like atheists were executed for living in america
or like muslims were just killed for living in america i'm sure some existed or you know some
of these other groups but they were not given the same protection under the law because it was a
christian nation look at this other one and no portion of any one particular religious sect
or denomination shall ever be compelled to pay toward the support or the teacher or teachers of
another persuasion sect or denomination and every denomination of christians demeaning themselves
quietly and as good subjects of the state shall be equally under the protection of the law again
making it very specific what are they talking about when they're talking about freedom of
religion freedom and protection under the law it's talking about every denomination of christians
it says and nothing herein shall be understood to affect any former contracts made for the support
of the ministry but all such contracts shall remain and be in the same state as if this
constitution had not been let's look at connecticut now this is 1818 so this is a good while after the
revolution uh when they ratified their state constitution let's see if they were a secular
state the people of connecticut acknowledging with gratitude the good providence of god doesn't
sound very secular to me here we go declaration of rights so just like there's the bill of rights
in the federal constitution there's a declaration of rights within the constitution of connecticut
it says no preference shall be given by law to any christian sect or mode of worship so again
that's what the establishment clause is actually talking about in the first amendment is that
congress is not allowed to say hey this specific sect is going to be the official religion of the
united states this did not mean that somehow religious christian beliefs were not allowed to
be promoted by the government this does not mean that christians weren't allowed to be in the
government because this is how people view it today oh you can't pray if you're a public
school teacher oh you can't teach the bible in school you can't talk about the bible if you work
for the government you can't talk about your religious views if you're a government employee
you know there's been people who've gotten in trouble the coach who was praying with
his football team at a public school and had to go to the supreme court
and this is like the lunacy that people have today is they think that the first amendment
prohibits christians from worshiping god in the government when really it was just stopping the
government the federal government from establishing a sect as the official religion of the federal
government but it was actually the opposite of what a lot of people think you still had to
actually be a christian to be in government notice what it says here article six section one and
every whoops let me move that so you could actually see each and every society or denomination
of christians in this state shall have and enjoy the same and equal powers rights and privileges
so we're not even halfway through with all of these yet it just keeps talking about how hey
they're talking about christians not talking about muslims jews hindus atheists let's see if
rhode island was a secular nation or a secular state this one was ratified in 1842 a long time
after we the people can we see this all right yep we the people of this state which shall
which shall henceforth be known as the state of rhode island grateful to almighty god then they
talk about freedom of religion just like the other states did whereas almighty god have created the
mind free and all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens or by civil
incapacitations tend to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness right so worshiping god when you
don't actually believe it they're saying like hey if we force people to worship god a lot of
hypocrisy is going to be come by that and whereas a principal object of our venerable ancestors
in their migration to this country and their settlement of this state was as they expressed
it to hold forth a lively experiment that a flourishing civil state may stand and be best
maintained with full liberty and religious concern we therefore declare that no person
shall be compelled to frequent or to support any religious worship place or ministry they're saying
you know the founders of Rhode Island they're saying like hey the whole reason our fathers came
here to this constitution or to this continent excuse me is to freely practice their religion
and when you look at the last 245 years of America from a religious perspective there's been a lot of
great work for the Lord that's been done here in the United States and all over the world from
churches sending missionaries to other countries or funding works of God in other countries and
you know how did that happen well partly it happened because we had the liberty to freely
exercise Christianity and the truth of God's word is extremely powerful righteousness exalted the
nation the Bible says and so when you have a group of people striving to believe the Bible striving
to have laws that match with what the Bible says striving to have Christians be the ones running
things and setting a good example and when you have communities going to church and freely
worshiping God you're gonna have two things of course you're gonna have wicked people as well
you're gonna have false religion as well but you're also gonna have the truth really really
flourish and so you know we want that freedom you know let the tares grow with the wheat you know
some people today they just want this like authoritarian government that's just gonna kill
everyone that's not christian that's for the millennial reign but right now man is not going
to be able to take care of that properly which is why Jesus says hey just let the tares grow with
the wheat we want religious freedom in America for sure because here's the thing if someone was to
say let's have an establishment of religion in the united states you really think that if that was
to be done today that the religion that would be established is independent fundamental baptists
probably not and even if it was i wouldn't really want that because i want freedom to
thrive in this area but yeah that would not be a good idea coming from the government today
