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Mark Henry: Can America Recover Its Identity? · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

• 0:00
  President of Family Research Council Tony Perkins writes, America's political institutions and civic ideals did not arise in a vacuum, but were rooted in a culture shaped by Protestant Christianity. The founding fathers were immersed in biblical imagery. The Bible shaped how Americans understood freedom, law, covenant, human dignity, and self-government.
• 0:25
  Even those who were not Orthodox Christians were influenced by the biblical worldview that permeated colonial America. But what happens when that biblical literacy disappears? Well, a nation that forgets its story and history loses its identity.
• 0:43
  And when a people lose their identity, they become fragmented. The Bible is not merely a religious text, but one of the foundational documents of American civilization. To understand America, one must understand the Bible. And when that understanding is lost, we lose not only part of our history, but part of our identity. We're talking with Pastor Mark Henry about this next.
• 1:10
  Welcome to Worldview Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events, defending biblical Christianity. No topic, off limits. And now, here's your host, David Fiorazzo. Hey friends, now you know what we're going to be talking about, but now I want to bring in Pastor Mark Henry, MarkHenryMinistries.com, and we're connecting again over state lines. Brother, thank you so much for your time today. Good to see you.
• 1:40
  David, good to be with you, my friend. Yeah. So we're going to talk about something very important, an angle that you suggested, and that is, can America recover its identity if we have enough time, if Jesus doesn't come back or call us home? But if we can, then how do we do that? So we're going to talk about that. But first, tell me what's going on with Mark Henry Ministries. I see you're preaching up a storm on Sundays. I see some of the people you're interviewing. Yeah.
• 2:08
  on your show. Great. I mean, similar people that I get to talk to. Tell us what's going on with your ministry first. You know, Jesus is building his church. That's his promise. It's a prophetic statement. I always tell people you are living prophecy by the very fact we gather every single week in Jesus' name, study the scriptures together. I mean, who would have thought 2,000 years ago a guy in Galilee would make that promise, and here we are today.
• 2:32
  Jesus is building his church. It's a joy to always preach the gospel. The turning our days is growing. We're on 700 plus radio stations. Our TV stuff is continuing on. We're excited about that. God's opening some doors in these last days, and we're just anticipating Jesus coming with glory, power, and majesty any day.
• 2:51
  Praise God. Well, you know, a lot of us are praying that God would continue to enlarge your territory, so maybe those prayers are starting to be answered. Brother, there's an article over at Harbinger's Daily, what happens when the biblical literacy that shaped America's founding disappears. So that was from Tony Perkins, but we're going to kind of springboard off of that and try to come up with some solutions. Set this up for us and walk us through however you want to start.
• 3:20
  Yeah, you know, we're celebrating 250 years of American history and what God has done. I mean, if you know American history, one of the things we need to talk about. But if you know American history, God has been at work. God has blessed America. God has blessed America in amazing ways, and we take it for granted so often. And what I would suggest to you is not only need to celebrate that, so we're going to do Fourth of July weekend, we just got done doing that, but also...
• 3:46
  If Jesus tarries, what are some paths for recovery? Listen, anybody can complain about America. Anybody can say that there's problems. But real people, godly people come up with solutions, an action plan. And I would suggest to you, David, there are five key things that if Jesus tarried 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, these five things are absolutely critical for America to recover in any way, shape, or form.
• 4:08
  And we're going to get into those five things. But before that, even, there's one more thing from this article. I like this very profound sentence. A nation cannot remain united without a common culture, a common history, and a common understanding of itself. And, Mark, how can we understand our nation and have this common identity if we don't know our history? And I think we talked before we got on the podcast.
• 4:38
  in truth and in full in k-12 and academia at the university level they're trying to tear down our history and tear down the past not talk about the truth and how we can continue to to uh remain um or regain our identity so go ahead and share you start with the gospel yes absolutely go ahead
• 5:00
  Yeah, there's five five key things. I think the order is somewhat important. I don't think you could flip these and still come out with the right solution. Right. It's like if you're making cookies, there's a certain sequence that my wife makes the perfect chocolate chip cookie. And it starts softening the butter beforehand, getting it to room temperature. All of these things are sequential. So the first is if America is ever going to recover at all.
• 5:22
  We have to have the strong preaching of the gospel. You already mentioned that. The founding fathers had this context of the Christian worldview. Why did that happen? Because you had George Whitefield, you had the Wesley brothers. They were out preaching Jesus all across the 13 colonies. And we call it the Great Awakening. So there was this Great Awakening story.
