Stephen McDowell: Education is the fifth pillar of liberty
>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. Glad you are joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today we will continue to explore the seven pillars of liberty. We are looking at the fundamental principles of the American republic. In specific, we're looking at seven ideas, seven principles that must be part of the lives and thinking of the American people if we hope to remain a free society, a society that, flourishes. So we've looked at four of these fundamental principles, these pillars of liberty. As Patrick Henry, had said, these are, principles that we must retain, if we hope to remain free. We looked at Christian self government, Christian union, individuality and the principle of property. So we're now at the fifth pillar of liberty, and that is this idea of education. Education. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1816, if a nation expects to ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be. People, to live free must be educated for liberty, educated to live in liberty. Benjamin Franklin expressed the same idea when he said, a nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. You see, when a people are ignorant, a, people cannot live free. They will live in tyranny. Now what Franklin was talking about and the ignorance that Jefferson is talking about is not just the inability to read or write. What they're talking about is ignorance of the principles and ideas that are necessary to live in liberty. See, it's, it's difficult to live free. Liberty is the, not the default state of fallen man. If you leave man to himself, he will not progress and become more and more liberated, more free, more prosperous. In fact, the opposite will occur. There will be a downward spiral into more, bondage. And so for a people to live free, they must understand and live in accordance with principles of liberty. And in particular these seven principles that we are living because if you expect to be ignorant and expect to live in freedom, as Jefferson said, you expect what never was and never will be. It's in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. And this is one reason that, we've been losing our liberties in the United States in the last few days generations, is because we've become ignorant of the principles upon which this republic was built. And that ignorance of them, the lack of embracing them, has led us astray Led us to embrace a contrary worldview than that which the founders gave us. So education is an essential component of building a society and passing on to the next generation the principles and ideas that are necessary to live free. See, education is a sowing and reaping process. Education is like a seed. Now, the Bible teaches this idea of the seed principle many, many places. It tells us the fruit you get is determined by the seed that you plant. You plant a good seed and you need, of course, water it and have sunshine on and pull up the weeds. But you get plant a good seed in good soil, then it will produce good fruit. That's what education is like. It's like a seed. And so in early America, we planted seeds of liberty that came out of the Bible. The Bible was the central component of the educational process of early Americans. This is easy to show. All you have to do is look at the early textbooks, the early content of why we started schools and colleges in the first place. It was to transmit the Christian faith which formed the character and worldview of a people, to live free. When we think about education, we think about the seed process. We need to consider the potential impact of a seed. Someone once said, and I love the saying, you can count how many seeds are in an apple, but you cannot count how many apples are in a seed. See, one seed contains the potential of producing millions and millions of pieces of fruit. If you plant a good seed, if you plant good ideas in the heart of the people, those ideas can grow and produce an abundant fruit that impacts not only your nation, but many other nations. That's what happened in early America. That's how we transmitted a way of life that led to unique, liberty and prosperity in the United States. Someone once said that the philosophy of the schoolrooms in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. So when we look at what our schools began to teach, especially beginning about 100 years ago, and they began to reject our Christian faith and Christian worldview and began to teach man centered ideas where man is the ultimate authority and man is the source of what's right and wrong and moral and immoral. When those ideas began to be sown first in our colleges and they then worked their way out into the schools throughout America, these were bad seeds that over time have produced bad fruit. We see that expressed in our government and how big the government's grown. The, excessive taxation, in fact, spending money. We, for 50 years we've operated, under deficit spending where we spend more money than we take in in Taxes, which has led to all kinds of economic and other problems. But this type of government is just a reflection of the ideas that were sown in our educational institutions. Now this includes school and colleges, churches, even homes. they sow these ideas. See, biblical education is much different than education. That was my experience in government schools. Biblical education does much more than impart information in the brain, but it implants morals in the lives of people. Begins by implanting Christian character, but it also plants a biblical worldview. Biblical education prepares us to live in liberty. Biblical education is first centered on the inward man. It's kind of what in First Timothy, the word of God Paul says it's for, that the Word of God is for instruction, discipline, training, that we might be equipped for every good, good work. What the Word of God does for us is what biblical education will do for us. Because biblical education is rooted in the word of God because that is the source of truth. And the goal of education is to identify and live in accordance with truth. God is truth. Jesus said, I am the truth and we learn of that truth in the Bible. Biblical education is the means of extending God's kingdom in the earth. The way that we transmit God's government, God's righteousness, God's peace, God's joy is through the educational process which begins in the home, also is manifest in the church and schools and many other places. But if we have biblical education, it will transmit God's government, God's kingdom. But modern state education as it exists in the United States and really every nation of the world, it's not extending God's kingdom, it's extending man's kingdom because we are teaching man centered ideas, a worldly worldview, secular worldview, ideas of relativism and other such principles that are man, centered. So having biblical education or having a proper view of education is essential in order to build a free society. The way that we pass on to the next generation the character and worldview necessary to live free, it should, must occur through our educational institutions.