Delaware state constitution 1776 so same year as the declaration here it says every person
who shall be chosen a member of either house or appointed to any office or place of trust
before taking his seat or entering upon the execution of his office shall take the following
oath or affirmation if conscientiously scrupulous taking an oath to wit says some things there you
can read but notice this right here i state your name do profess faith in god the father
and in jesus christ his only son and in the holy ghost one god blessed forevermore
and i do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the old and new testament to be given by divine
inspiration wow what a great profession that is wouldn't it be nice whoops losing this here
you know wouldn't it be nice if today in the united states we only had people allowed to
run for any position of power in government that professed faith in god the father the lord jesus
christ the holy spirit acknowledging that the holy scriptures of the old and new testament are
divinely inspired by god you know what that would do that would rid 100 percent of judaism believers
out of our government there would be no no person who is a jew is a believer of the religion of
judaism that rejects the lord jesus christ rejects him as the messiah that hates him none of them
would be allowed to be in our government you wouldn't allow you wouldn't be allowed to have
guys like vivek ramaswami who is a hindu you would not have people like that in our government if
this was the bar of entry so tell tell me how we were founded as a secular nation when in delaware
the state constitution said in order to serve in government you have to believe the bible old and
new testament the lord jesus christ god the father the holy ghost you couldn't be one of these
trinity deniers either i guess you couldn't have been one of these modalist heretics you had to be
an orthodox christian now it doesn't say that you have to be a methodist or a presbyterian or a
baptist but you have to be a christian why because all of the people that were alive during the
founding of our country desired a christian nation and i think when you're looking at these state
constitutions that makes this very clear yes you had the federal constitution that was way more
broad way more vague because they believed in a lot of the powers going to the state governments
then the state governments convened they make their state constitutions and they get real specific
about what they're looking for in the government and always every single one we've looked at so
far has been just openly christian so the idea that it's a secular nation is ridiculous okay
here's new york now new york today is one of the most godless liberal worldly terrible states in
our country but let's look at what they looked like here in 1777 um let's see where should we
start let's go ahead and show you the whole thing and whereas we are required by the benevolent
principles of rational liberty not only to expel civil tyranny but also to guard against that
spiritual oppression and intolerance wherewith the bigotry and ambition of weak and wicked priests
and princes have scourged mankind this convention doth further in the name and by the authority of
the good people of this state ordained determine and declare that the free exercise and enjoyment
of religion religious profession and worship without discrimination or preference shall forever
hereafter be allowed within this state to all mankind divided that the liberty of conscience
hereby granted shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness or justify practices
inconsistent with the peace or safety of this state so they just carte blanche carte blanche
gave religious liberty with one exception that we're not going to excuse acts of just lewdness
or wickedness lasciviousness or justify practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of this
state so just because people have freedom of religion doesn't mean that they're allowed to
commit crimes under the guise of religion like polygamy for example i want to say that mormonism
first started in the northeast part of our country and was kind of chased out west because of their
polygamous practices so they didn't want the oppression the spiritual oppression
bigotry the intolerance from weak and wicked priests what are they talking about they're
talking about the catholic church is what they're talking about because you had times throughout
history like in the 1500s 1400s where the catholic church was prohibiting the word of god from being
translated into english and distributed to the common man and so that's why guys like william
tindale was literally burned at the stake convicted by the catholic church is because he went about
and did that work and so we as americans we saw that and said hey we don't we don't want anything
like that we don't want this state-run religion that's super tyrannical to rule over every single
person in the country that's ridiculous if you want to go to the wicked catholic church you're
free to do that and you're free to die and go to hell when you die as well because they believe
a false gospel says here and whereas the ministers of the gospel are by their profession dedicated
to the service of god and to the care of souls and ought not to be diverted from the great duties
of their function therefore no minister of the gospel or priest of any denomination whatsoever
shall at any time hereafter under any pretense or description whatever be eligible to or capable of
holding any civil or military office or place within this state now don't miss this one right
here this is a super important what's going on here sorry about first time streaming issues
don't miss the importance of this one right here what they're saying is hey no minister no pastor
no clergy person is allowed to serve in the government in a civil or a military function
whatsoever and at first glance some people might think well that sounds kind of anti-christian
why are you saying that pastors are allowed to serve in the government but they explain their
reasoning it says that the ministers of the gospel are dedicated to the service of god and to the
care of souls and that they ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their function