• 5:41
  before the Revolutionary War that becomes the foundation even for the Declaration of Independence, which mentions God in those 1,300 words four times. And so that's the first element. The second element is healthy local churches. We are never going to recover unless across the country we start having healthy local churches. I mean, right here in Minneapolis and Southern California where other campuses, you go by churches and they've got rainbow flags out. They're abandoning the scriptures. Churches. Churches.
• 6:10
  Oh, yes. Yes. The churches. No, they've turned apostate. They've turned away from the truth. So we've got to have the gospel. We've got to have healthy churches. We've got to have strong men. There has to be a recovery of men rising up, fulfilling the will of God in their lives, whether it's Moses in the Old Testament or you today, whether it was Joshua in the Old Testament or you today, David in the Old Testament or you today, Paul in the New Testament or you today, and then restoring the nuclear family.
• 6:34
  The nuclear family has got to be cherished and not torn apart by the sexual perverts in our generation. And then lastly, and that's what you just mentioned, a comprehensive education in biblical history and American history. Those two things have to be taught. Otherwise, we have tribalism and we have division. And that's exactly what we see all across America.
• 6:56
  We do, and we're seeing the consequences of not talking about these five important issues. And by the way, you're a pastor. Did you just say perverts? I'm kidding. I'm kidding. No, thank you. Thank you for— Perverts are all around. Jeez. So, okay, Mark, let me ask you this. We just—
• 7:15
  We just endured another so-called Pride Month, and I've been very disappointed that the church has not resisted this agenda more strongly. Maybe the corporate world has backed off a little bit, maybe because of the bottom line. They're losing a little bit of money, but that doesn't mean their worldview has changed. It doesn't mean that it's still not full on. You sent me an example on something in the sports world, baseball, for example. Do you want to touch on that before we go on?
• 7:46
  Yeah. So when you think about, again, the nuclear family and how important that is to a civilization, you cannot have a civilization, you can't have a country, we can't have a future, we can't have restoration with your family. And so when you think about the sexual perversion of our day, whether you're talking homosexuality or the various other forms,
• 8:05
  Recently, the San Francisco Giants, of course, had their uniforms changed. They had rainbow hats and so forth. Three of the pitchers put Genesis 9 on their hats, and man, the sports world blew up, and everyone's upset. Well, let me just...
• 8:23
  say that God destroyed the world with a flood because of the perversion, the wickedness, and the violence of men. And the rainbow was a reminder of God's covenant, that he would not destroy the earth with another flood because of man's perversion, but he will destroy it with fire in the future when Jesus comes, glory, power, and majesty, and creates a new heaven as a new earth. And so they're trying to recapture that.
• 8:45
  the rainbow flag, and rightly so. The church needs to do that. The church needs to stand up and say, hey, instead of attacking the family, we need to cherish the family. God created the family. God created marriage. God's created children. And I would suggest to you, David, I think the church needs to go back and start telling people, why is marriage important? Who created it? It's not something that comes up in culture. It's not something that just happened.
• 9:12
  mystically in history. I think we need to talk about the theology of that. And then we need to talk about the five reasons sexuality, that sex in marriage is important. I don't think we've studied those in the scriptures well enough as a church. And it's part of the reason the church is weak and the nuclear family is under attack and suffering as it is.
• 9:29
  Let's do that, Mark, because, I mean, you mentioned the five Ps before we got on the podcast. I would like you to go through them. I know you've preached on them at Revive Church. Let's go through them because, for one, I mean, procreation is one. I think that's the first one. I mean, if we don't get that, we're not going to repopulate, and Christians are not going to be able to raise enough godly children. Go ahead and just walk us through those five Ps.
• 9:54
  Okay, let's start with the presupposition that we have as Christians, that God created everything and he created the institution of marriage. Yes. So all the way to Genesis chapter 1, when God creates Adam and Eve, it says that he made them in his image. In the image of God, he created them male and female.
• 10:11
  Those are the two sexes, male and female. And then he blessed them and said, be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. That is sex right there. And it's in the context of marriage and that union. So the very first thing that we find in the Bible is in marriage, in the context of this commitment of marriage, it's not living together, it's not shacking up with somebody, the commitment of marriage, a man shall leave his father and mother, the two shall become one flesh. Yeah.
