- All right, how's it 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,
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 he said, "Yes."
Even last year, Pastor Jonathan Shelley and I,
pastor of St. Vast 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,
'cause it's gonna be pretty historical this evening.
But I wanna 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 you 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 it's a very minor, it's extremely minor.
- What was it?
- Mary Anne, 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 gonna 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 can actually see something here.
So we're gonna 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.
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 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 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, 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 'til about the Civil War.
States' rights were a big thing up 'til about the Civil War.
But if you even 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 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.
'Cause 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 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 gonna prefer one denomination
or one sect of Christianity against another.
So meaning they're not gonna have like a special tax
just for Presbyterians and they're not gonna 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 gonna have
any special treatment one over the other.
Now, I'm gonna 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 five, section one, article one,
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 institution so far.
And it's gonna get way worse for people to have this idea
that America was founded as a secular society.
Chapter six, article one, 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,
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 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 this.
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 state 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 wanna just have people doing religion
because they're forced to or 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 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 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 of 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.
"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
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
'cause 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 thinks.
You still had to actually be a Christian to be in government.
Notice what it says here, Article 6, Section 1,
and every, oops, let me move that so you can actually see,
and 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,
and 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,
long time after the revolution.
We the people, can we see this all right, yep,
we the people of this state 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 that hypocrisy is gonna 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 continent 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 gonna 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, I'm 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% of Judaism believers
out of our government.
There would be no person who is a Jew,
who's 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 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 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, 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.
Let's see, where should we start?
Let's go ahead and just read 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
ordain, determine, and declare that the free exercise
and enjoyment of religious profession and worship
without discrimination or preference
shall forever hereafter be allowed within this state
to all mankind, provided 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 gave religious liberty
with one exception that we're not gonna 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 wanna 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 Tyndale
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 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.
"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, oops, 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 Christians in New York,
the people who founded New York,
who started the New York State Constitution here,
they had such a high respect.
It's 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 from their extremely important work
of leading the church, feeding the flock of God,
doing the work of the ministry, preaching the gospel,
doing all the work that ministers do today.
We're not gonna 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 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 Baptists today really freak out
about this word Protestant,
but you gotta 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 gonna see pop up
is any non-Catholic, any Christian who's a non-Catholic.
And what I submit to you is that Joe Plummer 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.
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 kinda 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 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 it's saying, hey,
everything the Old and New Testament says is true.
So 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 that.
They just wanna talk about,
hey, are you at least a Christian?
You have to be a Christian to serve.
Virginia 1776.
Virginia 1776 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 founded
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 are creator.
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 pretty 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 that 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, Catholicism, Christians.
You say Catholics are Christian, well that's funny
'cause 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, 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,
than 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 religion.
Still had to have that Christian religious test
in Maryland in 1776.
When someone takes their oath of office,
this is funny, the oath of office for 1776
in the Maryland state constitution.
I do swear, I, you insert your name here,
do swear that I do not hold myself bound
in allegiance to the King of Great Britain.
'Cause it's obviously 1776, they're fighting a war,
they're saying hey, if you're gonna be in government here,
you gotta 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.
They're saying, hey, I wanna 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 haven't had
your 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
in the 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 of 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 gonna get elected either.
Then again, it talks about no establishment
one religious church with 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's
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 and 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. 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 order 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 denomination shall be allowed in a seat in the legislature. So I show you all that and let's see
if I can fix this. 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 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. 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 Paine, 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 some of these founding fathers were like theists 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, 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
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 U.S. Constitution, that federal constitution,
just perfectly. They got it dialed in. That's not really why. 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. It 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 of Bible verses here. And 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
in your nation are filled with people that love God, love work with 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, 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, fornication 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 cultural 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 is 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 even 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 know, 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 praying? 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 there wicked ways? Oh, America is 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 anti-Christ is coming. The anti-Christ is coming. There's no getting around.
There are going to be the end time events of the great tribulation and the rapture, the 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 of 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 it 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 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 going to see Oklahoma City being blessed by that.
You're going to 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 it's 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 but 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 Shelly how
you doing yep you're he's exactly right he said pastor Shelly 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 uh thing that interests me that backs up what you're saying pastor Shelly
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 shelly says we now have weak states and
a strong federal government which causes many problems 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 no 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 leviticus 19 33 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 them as thyself for you 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 the 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 illegal 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 going to 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