so notice the the christians in new york the people who founded new york who started the
new york state constitution here they had such a high respect and such a high value for christianity
for the institution of the local new testament church that they said hey pastors are too important
to be distracted with from their extremely important work of leading the church feeding the
flock of god you know doing the work of the ministry preaching the gospel doing all the work
that ministers do today we're not going to take them away from that and put them into the courthouse
or into the law house or into the military functions of the state whatsoever and look those
are important things we need lawmakers we need judges we need governors we need soldiers we need
commanders we need generals we need all those people but the christians of new york said you
know what's a more important job than all of those things is the role of a pastor is the role of a
minister now today wow the respect people have for ministers and for pastors today is so much lower
than when our country was founded where this is what new yorkers thought of pastors they said hey
you're too important to even serve in government let other christians do the job let other
christians hey they still need to be a christian they need to still need to say hey i believe in
jesus the holy spirit and god the father and i believe in the inspiration of the old and new
testament but not pastors though because they have a really important job to do i think that's
incredible when i read that here is new jersey 1776 it says that there shall be no establishment
of any one religious sect in this province in preference to another and that no protestant
inhabitant of this colony shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil right merely on account
of his religious principles so notice here specifically the word protestant is listed now
some day some baptists today really freak out about this word protestant but you got to realize
there's more than one definition to this word and when you go to for example dictionary.com and you
just type in the word protestant the first definition that you're going to see pop up is
any non-catholic any christian who is a non-catholic and what i submit to you is that joe plumber
in america when he hears the word protestant he's not really thinking of protestant in the
exact way that us as fundamental baptists hear it you know we're thinking martin luther we're
thinking about the reformation and stuff like that and i would agree that independent fundamental
baptists are not protestants in that definition of but most people when they hear the word
protestant they're just thinking regular christian non-catholic now if you look at the second
definition of the word protestant on dictionary.com it says specifically those churches and sects and
religions that are descendants of the religious movement of the protestant reformation from the
guys like martin luther and john calvin and stuff like that obviously our theology is not compatible
with those people we are not protestants as independent fundamental baptists but don't let
that word protestant scare you because most people when they use the word protestant they're just
meaning hey not those dang catholics okay and i kind of like that it says that in a sense because
it just goes to show like hey catholicism was not a thing at the founding of our country it was not
something that was tolerated or accepted or liked and i'll show you that later in another state's
constitution here is pennsylvania the pennsylvania state constitution in section 10 it says
and each member before he takes his seat shall make and subscribe the following decorate declaration
i do believe in one god the creator and governor of the universe the rewarder of the good
and the punishment of the wicked well that sounds kind of vague it's like well what god are you
talking about well it says and i do acknowledge the scriptures of the old and new testament
to be given by divine inspiration so saying hey everything the old and new testament says is true
it's that god they're talking about is the lord jehovah the god of the bible and it says and no
further or other religious tests shall ever hereafter be required of any civil officer or
magistrate in this state so the only religious test that they had was hey just tell us that
you're a christian tell us that you at least believe the bible they weren't like all right
what's your view on the preacher rapture what's your view on name the secondary doctrine they're
not really interested in interested in that they just want to talk about hey are you at least a
christian you have to be a christian to serve virginia 1776 virginia 1776 it says here in the
bill of rights section 16 it says all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion
according to the dictates of conscience and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice what
christian forbearance love and charity towards another tell me that our country was not bounded
with christian principles every state is just talking about the lord god jesus christ the old
testament the new testament christian forbearance love and charity our creator is such a crazy idea
that's being taught today in schools notice again virginia had the same rule as new york where it
said in all ministers of the gospel of every denomination are incapable of being elected
members of either house or assembly of the british council pastors not allowed in government now i'm
not even saying i necessarily agree with that rule today but it just goes to show that the view
that they had then the pastors were super super important maryland state constitution 1776
declaration of rights article 23 that as it is the duty of every man to worship god in such manner
as he thinks most acceptable to him all persons professing the what christian religion are equally
entitled to protection in their religious liberty wasn't saying cults wasn't saying islam not
hinduism phthalicism christians you say catholics are christian well that's funny because when i go
out soul hunting and i ask someone if they're a christian i can't tell you how many times
catholics have told me no i'm catholic and that's true they're not christian because
