Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Cynthia Scott: 250 Years After God Founded America

Transcript

Cynthia Scott: 250 Years After God Founded America · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

0:00
Hi, friends.
0:01
Today's guest has a brand new book, Celebrating God Our Founder at America's 250th birthday.
0:08
Explains to all the world that the foundational truth undergirding America's establishment
0:14
was God's idea.
0:16
He was at the center of every principle and guideline working through colonists, patriots
0:22
and ordinary people to establish this one-of-a-kind nation.
0:26
On their knees before the Almighty, our forefathers waited for God's direction in their fight
0:31
for freedom from oppressive rule by consistent and passionate prayer.
0:36
We'll be talking to author Cynthia Scott next.
0:40
Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
0:50
defending biblical Christianity, no topic off limits.
0:56
And now, here's your host, David Fierazzo.
1:01
Welcome to another podcast.
1:02
And thank you so much, brothers and sisters, in Christ for sharing.
1:07
It continues to grow, praise God, He's driving this thing.
1:11
Before we talk to Cynthia, I want to give you her website where you can get the book.
1:15
It goes directly to the book.
1:16
GodHourFounder.com, that's GodHourFounder.com, you get the info there in the link to Amazon.
1:24
Cynthia Scott has led prayer initiatives across Pittsburgh and beyond, including citywide gatherings,
1:31
prayer for national events, and a daily prayer call for the nation.
1:36
Passionate about honoring God and praying for revival in America.
1:41
She's written numerous prayer guides and now offers this book,
1:44
celebrating GodHourFounder at America's 250th birthday.
1:50
So before we bring her on, happy birthday, America.
1:53
What a great year, Lord willing.
1:55
Cynthia, good to see you.
1:56
Thanks for your time today.
1:59
Thanks so much for having me on, David.
2:00
It's great to be here.
2:01
You're most welcome.
2:02
So I love the book, love the title, love the idea.
2:05
And of course, we're so thankful to be such a unique nation that made it 250 years.
2:13
So before we get to that, I'd like for you to speak about that.
2:17
But what led you to this, you've written prayer guides and you've kind of been active in that way,
2:22
just lead us in the process of bringing this book about.
2:26
I'd love to.
2:27
I wrote these prayers probably four or five years ago to be used in congregational prayer meetings
2:33
at our church, Christ Church at Grove Farm in Pittsburgh.
2:36
And when I got to about the fourth or fifth,
2:39
one, I realized that God himself was the founder of the nation.
2:43
He was behind everything.
2:45
And we have not given him the credit that he deserves, in my opinion.
2:48
So those prayers, we did that series of prayer meetings praying for the nation out of the
2:54
history of the nation.
2:56
And those prayers sat in my computer for several years until just this past spring.
3:01
And God opened the door to put them into a book, including the history and the prayer in
3:07
each chapter, a time for the reader to stop and listen to what God is saying to them.
3:13
And a call to action.
3:15
I believe that prayer is action and God's end hours.
3:19
So that's sort of the history of the book.
3:22
And I am excited.
3:23
I'm so excited that God opened the door to bring this out right now.
3:27
I do think that this is the moment as we look back at our nation's history to remember
3:32
the mighty acts of God.
3:34
Oh, like I said before we got on the podcast, a perfect timing.
3:37
I mean, my goodness, 250, you know, that's not a small deal.
3:42
That's, you know, if could you speak to the fact that most nations in the world don't
3:50
make it or haven't made it historically 250 years?
3:54
So this is a huge accomplishment and something to celebrate.
3:58
That's true.
3:59
And especially with the kind of freedoms that we have had, our constitution is remarkable.
4:05
It's remarkable.
4:06
I don't know that we fully appreciate it.
4:08
And I believe that our constitution with freedom has made it longer than any other.
4:14
So it really is a momentous moment in American history, something we should all be celebrating.
4:20
And we should be celebrating God at the pinnacle of those celebrations because he really is responsible
4:26
for us being here.
4:27
Oh, my goodness.
4:29
You know what, it's, it's not just his sovereignty, right?
4:33
It is the grace of God and it's not just his sovereignty.