Whoever controls the property in a nation controls the present
You know, whoever controls the property in a nation controls the present. We talked about a little bit about the importance of property in the last podcast. Whoever controls the property controls the present. Whoever controls the children controls the future. God has given the responsibility of control of property and children primarily to the family, not civil government, but pagan Civil governments will attempt to control both property and children because they want to control everything. They want to operate in opposite of God's kingdom, who God's in charge and he wants man and the family to govern his earth in accordance with his truth. But Satan and his cohorts are attacking God and they want to put the authority within man himself. J. Gresham Machen was a theologian 100 years ago and he said, if liberty is not maintained with regard to education, there's no use trying to maintain it in any other sphere. If you give the bureaucrats the children, you might just as well give them everything else. If you turn over your children the greatest weapon God has given us to influence the culture and affect the future, if you give them over to the bureaucrats, to the state educators, the educrats, then you might as well give them everything else. You might as well open up your wallet and your bank account and turn it over to them because they're going to take it. See a nation doesn't really have much liberty at all. If families don't have the liberty to govern the education of their children, parents have the God given right to govern the education of their children. We are just finishing a film that will be free to view for everyone. It's called Educated for Liberty. And if you go to educatedforliberty.com you can look at the trailer now and as soon as the film is ready it will be available to watch for free there at the website educatedforliberty.com and we explore the importance of, of biblical education, of having biblical education in the nation in order to live in liberty. The title of the film says it Educated for Liberty. To live in liberty, we must be prepared with the internal character that comes from the Christian faith, but also with the worldview that the Bible imparts. We need both of those to build a free society. Well, a sixth principle. And by the way, in future podcasts we'll explore this idea of education in much more detail. It's very important. I wrote a little booklet called how the Bible Educated America to Live in Liberty. You can find that on our website providencefoundation.com I encourage you to go take a look at that and also remember our film Educated for Liberty, which will be out very soon, that explores in more detail this very important principle upon which our free nation of America is built. Now, a sixth pillar of liberty, a sixth principle is that of morality or Christian character. Christian morality. Morality or Christian character. You know, no nation can long endure without morality. In, the people, Sam Adams, who is the father of the American Revolution, said this. While the people are virtuous, they cannot be subdued. But when once they lose their virtue, they will Be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or, internal invader. You know, when Israel was virtuous, they were invincible. They couldn't be taken over by any external enemy. But when they lost their virtue, turned from God and his truth and his way of life, then they began to lose, their liberty. They began to be invaded first by internal invaders by men that believed and acted contrary to Scripture, and then later by external enemies as well. It's true for Israel, and it will be true for any nation. so, you know, violation of God's moral order produces miseries of many kinds. Noah Webster, one of my heroes, the father of American scholarship and education. The, greatest, certainly the most influential educator of the 1800s, who wrote on many different subjects. He, of course, is the one who produced the first exhaustive English dictionary, first published in 1828, which gives biblical definitions, uses thousands of scriptural references. He wrote on many different subjects and topics. But he said this. Moral evils constitute or produce most of the miseries of mankind, and these may be prevented or avoided. Be it remembered then, that disobedience to God's law, our sin, is the procuring cause of