christians believe in salvation by faith alone through jesus christ whereas catholics believe
in this workspace salvation of earning their way to heaven by doing good declaration of rights
article 35 uh let's see here that no other test or qualification ought to be required on admission
to any office or trust of profit sorry of trust or profit then such oath of support and fidelity to
this state and such oath of office as shall be directed by this convention or the legislature of
this state and a declaration of a belief christian still had to have that christian religious test
in maryland in 1776 when someone takes their oath of office uh this is funny the oath of office for
1776 the maryland state constitution i do swear i insert your name here do swear that i do not
hold myself bound in allegiance to the king of great britain because it's obviously 1776
they're fighting war they're saying hey if you're going to be in government here you got to say
that you're not bound to the king of britain and that i will be a faithful and bear true that i
will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of maryland and shall also subscribe a
declaration of his belief in the what christian religion so they're saying hey i want to make
sure you're not loyal to king george but that you are loyal to the bible to the christian religion
north carolina just in case you know haven't had your uh mind changed yet it keeps going in north
carolina 1776 that no clergyman or preacher of the gospels of any denomination shall be capable of
being a member of either the senate house or commons or council of state while he continues
any exercise of the pastoral function so again pastors not allowed because of the high view they
had for their work and their own right at church here's another one that no person who shall deny
the being of god or the truth of the protestant religion or the divine authority either of the
old or new testaments or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and
safety of the state shall be capable holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil
department of this state so notice if you deny the being of god can't get elected in north carolina
if you're an atheist if you're an agnostic can't get elected if you deny the truth of the protestant
religion saying hey if you are a catholic let me just translate what this is saying this is saying
if you are a catholic you cannot serve in the civil department of this state that's what the
north carolinians believe if you deny the inspiration of the old and new testament guess what you're not
getting elected jews who deny the bible you're not getting elected or if you just have religious
principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the state you're not going to get elected
either then again it talks about no establishment of one religious church denomination very similar
to what we've seen so far now south carolina actually specifically name drops the roman
catholic church and this is kind of an excerpt here if you want the receipts on this go ahead
and just read the whole preamble to south carolina state constitution it's super long it's one of
those governmental documents where it's like and whereas million reasons and whereas million reasons
and whereas million reasons and it kind of just goes on and on and on as one long run-on sentence
that's what this is but basically south carolina is just listing all their grievances and things
that they're upset with the british government about one of the things that they list is says
the english laws in a free government to which the inhabitants of quebec in canada were entitled
by the king's royal proclamation are abolished and french laws are restored so they're kind of
upset saying like hey you guys kind of had government fail here in this area and now the
french are running things there and it says the roman catholic religion although before tolerated
and freely exercised there and an absolute government are established in that province
so don't miss what it's saying the roman catholic religion and a tyrannical government are
established there and its limits extend through a vast tract of country so as to border on the free
protestant english settlements with the design of using a whole people differing in religious
principles from the neighboring colonies and subject to arbitrary power as fit instruments
to overall and subdue the colonies so notice south carolinians were pissed off that the
government of england was allowing roman catholics to even be their neighbors not to mention
to be running in government to be in the supreme court to be in the south carolinian legislature
no they're saying like man it kind of pisses us off that you're allowing these roman catholics
and this tyrannical government which has its limits through this big area of land and it's
even bordering the free protestant settlements hey they're like our neighbors now we're annoyed
by this and the reason that the catholic church and this tyrannical government are there is to
what the design of using a whole people differing in religious principles from their neighboring
colonies and subject to arbitrary powers as fit instruments to overall and subdue the colony
saying like hey you're allowing the roman catholic church here and this tyrannical government to
oppress us the protestants and again like i said most people when they say protestant they just
mean christians who are not catholic georgia 1777 again when it's talking about the representatives
of the house in orders to do that what does it say it says they shall be of the protestant religion
then it says all persons whatever shall have the free exercise of their religion provided it be not
repugnant to the peace and safety of the state shall not unless by consent support any teacher
or teachers except those of their own again no clergyman or any combination shall be allowed in
a seat in the legislature so i show you all that and let's see if i can fix this thing okay so i
show you all that because any person who has any sincerity whatsoever is going to look at all the
evidence that i just showed you and say okay wow there's a lot more context around the first
amendment than i realized it's very obvious that the people of the united states of america wanted
to be a christian nation they wanted christians to be in their government they wanted to have laws