4:37
He ordains leaders and nations and the Bible speaks to that quite a bit.
4:46
What we're blessed by is that we know it was kind of miraculous how America even came to be
4:51
in the first place.
4:52
And I know you talk a little bit about that.
4:55
Can we go back to wherever you want to go?
4:58
You can want to start with the pilgrims.
4:59
I know you mentioned the Geneva Bible, which they brought over and was at 1599.
5:04
The Geneva Bible was the first one that actually made it to our shores.
5:08
Would you like to speak to that for a moment?
5:10
Well, the Bible was so important.
5:13
It was their most treasured book.
5:16
Of course, the early settlers, the pilgrims, especially in Puritans,
5:21
they came here to worship God freely according to his word.
5:24
They wanted to live out their faith in every part of their lives.
5:29
And that's why they made those treacherous journeys.
5:31
I can't even imagine that now doing that.
5:34
They made those journeys.
5:35
They came and it was miraculous at many steps along the way.
5:40
Just the fact that, for example, the pilgrims did not land in Virginia.
5:44
They landed north and at Plymouth and they needed to have some,
5:48
some sort of a document that they could that would govern their civic politic.
5:53
So they wrote the Mayflower Compact.
5:56
Ten years later, the Puritans came.
5:58
They also needed a document and a model of Christian charity is what went through.
6:03
Their governor put forth so that they and the pilgrims and the Puritans saw themselves as being
6:10
in covenant with God for this nation and in covenant with one another
6:15
as fellow citizens and fellow Christians.
6:19
So there were many moments in our history where God intervened to bring forth this nation.
6:26
So let's jump.
6:27
I don't want to run out of time because it's going to go by fast.
6:31
Before we get to this question, something that our audience, our viewers and listeners most
6:38
are very frustrated at the fact of our education system, our government run education system,
6:43
which is not just, well, they're anti-Christian.
6:46
Let's just put it that way.
6:47
They're anti-biblical worldview.
6:49
Chapter three in your book is the Christian foundation of education in America.
6:55
If someone knew, me, young people today, that's why they don't understand our founding.
7:01
They don't understand that even the public schools used to teach or allow the Bible
7:05
and biblical principles, the Ten Commandments.
7:08
What's in that chapter, if you can give us a little teaser on that?
7:11
Because it's so important to go back and revisit.
7:14
It is.
7:15
And I specifically put that in.
7:17
I mean, it's not an event in history as some of the chapters represent.
7:23
More, it's almost bigger than that.
7:26
Because it is the foundation of how the worldview of colonists was shaped.
7:32
Our thinking is shaped through the educational process, as you know.
7:36
And when the Puritans came over in 1630,
7:40
they did not wait long, 1636, to build the first college, Harvard,
7:46
and it was built to train up pastors.
7:49
They really were interested in having godly, well-educated pastors,
7:54
because the pastors were the thought leaders of their day.
7:58
They not only taught the people the scriptures,
8:01
but all of human events filtered through God's Word and through the pastors.
8:06
So the fact that they started education colleges so soon in America
8:13
to establish an educational system is incredible.
8:18
They didn't start, I mean, they started educating their children at home
8:22
so that they could read the Bible.
8:24
That's how important the scriptures were to them.
8:26
They were their very, they were their life.
8:28
They feared the Lord.
8:29
And so the whole educational system in America really came out of the
8:35
desire for the pilgrims and the Puritans to know God through His Word
8:41
and for their children to know God through His Word.
8:44
Amen.
8:46
Yeah, amen.
8:46
And I'm glad you mentioned Harvard.
8:48
So let's go there and pick on Harvard a little bit.
8:51
Pastor John Harvard would not recognize it today.
8:54
It's not the same institution.
8:56
It doesn't have a biblical worldview.
8:57
But they were based on, because I've done some research on this as well.
9:00
John 173, the goal for their students at Harvard when it was established.
9:05
You said 1636, right?
9:08
Yes.
9:08
John 173, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God
9:14
and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
9:17
Harvard was based on that verse and on teaching the theology in the biblical
9:23
worldview.