• 10:36
  And so in the commitment of marriage, the very first thing is procreation. If we don't go back to the Bible and embrace the fact that God created marriage and we need to procreate, we are listening to the devil. What is the lie of the devil? There's too many people in the world. We need to stop having so many people. We need to have less babies. Let's have homosexuality. Let's have people live together outside of marriage. Let's not have any children. You'll be happier without children.
• 11:01
  There was a study, David, I just shared on Father's Day. And the question was this, asking the question of men, 25 to 45, are you very happy? That's the question. Are you very happy? The men who were single and had no children were the least happy in the group, the happiest one, twice as happy if you were married and you had children, 38%.
• 11:24
  So if you want more happiness in your life, get married, have children, procreate. Children are a gift from the Lord. That's the first P. Amen. Amen. And I do want to say there are a lot of consequences from not following this biblical order or God's design, right? There are consequences. One really quick, not to get off track, Mark, but I just saw a headline before I got on the show with you that, if I remember, New York just passed a bill that would remove motherhood.
• 11:52
  and father from state law. There are consequences for not obeying and following God. We're seeing, and it's not just New York, by the way. We're seeing it across the country. So this is very important what Mark's sharing and understanding God ordained marriage, natural marriage between one man and one woman. Go ahead, brother, go on to the next one or share whatever you'd like.
• 12:13
  Okay, so the first reason for sex, God created sex in the context of marriage for procreation. The second reason that God created marriage or sex in marriage is for purity.
• 12:28
  First Corinthians chapter seven says, let each man have his own woman. Let each woman have her own husband. Let them not burn with desire. Let each of them have their own spouse. And so we live in a world of temptation with desires. God created us to have desires, sexual desires. Those are good things. They're not bad things. But there is a context in which they are supposed to be expressed. And that is marriage. And that's what we're talking about.
• 12:52
  They're supposed to have their own spouse. Now, David, this is really important because we're seeing this influx right now of sexual exposure. We just had a staff member, and they took their children. They went downtown Minneapolis. And all of a sudden, they find themselves walking around, and there's a bunch of ladies who are –
• 13:13
  topless. And they called the police and the police came and said, we've just removed all of these laws. People can go topless wherever they want. There's a number of other states where this is becoming... Nudity is an expression of demonic influence. If you read in the scriptures, when demon-possessed people come into the play and the narrative of the stories, often they're cussing, often they're swearing. But another key element is nudity. And we see this when we're...
• 13:38
  Africa. And so sexuality, we're made of sexual beings, but in the context of marriage, the blessing is that we come together and our desires, our passions are expressed there. So procreation is the first one. The second one is purity. All right. Well, before we run out of time, we've got to continue on, Mark. I don't want to just keep on going. These are good. These are very, very good. We don't hear it often enough, by the way.
• 14:07
  Number three, we find it in the book of Solomon, pleasure. Also in the book of Proverbs, it says that the let the breasts of your wife of your youth satisfy you at all times. I won't give all of those descriptions in those passages, but pleasure is one of the things. God creates us and blesses us and gives us different things to create pleasure in us. Now, it's not the first thing.
• 14:29
  Because when pleasure becomes an idol, then you have sexuality outside the confines of marriage and we're no longer glorifying God. But if you get the order right, that God is the one who's the final authority, he's created marriage, he's created us to glorify him, and then you think about procreation, you think about purity, and then pleasure is the third one. Number four is partnership. You know, the unique thing about marriage, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall come together with his wife, there is a partnership in sexuality that there is no other parallel.
• 14:59
  And anytime that is violated, it violates the order and the intention of God. And so we think about sexuality. It's about partnership in the confines of marriage. And then number five is praise. It brings glory to God when you have things in God's creation utilized the right way. Marriage utilized the right way. Sexuality utilized the right way. It brings glory and praise to God.
• 15:27
  when people come together in holy matrimony and in the union of sex as God intended. So those are the five things that we find in scripture. And I think if we don't talk about those things, then all we are is negative. These are the five things we're for as Christians. These are the, this is the root of sexuality in the Bible. So Mark, I think we both agree that we don't hear these things talked about enough. The way God set it up and biblically. So,
• 15:55
  Have we answered the question, can America recover its identity if we have not really recovered our biblical foundations? Well, obviously the things that we're talking about in sexuality are rooted back in the Bible. But what we know is this, if you do not have strong families, you will not have a country. This has been true all through history.
• 16:18
  When the nuclear family is destroyed, and that's what all of the sexually perverted ideas are there. Oh, we can have sex outside of marriage. We can have sex with men. All of the perverted conclusions that the world comes to, and it's directly destroying the intention of God. And if we have strong nuclear families, we can have a strong nation. Think about it from this standpoint.