based on the bible otherwise why would why would lawmakers have to acknowledge that the old and new
testament are divine and inspired by god it's because they wanted christianity now here's the
thing this i'm not saying this i'm not saying that every founding father themselves was a saved
christian who is in heaven right now that's not what i'm saying there are many founding fathers
that are probably roasting in hell right now and look i don't know 100 about all of them but like
guys like thomas pain guys like thomas jefferson guys like benjamin franklin you know i believe
that these men were not saved that they did not believe the bible and and some of these founding
fathers were like theists um or or deists you could say where they believed that some sort of
higher power existed but they didn't necessarily believe that it was jesus christ and that the god
of the bible was the true god but when you ask their contemporaries when you ask all the people
of the original 13 colonies who made their own state constitutions around the same time period
the same lifespan we're talking about of all the people who made the federal one every single one
of the original 13 state called the state constitutions of the original 13 colonies
every single one of them was just aggressively christian now i'm not saying new ifb okay i'm
not saying necessarily independent fundamental baptist and here's the thing when some of these
people are saying protestant there was a lot of the protestant bent um sects in our country
and i would disagree with them on a lot of things and i'm not saying that every single
person in america was saved or something like that but what i'm what i am saying is is it
safe to say that when our country was founded in 1776 is it safe to say that we are founded
as a christian nation let me define what i mean by that meaning that the people had respect for
the bible they believed the bible they loved the bible they wanted the influence of the bible in
their government and in their land they wanted to exalt and lift up the word of god and saw it as
being supremely important to the success of their civil societies even not to mention their churches
but even their civil societies it was important to the success of their state of our country that we
be christian were we a christian nation in that sense absolutely and to say otherwise is to just
deny reality now why is this even important why is this important to us today well here's the thing
now this is more of an opinion i definitely agree with this opinion many many people agree with this
opinion that i believe that the united states of america is the greatest country to have ever
existed i believe that we live in the greatest country i think that america has done so many
great things for the kingdom of god and of course it's a two-edged sword because on one hand america
has also done some of the most atrocious ungodly disgusting things against the lord and especially
since like the years 1940s on but overall you know the people of america have been people that
believe the bible why that's important is because i do think we have the greatest nation we do see
that hey we've had so much great prosperity we've had so much great peace we've had so much safety
in our country and just your everyday life here is really good compared to the rest of the world
but understanding why we have that is important because if we lose sight of that then we will
lose that because let me explain something to you the reason why we have such a great country today
is not because the founding fathers were just such geniuses and they just fine-tuned that
US constitution that federal constitution just perfectly they got it dialed in that's not really
why okay and look the constitution is great overall it's a good document it's a good form
of government totally fine but our form of government is not what made America great
wasn't our form of government it was the fact that people were Christians that's what made
America great and today you know the bible says that you reap what you sow and we're kind of
reaping today in 2025 a lot of the good of our ancestors of our forefathers but you know if you
were just to judge America by the last 20 years we'd be living in a much different place right
now but for a very long time Christianity was promoted here in the colonial era before it was
the United States and after but I want to show you a couple Bible verses here in let me get back to
this one so Proverbs chapter number 14 verse 34 the Bible says righteousness exalteth a nation
but sin is a reproach to any people you know the truth is just about any form of government
will work just fine if your government and your nation are filled with people that love God love
worketh no ill to his neighbor it's going to be hard to have a bad messed up country when people
love the Lord Jesus Christ when people go to church people exalt Christianity when people are
trying to live godly clean pure separated lives righteousness exalted the nation why is it that
America was exalted and got to the status that it was at well it's because of righteousness
because when it was founded look at all those original 13 state colonies they all were trying
to exalt and honor the Lord but here's the flip side that sin is a reproach to any people God is
not a respecter of persons and the United States of America is not some special nation
in the eyes of God and just like oh if you're born in America you're special or we're just
automatically we have favor with God because we're Americans we're special no no sin is a
reproach to any people and if America continues going down the road excuse me of more and more
people not going to church more and more people not respecting ministers and pastors and stuff
like that more and more people getting into drugs and alcohol ornication and idolatry and celebrating
false religions like catholicism and hinduism and judaism and atheism and allowing these people
to infiltrate our government and to ruin our country well hey sin is a reproach to any people
and you know obviously in the long run in the long run it is hopeless for America why because
this is not some sort of heavenly nation we're in right now this is just an earthly nation