9:24
I mean, I think the first half dozen or dozen
9:27
presidents of Harvard were pastors.
9:29
They were theologians and they were putting out pastors.
9:32
This is really amazing.
9:33
You also, since you mentioned the year,
9:36
I think it was so 1636, about 150 years after that.
9:42
You know, they kind of started conforming to the world.
9:44
And they changed their logo, the shield.
9:47
It had truth for Christ and the church, the three-part shield.
9:51
Right.
9:51
That's right.
9:52
100?
9:53
Yeah, 150 years after they removed Christ and they removed the church.
9:58
And so all they have, I think even still today, it's just Veritas.
10:03
Want to speak to that for a moment?
10:05
Well, it saddens me.
10:07
I mean, that's what I think about that.
10:09
Because it shows a direction that is not the direction of our founding.
10:15
And that's why I think the book is so important.
10:17
That's why I think we need to look back and really see the truth
10:22
of how we were founded as a nation, as a people, as educational,
10:28
as educational organizations, schools.
10:31
You know, there were many 106 of the first 108 colleges in America
10:38
were founded on the Christian faith.
10:39
That's over 98%.
10:41
Wow.
10:42
That's over 98%.
10:44
And I mentioned, yes, I mentioned that fact in the book.
10:47
And I'm always, I'm always, every time I say it, I'm stunned.
10:51
When I look at our educational institutions today.
10:55
But we need to get back to that.
10:57
And we do have some great Christian educational institutions
11:01
that are rising up in our day.
11:04
Far fewer, far smaller, far far smaller percentage.
11:08
But we need to pay attention to those.
11:10
And we need to, and what I really love about their whole quest for knowledge is
11:15
they saw God as creator and the holder of all wisdom and knowledge.
11:21
And so they felt like they would seek Him
11:24
in order to have Him reveal to them the secrets of nature.
11:28
It makes sense.
11:29
It seems like the right approach to me, at least.
11:32
And it certainly did work for our nation
11:36
in imbuing in our early earliest colonists
11:41
before they were even citizens, that biblical world view.
11:45
You know, that God, that that brings blessing quite frankly.
11:49
That brings blessing.
11:50
Obedience brings blessing.
11:51
I talk about that in the book too.
11:53
Due to Ronomy 28.
11:55
And we have, we are experiencing.
11:58
Now I know we're experiencing some turmoil
12:00
and we have had certainly our, our troubles over the decades.
12:04
But basically our nation being so free, being so prosperous.
12:09
We are, we are experiencing the blessings
12:13
afforded to us by past generations of faithful Christians.
12:19
So my birthday is April 19.
12:21
And I notice something, you know,
12:25
Connecticut's a very blue state.
12:27
And yet, if you go back to April 19, 1775,
12:31
you mentioned Connecticut, I guess the governor
12:35
called a day of public fasting and prayer on April 19, 1775.
12:40
And a lot of states did that, a lot of governors did that.
12:43
Which is almost unheard of today.
12:44
Talk to us about that.
12:46
You know, that story is particularly
12:49
compelling to me as proof of God's hand in the founding of our nation.
12:54
You know, that is the same day and, and, and,
12:57
and Trump, the governor did not know that when he called for that day a month earlier.
13:01
But that ends up being the same day that the British and the colonists,
13:07
you know, start the battle in Lexington.
13:10
And so we see God in his providence and care for America,
13:16
stirring his people to pray, knowing God knew that on that same day,
13:22
there would be the first battle really of the Revolutionary War.
13:25
How good is our God that he prepares us?
13:28
I don't believe that the people in Lexington knew that the,
13:31
that their brothers and sisters in Connecticut were praying for them,
13:34
and nor could Trump will have known that that was going to be the first day of the battle
13:38
of the Revolutionary War, that first battle of the Revolutionary War.
13:42
But God knew and God set his people to pray while the others were fighting for freedom.
13:49
Cynthia Scott, let's talk about the Black Robed Regiment briefly.
13:53
And let's talk about Reverend Jonah Jonas Clark.
13:57
Jonas Clark, Lexington pastor of Christ Church.