almost all the sufferings of mankind. God has so formed the moral system of this world that a conformity to his will by men produces peace, prosperity and happiness. And disobedience to his will inevitably produces misery. If men are wretched, it is because they reject the government of God and seek temporary good in that which certainly produces evil. See, when we violate God's moral laws, moral standards, then it produces misery in many different ways. You know that God formed the world to operate in accordance with his moral system. By the way, the Ten Commandments are a basic presentation of God's moral order. Those laws have application personally and in civil society and all spheres of life. But it's a reflection of, here is the nature of how God created the moral universe to function. And if men violate God's moral order, then it produces, all kinds of evils and miseries. God desires to produce peace, prosperity and happiness that comes as we live our life and structure our laws and society based upon the principles of God's word. By the way, in future podcasts, we're going to explore these liberating principles of the Ten Commandments that God gave because they form the foundation of the American republic. They're reflected in our laws and our societal institutions. And it's. And it formed the Christian character, the morality of the American people. And if we violate God's moral order, then we're going to have all kinds of miseries. See, citizens and leaders with Christian character are necessary for the preservation of life, liberty and property. Early leaders in America, reflect the Christian character that formed the foundation of our nation. Now, the men, our leaders, weren't perfect. They were men like you and I, and they had flaws and character faults. But it was the Christian culture reflected in homes, reflected in churches and communities and civil laws and institutions. This Christian environment shaped the character and worldview of all the people. And the leaders of the people reflected what is in the heart of the people, which is always true. And so if you look at some of the leaders and the character that they displayed, you can, see, why it's important for morality to form Christian character, Christian morality to form the foundation of a nation. Just take a look at the father of America, George Washington. George Washington certainly was a man of Christian character. Tobias Lear was George Washington's personal secretary for a number of years. After he retired his second term as president, went back to Mount Vernon. Tobias Lear came and lived in his home for a couple of years. To help him with correspondence, that he had, after observing him, living with him, seeing his conduct for a couple of years. Tobias Lear. I have never found a single thing that could lessen my respect for him. A complete knowledge of his honesty, uprightness and candor. And all his private transactions. Has sometimes led me to think him more than a man. Now, what a statement by someone who observed him and saw him. Of course, he was just a man, but his character was such that Tobias would say, I sometimes think him more than a man. But it was his Christian faith that gave him the character necessary to accomplish what he did in his life. He was a man of humility, a man of prayer. Some of you may have seen that famous painting of the first prayer in Congress. When Congress representatives from the states gathered together in Philadelphia for the first time in September of 1774 to discuss what can we do to resist the tyrannical action of Great Britain. The first thing they did was to invite a minister, Reverend Jacob Deshay, to come and pray. And, that painting depicts Washington on his knees in prayer, which would have been typical, of the episcopal faith at that time. Next to him is Patrick Henry and their others. They sought God in prayer. He was a man of prayer, and his family and friends and others saw him pray often throughout his life. But that was the key to what produced the character of this man. And because he was a man of Christian character. And it assured that America would Be established as a constitutional republic with a. With a. A leader, an executive leader who would not abuse his power or authority. Many things that happen in Washington's life Reflect his, christian character. One of those stories was the time when some officers sought to make him king.