that is temporal that will pass away someday and especially if the end times are any anytime soon
then i believe the united states would be that great Babylon in the book of revelation so in
the long run things are hopeless for America there's no doubt about that things are hopeless
for this whole world from a carnal perspective but look at what the bible says here in second
chronicles chapter number seven verse 14 if my people that's talking about christians obviously
not talking about americans saying hey christians if my people which are called by my name shall
humble themselves pray seek my face turn from their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin and will heal their land you know individuals when we as individuals
die we can either go to heaven or hell but nations are judged on this earth and so if we want to see
god be merciful to our land if we want to see god continue to bless our country and i don't i mean
why would we not want that this is where we live this is where our children are growing up this is
where this is the world that they're going to have to live in someday well you could actually do
something about that and look the primary way of doing that is not by trying to get some zionist
elected some republican elected doesn't even really believe the bible who doesn't give a
rip about doctrine who doesn't even go to church himself who doesn't read the bible himself who
probably doesn't pray himself you know a lot of these politicians are just complete wicked pieces
of trash but what the answer is the ways that you can actually make a difference like oh you
don't serve your country you know when you're 18 years old you better go sign up and serve your
country okay you know what a better way to serve your country is how about humbling yourself how
about not being haughty and prideful how about not thinking that just because you're an american
you're somehow special in the eyes of god and realize that we're going to be judged by our
righteousness or our wickedness how about this how about pray you know christians love to complain
about how terrible things are you know whenever there's something negative in the news we're all
over it people just love the negativity but it's like have you done anything about it though have
you prayed seek my face and seek my face you know are you reading the bible every day are you
actually going to church are you actually desiring instruction and correction and reproof from your
pastor when you go to church or are you just checking out are you actually seeking god's face
and turn from their wicked ways oh america such a wicked country there's so much wickedness going
on yeah because of you and because of me in some ways right because we're all sinners we all have
wicked ways about us and obviously no it's not that all sin is equal you know that's ridiculous
not all sin is equal not all sinners are equal but here's the thing we should be able to look at the
sins in our own lives and the wicked ways in our own hearts our own families our own lives and do
our best to turn from those wicked ways ourselves not always be worrying about our neighbor or what
other states are doing what other people are doing and why don't you look at the wicked ways
of yourself and turn from those wicked ways then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their
sin and will heal their land you know like i said in the long run it's hopeless the an
antichrist is coming the antichrist is coming there's no getting around that there are going
to be the end time events of the great tribulation and the rapture wrath of god all of these things
are for sure going to happen but here's the truth is that we don't know when anyone who claims to
give you a date they know when you know the rapture is or something like that that is a false prophet
You know this could happen in our lifetime or it could happen a thousand years from now and you don't really know
So it's like let's just say that the second coming of christ does not happen in my lifetime just as a thought experiment
Well, then here's the thing. We're going to be passing off our communities to our children
We're passing off our states. We're passing off our country. We're passing off our churches to our children
We should fight for righteousness as hard as we can for as long as we can our entire
Lives and not just give up not just think oh, you know as long as there's
Peace and truth in my days just nuts to the next generation
No, the way I look at is like hey if the lord comes in my lifetime praise the lord even so come lord jesus
That would be great
But if not, well, then I want to make sure that i'm doing everything that I can for anchor baptist church to be a light
to be a beacon of righteousness in oklahoma city and to try to turn as many people to righteousness
In oklahoma city as possible by going out and knocking every single door preaching the gospel to people getting them baptized
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever christ has commanded
Why is that important because righteousness exalted the nation and you're gonna see oklahoma city being blessed by that
You're gonna see the state of oklahoma being blessed by that and you know if every independent fundamental baptist in america
Actually took their job seriously as a pastor or even just as a christian as a soul winner
You would see improvement on a big scale in this country again long term
Yes, it's hopeless, but I would like to see as many people turn to righteousness as possible in my lifetime
Now look even if people became unreceptive and not interested and things just go down the toilet
I'm still going to go down kicking and screaming preaching the word of god preaching the gospel to people
Because that's what we're called to do, but just don't have this like this doomer mentality
This just lazy give-up mentality, you know, we need to work super hard as christians
And why was it that america became great to begin with because of christianity. So was america founded as a christian nation
Well, i'm not saying everyone was saved overall. Absolutely america was founded as a christian nation
And if we want to make america great again, you know what we need to bring back the king james bible
Why don't you be the solution? Why don't you get back in church? Why don't you start reading your bible more?