14:01
Go ahead and share that story.
14:02
It's an amazing story.
14:03
And then how he was a leader, not only a solid preacher,
14:06
but what he did to lead men afterwards.
14:08
Go ahead.
14:09
Well, Jonas Clark, and there were other pastors like him,
14:12
but I mentioned him because of the Battle of Lexington.
14:15
He, and many pastors did this.
14:18
They, they remember the people in that era were experiencing the tyranny of a king,
14:24
oppression, right?
14:26
And they, and, and the pastors, and they had been,
14:30
I mean, at that, remember what happened before that,
14:33
the first great awakening with all the preaching that went on about being born again,
14:39
about being one in Christ, unity, for example.
14:42
And so they're, they're preaching freedom in Christ from the scriptures.
14:47
And they're also comparing it to the situation under which they're living the circumstances of
14:52
being under tyranny.
14:54
So Jonas Clark was wonderful.
14:55
He was preparing his congregation to fight for freedom.
14:59
And he was prepared to fight for freedom.
15:02
So that day in Lexington, when the British came,
15:05
they met a Christian population that had been prepared to fight for their freedom.
15:11
I'm not sure they were expecting it.
15:13
But this, I want to say the impetus behind this came in large part from the pastors
15:19
who were preaching from the word that men were, were destined to be free,
15:24
free in Christ and free period.
15:26
And the words of our, of our Declaration of Independence,
15:30
you know, they talk about that too, writes coming directly from God.
15:34
It really was amazing how God worked through his pastors to prepare the people for the Revolutionary War.
15:41
Oh, Lord help us raise up bold men of God today.
15:45
We just don't have enough.
15:47
There is a remnant in America, Cynthia, just not enough.
15:50
We've got to take a brief pause.
15:51
I want to mention the website again, friends, godourfounder.com.
15:55
We'll be right back on World View Matters.
15:57
Register now for the World View Matters Conference May 1st and 2nd in Green Bay,
16:02
Wisconsin.
16:03
Experts speakers include Alex Newman, Brianna Clawson, Olivier Melnick,
16:09
Tim Chaffee, Mark and Amber Archer, Laura Perry Smalls, Jake Jacobs, Jay Seigert, Gary Call,
16:19
Scott Shera, and Elijah Abraham, Delta Hotel Green Bay May 1st and 2nd.
16:26
Go to worldviewmattersconference.com.
16:29
That's worldviewmattersconference.com.
16:33
So author, Cynthia Scott is our guest today.
16:36
And Cynthia, I often ask in terms of the moral decline in decay in America
16:41
and in the church, the declining biblical worldview and what's happening,
16:45
what we see happening in our culture, just the garbage.
16:50
Evil is being called good.
16:51
Good is being called evil.
16:53
People don't know what a man or what a woman is.
16:56
And I often ask the question, what would our great grandparents think about this time,
17:01
like in 2026?
17:03
Well, for you on to direct this question in regards to your book, what would our founders say
17:09
if they could see America today?
17:10
Well, what do you think?
17:11
I mean, we can just imagine, but go ahead and speculate for us a little bit.
17:15
What would our founders say about the state of the country they established under God?
17:22
You know, I think they would not be surprised because they saw tyranny before.
17:27
We, they saw, they lived in a very critical, pivotal moment in their own nation.
17:35
So they were not strangers to the kind of division,
17:40
the threats that we face.
17:42
They were living under tyranny.
17:43
We feel as though we're facing tyranny, right, from many directions.
17:48
So I don't think they would be surprised.
17:50
I think they were very wise men and women.
17:53
Many of them, I think of Abigail Adams, an amazing Christian woman and had great influence
17:58
over her husband, John.
18:00
I think they would be happy that they established our founding documents in the way that they did.
18:07
And they were not, they also were not strangers to decline.
18:13
There had been decline in the nation right before the first great awakening.
18:17
So they, and they did not trust man.
18:20
They trusted God.
18:21
That's why we have checks and balances in our system of government.
18:25
That's why they, they made, they went to great pains to make sure that there would not be a
18:30
single ruler and that our country would be based on laws, not the whims of men.