George Washington was commander of the continental army during the american revolution
George washington was the commander of the continental army during our conflict with great Britain during the american revolution. The war started in 1775, officially ended in 1783. The last major battle of the war was 1781, the Battle of Yorktown. But it would take almost two years to draw up an official peace treaty for it to be signed. During that time, Washington kept the army together in case fighting broke out again. We gained our independence from great britain, but, our survival as a new nation Was by no means secured. There's a lot of dangers that we face, Possibly from other european powers who would want to come in and take advantage of our weakened situation. the troops had been promised certain amount of pay to go and fight in the continental army, but they had not, for the most part, been paid what they've been promised. There is economic problems from the national congress Printing up a lot of paper money. And there's many things that were occurring that caused people to have a concern, well, we might not make it. Our congress, under the articles of confederation, really didn't have much power to do what was necessary to secure the establishment of the nation. That's why, very shortly, we adopted a new constitution went into effect in 1789 to overcome some of the deficiencies of the articles of confederation. But there was a group of officers who decided as a means of a solution for this problem, what we think we ought to do is make George Washington king, that he then, as king, will have a sufficient authority to set everything in place to make sure that we survive as a nation. And they knew that Washington would not abuse his authority. He would not use more authority than he needed to accomplish, the mission that was there. And so. And to make such suggestion was not, historically unreasonable, because every revolution that existed in history before that Usually replaced one king with the king. They overthrew one, you know, monarch or one supreme ruler with those that they had overthrown. This was typical of the outcome of revolutions before this. And so this idea, suggestion was made to Washington in a letter by Colonel Lewis Nicole in the first part of 1782. Washington read the letter, and he responded with a letter of his own in which he said, this, sir, with a mixture of great surprise and astonishment. I've read with attention the sentiments you have submitted to my Perusal, by the way, George Washington was homeschooled. That's where he learned, his God received his great character and worldview and his ability to communicate and write some 40,000 letters in his lifetime. But, so he said, sir, with a mixture of great surprise and astonishment. I've read with attention the sentiments you've submitted to my perusal. He goes on to write, be assured, sir, no occurrence, currents and the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed and I must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity. Now, this is quite a statement. He said, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations. If you understand the great suffering and hardship of his troops during the winters at Valley Forge Forge and Monmouth, where their limbs were turning black and they had to amputate them, and they were starving because they couldn't have enough food. And as Washington wrote, as troops marched into Valley Forge, you could trace their marches by the blood left in the snow because their shoes had worn through and the ice was cutting into their feet. But he said, those things are horrible. But this was even worse. No occurrences give me more painful sensations. And they're existing such ideas. So the first thing he did, at the suggestion of these officers wanting to make him king, to set everything aright, was to rebuke them. In essence, he's saying, what do you think we're fighting this war for? It's not to get rid of kings. I mean, it's not to set up kings, but get rid of kings. This is something unique about this. And then here's the next thing he did which reflects his Christian character and humility. Then he wrote, I am much at loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big, with greatest mischiefs that can befall my country if I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself. You could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable. So the next thing this humble man did is he looked in his own heart to examine his own heart. He said, as far as I know, he said, look, I hope there's nothing I've said or done that would make you think I would want to be king. As far as I know, I'm against the idea more than anyone. And so he rebuffed the idea of them making him king, assuring that we would be established not as another monarchy, but even with a Good monarchy, like some of the kings of Israel. Some of them were good, most of them weren't good. But God wanted to give birth to a unique new form of government, which, by the way, we'll explore here in the next future podcast. That unique form m of government, that the United States embraced. And it could embrace a unique form of government because these principles of liberty were part of the lives of the people that men of Christian character like George Washington, what enabled us to build a unique new nation based upon a framework of government that came from ideas in the Bible. And so morality or Christian character is an essential component of a free society. And then that then leads us to principle number seven. Principle seven, or the seventh pillar of liberty, is faith in God and his word. Washington, in his farewell address in 1796, said, Ah, of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. And when they use the term religion, the founders they meant Christianity. That's true religion. That's how Webster defines true religion in his original dictionary. What he's pointing out is that, see, faith, religion, the Christian faith is what