• 16:42
  Right now, we would have a very hard time fighting something like World War II or the Revolutionary War. Why? Because we don't have strong nuclear families. You know, when men go out into battle, they understand that they are sacrificing for their country, their wives, their children, the future of what is there. When they have no commitment to families, they have no commitment to their wives, they have no commitment to their children, they have no commitment to their God, they have no commitment to their nation, people don't make the same sacrifices. Right.
• 17:10
  All through history, generals will stand up and say, men, we are going out here. Fight for your country. Fight for your wives. Fight for your girlfriends. Fight for your children. This is a matter of life and death. It was true in the Old Testament with Israel when they went out and fought the Philistines. It was true when they faced off with the Egyptians. Our children will become slaves if we don't win. That's right.
• 17:29
  And praise God that God has given us 250 years here in America, the freedoms that we've had, and let's not squander them. To whom much is given, what? Much is required. And so the nuclear family needs to be celebrated. Praise God for Tennessee and Florida and some of these other states that have said, you know what? Instead of Pride Month, we're going to have Nuclear Family Month, and we're going to celebrate.
• 17:50
  It needs to happen all across America. It needs to be happening in churches rather than churches embracing the perversion of our day. We waited way too long to resist this agenda, friends. It's not too late because God still has us here, and he must still have a plan for us individually and or America. But we're running out of time. We have to redeem the time. I want to move on to something you sent me in these notes that were very, very good, well put together, Mark. Ignorance of biblical history.
• 18:20
  This is at the very root of not only anti-Semitism, but social disorder in America. Do you want to touch on either one of those or both if we have time? Yeah, I think it's really critical that people understand history is important. When you read through the Bible, what does it start with? It starts with history. It starts with the history of humanity. It starts with the history of the world. It starts with the history of nations. It starts with the history of Israel, Genesis chapter 12.
• 18:48
  and that God's intention was to bless all the families of the earth through the Jewish people by bringing us two things. One is the sacred scriptures, and the second is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, the Redeemer of Israel. Not only is he the Savior of Israel, he's the Savior for every single person throughout all of history. He alone is the Savior. And so when we think about anti-Semitism today,
• 19:11
  And you say, what's the solution for that in America or around the world? Well, one is understanding history, how we got here as a people, what our problems are, which is sin, what the solution is, Jesus Christ, and how God chose the chosen people, people of Israel, to bring this all together.
• 19:28
  You ask the question, well, what does God have for Israel in the future? Well, it says that the end of the time of the Gentiles, that Israel will be grafted back in. And according to Zechariah, according to Jeremiah 30, God's going to bring Israel back into the land and God's going to accomplish his promise. There ultimately, when he creates the new heavens and new earth, when the millennial kingdom, we have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and they possess the land as God intended.
• 19:53
  forever. And so history is important when we think about anti-Semitism. Think about America. If we don't have common history, then what we have is a fractured tribalism. And that's what we have now. And I recently heard an athlete saying, a black athlete saying, I represent my people. And they're talking about the color of their skin rather than the fact that we're
• 20:21
  And I'm like, you're representing America. You're representing all of us. This isn't a skin tone thing. This isn't an eye tone. This isn't, you know, I'm from Ireland. I'm from Germany. No, we are Americans. And there is an American history that we have. And what's unique about America, there's a couple of things in history. Number one, we know when we have our beginning. When is it? It's July 4th, 1776. Yeah.
• 20:46
  in the Declaration of Independence, we were under British rule, and we said, look, because of the infractions and the tyranny, and because of the lack of religious freedom and so forth, we are now separating ourselves from this tyranny and this government and establishing not a perfect union, but a more perfect union. And in that declaration, there are three
• 21:12
  three things that stood out in history that stand out in history even to today. Number one, Americans should be proud because of self-government. That's what they declared there, that self-governance is a unique thing, and it's a Christian idea. That's why the Founding Fathers said this constitutional republic we have doesn't even work unless you're a Christian, because you have to control yourself. Right.
• 21:36
  We don't want dictators, we don't want despots controlling us. Under the power of the Spirit of God, we know what is right and wrong, and we do what's right. So self-governance is one. Another one is that all men were created equal.
• 21:49
  That is a unique thing. Why are all men created equal? It doesn't matter their skin tone. It doesn't matter if they're from Ireland. It doesn't matter if they're from South Africa. It doesn't matter if they're from Asia. Why? Because you are created in the image of God. And quite honestly, knowing our history, we all go back to Adam and Eve. That's your great-great-grandma and grandpa, right? And so we have a common history. We have a common problem. Our common problem is sin.