18:37
So in some ways, I don't think they would be surprised.
18:39
And I think they would be glad that they created the system that they did.
18:43
Very interesting perspective.
18:45
I didn't quite think about that because I'm thinking about my grandparents or great-grandparents.
18:49
They would be shocked.
18:51
They wouldn't think they were on earth or they wouldn't think they were in America
18:55
anymore if they could see what's happening today before.
18:57
I mean, if you think about they grew up in the early 1900s and all my or the late 1800s.
19:01
So I want to talk to you about briefly, will you have you share
19:04
about the word providence and how that's misunderstood today or divine providence?
19:10
Go ahead.
19:11
Well, divine providence means the hand of God that on his people,
19:16
you know, benevolently, right, guiding them, looking over them.
19:19
And providence, the divine providence also refers to God himself.
19:23
That's a term that they use at the time of our founding,
19:27
that we don't use, right?
19:29
We don't use that term today in general language.
19:32
I believe that, you know, when people look back and especially those who are more
19:37
anti-Christian, who want to remove God from our history,
19:41
they fail to mention that word of divine providence as being equal to God.
19:46
Sometimes they'll say, well, God has had mentioned or Jesus has had mentioned.
19:49
But he really was mentioned.
19:51
I think what we fail to understand is how replete
19:56
with biblical worldview and opinions that time was,
20:03
the morals of the Bible were commonly accepted by everyone as being necessary.
20:08
It's so different than today.
20:11
Our forefathers lived in a time, I mean, they had been steeped for 150 years
20:17
in biblical worldview and they just come out
20:20
of an amazing, great awakening.
20:22
George Whitfield was heard.
20:23
They say by 80% of the population heard the gospel.
20:26
That's amazing.
20:27
Many people heard him more than once.
20:29
So they lived in a different worldview.
20:32
We live very much in a secular worldview for the most part,
20:35
at least in some circles, have the country at least, right?
20:38
And it was different back then.
20:41
So they pull it out of context and therefore we don't get the accurate history.
20:47
My, let's talk about the biggest, one of the biggest lies in America,
20:54
the separation of church and state, so-called separation.
20:59
And what it means to a lot of people today is the separation of Christianity,
21:03
not other religions, but Christianity and state.
21:06
So how do you respond to people who say faith and government should remain completely separate?
21:13
Well, in terms of the governance of the church that is correct,
21:18
the state has no business governing the church.
21:21
That is what our forefathers meant by the separation of church and state.
21:25
Remember, the king of England was not only in charge of the nation,
21:29
he was in charge of the church and they felt oppression from that,
21:33
not just civically, but from a religious standpoint.
21:37
So they were adamant that there would be no state involvement in the church.
21:43
However, they did not for a minute think that Christians would not be part of the government.
21:49
It's similar to the Old Testament.
21:52
You know Moses ran the nation of Israel and Aaron was the head of the Levites, right?
21:58
He was the head of the priests.
21:59
Both of those leaders followed God, but the state was not in charge of the church
22:06
and the church was not in charge of the state.
22:08
That's what they meant by that.
22:09
But they always felt that a people that had the kind of freedoms that we have
22:15
would have to be immoral people.
22:16
Otherwise, we would just dissolve into anarchy.
22:20
We see that in some sense.
22:21
Yes, yes, we do.
22:23
And those words aren't in our founding documents.
22:26
The separation of church and state that you can't find that anywhere.
22:30
We are told in scripture to be salt and light, to be influential, to be
22:36
to live our faith out loud, not just behind church walls.
22:38
But I know I'm preaching to the choir Cynthia.
22:40
I want to get two more questions in.
22:43
What divine moments from America's founding most inspire you.
22:48
I know you've probably got dozens, but give us one or two.
22:53
Sure.
22:53
First of all, let me just say that the fact that there are so many proves the point
22:59
that God himself was involved, not only at the inception of the nation,
23:03
but bringing it all the way through and the chapters run through the emancipation
23:07
proclamation because God was involved.
23:09
It was the church that was involved in so involved in freeing the slaves and not everybody had
23:14
freedom until the emancipation proclamation.