produces self government, understanding of covenant, the value of the individual and understanding property and conscience, true understanding of education. It produces Christian character and morality. It's faith. And God and His Word is the source of these principles. It's the source of what's necessary to build a free society. Fundamental principles of a free society flow out of the Christian faith. All the six that we've explored in the last couple of podcasts are all a product of the Christian faith that was central in the lives and thinking of those who settled America over that 170 year period. Jedediah Morris was the father of geography in America. He expressed what just about every one of our founders believed. He said, to the kindly influence of Christianity, we owe that degree of civil freedom and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. Christianity is the source of our civil freedom, our political and social happiness. Our, founders said this over and over again. Religion and morality, the Christian faith. You see, every nation is built based upon some religion. Some people say today we need to keep religion out of government. It has no place there. Well, this is an impossibility because every government, government, every society, every nation is built upon some religion. It's built upon some set of presuppositions that are rooted in what, a people consider to be ultimate and the foundation of America, is clearly seen to be built upon the principles of the Christian faith. Again, I point you to Some of our books that teach this, America's providential history. Little booklet I wrote called America a Christian. Examining the Christian foundations of America. I give nine reasons why America was built upon the Christian faith and Christian principles, of liberty. Every nation is built upon some religion. Christianity brings not only individual liberty, which the church teaches today, but it also brings civil liberty, which much of the church today has failed to teach. But the church in early America understood this and taught this. That's how they could build a civil society birthed in liberty, because they understood the source of that civil society or the principles and ideas of the Christian faith. Benjamin Rush, the third most famous founding father, though most Americans have never heard heard of him today. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also the father of medicine in America. He said, this very devout Christian, he said, Christianity is the only true and perfect religion and that in proportion as mankind adopt its principles and, obeys its precepts, they will be wise and happy. The founders of America, from the early colonizers in Jamestown in 1607 to the men who gave us the Declaration and Constitution and after this as well, overwhelmingly believed what Rush just said. Christianity is the only true and perfect religion. It's not man made. It's, God revealed. And that in proportion as mankind adopt its principles and obeys its precepts, they'll be wise and happy. It's not enough just to verbally acknowledge. If you study our history, the only true conclusion, if you're honest, is yes. Christianity was by far the central influence in the birth, growth and development.
We must adopt the principles of the Christian faith and obey the precepts
Our civil laws are built upon it. Our, colleges are, were started in order to impart biblical truth. Our family and economic institutions reflect this truth. But it's not enough just to mentally assent. Yes, we were birthed as a Christian nation, but we must adopt the principles of the Christian faith and obey the precepts. The founders of America sought to do that. Did they do it perfectly? No, but they did it better than any other group of people up until that time in history. So we today, our task today is to discover these principles. I, presented seven fundamental principles to you. If we just understand and develop and apply them, and there's many other truths that we can explore, from Scripture. But these are seven broad, general principles that embrace many, many, many concepts and truths. But if we learn them and adopt them and obey them in our personal life, we implement them in our family, in our business, our community, our churches and the nation at large, to the extent that we adopt and obey the precepts and principles of the Christian faith is the extent to which we will be wise. We will be happy, we will be prosperous, we'll be free, and we will flourish. God desires men to live in liberty. God desires us. He wants us to flourish. He wants, for man to live in the great blessings of the Christian faith. But to do that, we need to follow his precepts, adopt and obey his principles. To the extent that we obey them is the extent that we will be blessed and have good fruit. And so these seven principles comprise the power of the American republic. These fundamental principles, the American Christian republic, was built upon them. It's our duty today to reinfuse these principles into the heart and minds of the American people. And to the extent that we are successful is the extent to which we will be blessed. Now, in future podcast, we're going to take a look and explore the framework of godly government. Since these principles were in the heart and minds of citizens, they then could construct a unique form of government. And that's what we're going to explore in the next few podcasts. So I hope you can join us next week. Remember, if you want to learn more about the Providence foundation or read a lot of these ideas that we're being introduced to in this podcast, Visit our website, providencefoundation.com pick up some of our books. We have lots of free articles and videos and other things that you can watch, but get these and meditate upon them. Impart these ideas to others. This is part of our. Our duty today. To the extent that we are successful is the extent to which we will prosper and be free. So hope to see you, next week. God bless.