Why don't you pray more? Why don't you become a soul winner? Hey, maybe you need to become a preacher
Maybe you need to become a pastor in this land here in the united states of america to make a difference in this country
Don't give up on the souls of this country. Don't give up on the institution of the church
Yes in the long run the government is going to be hopeless
You know what focus on the things of god. I see some comments here
I'll go ahead and answer some of these before I tune off
Pastor Shelley, how you doing? Yep. You're he's exactly right. He said pastor. Shelley said this they wanted a limited weak
federal government
100% correct after the civil war that changed a lot but the intent of the founders
100% was to have a limited weak federal government and a strong state government one kind of cultural
Thing that interests me that backs up what you're saying pastor. Shelley is that in literature?
It used to be when people talked about the united states of america
They would refer to the united states as these united states are they would use that word are
When as now we say the united states is because we kind of view the united states now is like one
One unit when before they looked at it as like a confederation. That's why you had the articles of the confederation
Before the constitution pastor. Shelley says we now have weak states and a strong federal government which causes many
Very true too much corruption. Yep, drop in comments on x. I don't know if all the different platforms are coming through on restream
I'm only seeing some here too much corruption georgia outlawed quake
Catholics, he said let's go
Texas constitution humbly invoking the blessings of almighty
Amen. God bless texas. Hey, god bless oklahoma, too
Because in oklahoma we have the king james bible in public school. So that is great
Uh, let's see any other good comments here brother john
He said how do we get back to this kind of address some things we could do at the end of the stream there
No more muslims in texas jews hindus, etc
Yeah at the very least not allowing them to be in positions of power like I understand just letting them exist
Um, and and not just be like oh, you know someone of a different religion. We should just kill them
You know now we need free will we need freedom people need to come to lord. Jesus christ of their own free will
I got a hindu saved a few weeks ago. Praise god for that guy
But yeah, no more of these people influencing our society and having the same equal protection under the law
I agree with that helmet of salvation. Hello. How's it going?
Get a rope levitticus
1933 through 34 let's go ahead and show the audience and if a stranger
Sojourn with thee in your land ye shall not vex him
But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you and thou shalt love him as thyself
For ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am. Hey, I say amen to every single verse in the King James Bible
However, I've noticed that a lot of liberals like to quote this verse and they try to apply it to the idea of illegal immigration
And they'll say like, you know doesn't Bible say that you're not supposed to vex the stranger
So therefore we need to have open borders. Therefore we need to you know
Have all these welfare programs for the little immigrants therefore
We shouldn't deport everyone because the Bible says that we should not vex the stranger. Let me explain something to you
There is a big difference between not vexing someone not
Oppressing someone and us having laws having a border having rules to enter our country
Having laws and rules is not us oppressing you. We're not oppressing the stranger by saying hey
There's some stipulations to come to the United States. We're not oppressing people by saying hey
We're not just gonna give you all this free
Taxpayer money earned by hard-working Americans for who knows what you know, we're not oppressing people by saying hey
We should probably get rid of birthright citizenship. We're not oppressing people by saying hey
You've broken the law and it's time to deport you that is not not vexing someone. Okay, so that's just a completely
That's a misunderstanding of that verse just because like you know think about this like don't just walk up to someone and punch them
In the face. Okay, I agree with that
But does that mean that I just have to give that person all my money and just give them my family and give them my
Car like not vexing someone is not the same thing as having immigration laws
That's just a crazy crazy stretch and here's the thing. No one's buying this anymore. Anyways, that's such a losing argument
you know, even most of Americans are so sick and tired of the multiculturalism and
Other religions infiltrating our country destroying it. So he says I'm a liar. Well, I just read the Word of God