23:17
Talk a little bit about American exceptionalism and prosperity.
23:20
But so it all throughout.
23:22
But as we look at the time of the Revolutionary War, just after the Declaration of Independence,
23:28
George Washington is a perfect example.
23:31
He had been prepared for this moment as the general of the continental army.
23:35
By God himself, he never was shot during all the time of the French Indian War.
23:40
Two horses shot from underneath him.
23:43
His coat was full of bullets.
23:45
He even wrote to his brother that it was divine providence that had spared him
23:49
when his fellow soldiers were dying around him.
23:52
Later, 15 years after that French and Indian War, a very old and wise Indian chief,
23:58
sought him out when Washington was on, I think it was a surveying mission,
24:02
and said, I want to meet this young warrior that his,
24:06
his braves who were excellent marksmen could never hit.
24:10
And he said that he was protected by the divine spirit.
24:14
And this, this old Indian chief went on to prophesy and say that he would be
24:19
the leader of a great empire.
24:22
And certainly that is exactly what happened.
24:24
Washington became the leader of the greatest nation.
24:27
I believe that the world has ever known.
24:29
And it's his life is miraculous.
24:32
The way God shaped him is miraculous.
24:35
He had a praying mother, and I want to shout out to all those who,
24:39
who pray, all those parents who pray diligently for their children.
24:43
The effects of those prayers go far into the future, far beyond what we could imagine.
24:49
That's also why prayer is included in every chapter of this book.
24:53
Because this book is meant not only to have us remember
24:57
the mighty acts of God in history, but to engage with him
25:01
in the moment, to use our agency as Christians,
25:05
to come before the throne of God, to impact the future.
25:08
This is the opportunity that God puts before us right now.
25:11
And this is the kind of experience that I'm hoping
25:14
that we will all have as we celebrate this 250th birthday,
25:18
a really deep and meaningful experience.
25:21
So Cynthia, the nation has changed and not in a good way.
25:25
We've done so much good for the world America has.
25:29
But if we look at things today from the biblical perspective,
25:32
it doesn't look good. How do you respond to those who say,
25:35
America's best days are behind us?
25:39
Well, I would like to take us back to the pilgrims again,
25:42
because they lived in covenant with God a two-way agreement.
25:46
There were those in the early 1700s that thought that God was dead,
25:50
you know, basically in terms of society.
25:53
But God, he brought the first great awakening
25:56
after our, and then we had this amazing birth of a nation,
26:01
and we experienced prosperity, and we experienced
26:04
tremendous spiritual decline after the revolution.
26:08
But God again, in the beginning and towards the middle of the 1800s,
26:13
brought about the second great awakening,
26:16
birthing the missionary movement, birthing the freeing of the slaves,
26:20
and a lot of Christian organizations that went on to do great good in our world.
26:27
So I am not discouraged, because God has not changed,
26:31
even though we have, even though we've declined.
26:33
And it's true, and you know, we just face it head on.
26:36
But when we cry out to God, he tells us,
26:39
if we return to him, he will return to us.
26:42
So our hope is in the God of covenants,
26:46
that covenantal relationship that we have with him.
26:49
And if we as Christians, I really believe this,
26:51
we'll do just what two chronicles 714 says, humble ourselves, seek his face,
26:56
turn from our wicked ways, and that he will forgive our sins and heal our land.
27:02
Amen. And that is something we need to live by here in America, friends.
27:06
It's not over yet. God still has us here.
27:08
And we're here for a reason for his purposes, by his grace.
27:13
And I'm so thankful for this book and for you, Cynthia,
27:17
celebrating God our founder, GodOurFounder.com is the website.
27:21
Friends, you've got an option to order from redemption.
27:24
Press the publisher or go straight to Amazon and get it there.
27:28
Cynthia Scott, God bless you.
27:29
Great interview. Thank you so much for your time.
27:32
Thank you so much. Great to be with you.
27:35
Friends, praise God.
27:36
Thanks for sharing the podcast.
27:37
Bless you and to keep speaking the truth about things that matter.