• 22:10
  And it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from or what generation or what your passport is or what your language. Our problem is sin. And the solution, of course, is Jesus Christ. And so when we think about America, self-governance and that all men are created equal. And then that there were certain inalienable rights. Rights do not come from government. They don't come from Congress. They don't come from the Supreme Court. They don't come from kings. They come from...
• 22:36
  God. And these things are self-evident. Man, they are self-evident. Remember the Bible says, a fool has said in his heart, there is no God. If there is a God who created us in his image, and we have certain responsibilities before him,
• 22:50
  There are certain rights, the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which includes, of course, our religious freedom and a clear conscience before God. These are American virtues, values that America was founded on. No other country can say that. No other country can point to the time when Italians can't start and say, you know, we started here. I mean, America is so unique, David, and God's hand has been upon us in so many amazing ways.
• 23:16
  So why'd you call out Italians? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. So Mark, in the last couple minutes, you mentioned social revisionists, and I want to ask you about something because I think the left was unfortunately successful in removing God, the Bible,
• 23:35
  prayer, voluntary prayer from government-run schools, and finally the Ten Commandments were taken down. So the biblical foundation, and then, oh, reminders of that biblical foundation were our founding fathers. And I think of BLMGFN,
• 23:52
  The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, that wasn't a sudden uprising. That was a very organized, well-funded, global protest against the truth, against biblical Christianity, made it all about race, but people wanting to remove our history as Americans—
• 24:11
  taking statues down. They were very successful in making some progress. Could you speak to that, and how can we resist these movements? Because basically, part of that is Marxism, the influence of Marxism. But in the last couple minutes, how can we raise awareness in the church and resist this more effectively?
• 24:29
  Yeah, I think we need to go back and study history again. Even in our preaching, we need to illustrate history. Pastors, you gotta learn some history. You need to read about the founding fathers, and you need to learn about their sacrifice. You need to learn about their prayers. You need to learn how God preserved them. Church of Washington is a classic illustration. There is no America
• 24:47
  without George Washington. It's like saying there is no Jewish people without Moses. God raised up Moses to deliver the people at a unique time in history. God's hand was upon him. It's true for George Washington. I mean, when you look at George Washington and think about his life, think about his life story and how God called him and protected him.
• 25:07
  You remember in July 7, 1755, he was on a patrol with about 1,500 or so troops, and they were attacked by the French and Indian counterpart, and they were destroyed. There were almost 1,000 guys, 900-plus guys lost their lives, 62 officers.
• 25:29
  died in that attack. George Washington not only survived it, but led the counterattack in that situation, in that engagement. He had four bullet holes in his jacket, two horses shot out from underneath him. People said the guy survived. It was an absolute miracle. He was right in the middle of the heat of it all.
• 25:47
  And he's a young guy at that point, and God protected him, and God raised him up. There's lots of other illustrations of God's hand of protection with him. And then you think about the victory over Great Britain. Great Britain was stronger than the Roman Empire by the time America calls for this revolution and this declaration of independence. And God was with him. You think about Valley Forge and him crossing. I mean, this is...
• 26:09
  Absolutely amazing. His prayer at Valley Forge, so powerful, that picture. And then we think about God's order that came through George Washington. You think about his humility in surrendering his army. You know, the enemy, King George said, he is the greatest man that's ever lived if he surrenders his army. And if you remember...
• 26:30
  Why history is important. Julius Caesar goes out and he's conquering and he comes back. He's got his army. He threatens the Roman Republic and says, I'm bringing in the army if you don't acquiesce. And that's when they moved from being a republic, the Roman Republic, to being controlled by the emperor. And this goes on and on. George Washington was an amazing guy. And when people tear him down, we're missing our history.
• 26:51
  Yeah, I think you said some very important, many important points you made there, but I'm paraphrasing a quote of people that do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. We've been around 250 years. Not many nations make it this far. Praise God for America, an imperfect country, but God definitely shed his grace to allow this land to be established, this country to be formed.
• 27:15
  and founded Mark Henry Ministries. We are so blessed to have you on. Thank you for some of the great points you made. I think you preached like two or three different mini sermons. We're going to have to rewind this and watch again. A lot of good information, brother. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having me, my friend. You're most welcome. Friends, thank you so much for watching, listening, and sharing. God bless you. And as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter. We will see you next time.