Latest / The Immutable Word / EP067 Seeds of Liberty: How Baptists Sparked the Revolution

Transcript

EP067 Seeds of Liberty: How Baptists Sparked the Revolution · The Immutable Word

0:36
We're back for another episode. I'm here with Robert.
0:40
This week we are on the cusp of celebrating our 250th anniversary,
0:46
the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
0:49
And this goes along with the theme that we've been talking about with our Baptist
0:55
history, our heritage, and a lot of the events that led up to the freedoms that we enjoy today.
1:03
So it's an interesting time of history, just reaching this milestone of 250
1:11
years. I'm personally pretty excited about it and just to be here to celebrate it.
1:17
And this goes in line with the topic that we're going to talk about today.
1:21
We're going to dig into some momentous events, some that are just pretty amazing
1:28
that a lot of people don't realize or know about.
1:31
And even before Lexington, before Concord, there were things that sparked that
1:38
path to what we have today in terms of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
1:44
So I'm pretty excited about it. What about you, Robert? Yeah,
1:48
you know, honestly, just thinking about, you know, growing up,
1:51
you know, we were a pretty patriotic family.
1:55
You know, our dad loved the American Revolution. He was a history buff,
1:58
and he really instilled a lot of those principles in us.
2:02
And, you know, it's, I don't know what it is, Alan, you know,
2:05
I was thinking about it, but, you know, it's like.
2:08
There's a spirit, right? There's a spirit that's in the air in this generation
2:13
because we have so much Marxist and relevant, you know, atheist culture, new atheism.
2:21
We have, you know, communist principles being taught in our schools.
2:25
It's almost that you know there's this spirit that's trying to push back against
2:30
being proud of the country you know that we live in you know I wasn't born in
2:35
the in the states I was naturalized,
2:38
under our mom when I was in sixth grade and you don't and then of course went
2:43
in you know went on to serve in the air force but,
2:46
the more that I learned about our history and I mean proud in the sense that I'm grateful,
2:53
for the mercy and grace that God's shown us and what he's shown this country,
2:57
not because the country is inherently good, but because we adopted a lot of
3:02
these principles that we talked about, you know, you know, we covered the Baptist heritage series.
3:07
And, and it's, it's just weird. I don't know if, if you feel it,
3:11
like it's almost where people want to try to shame you when you start talking
3:15
about the history of this country.
3:17
You know, If you start bringing up not just our Baptist forefathers,
3:21
but obviously the forefathers of our American Republic, people like Thomas Jefferson,
3:26
George Washington, John Adams, these men weren't perfect.
3:31
And of course, we had the problem of slavery and things like that,
3:34
but that's what they'll focus on. They'll focus.
3:39
On—it's like an anachronistic issue where they'll anachronistically go back
3:44
and try to impose all the social,
3:48
Marxist revolutionary stuff today back on the country in the 1700s.
3:55
And, of course, we talked a lot about the persecution of the Baptists that led
3:58
up to eventually the Revolutionary War and, of course, the principles that were
4:02
espoused in the Declaration of Independence eventually in the Constitution.
4:06
You know, but our,
4:10
you know, our contention is that the principles that underlie the,
4:16
you know, the freedoms that we enjoy, obviously, the First Amendment,
4:20
freedom of speech, freedom of religion, you know, that's the groundwork.
4:24
And, of course, the first Ten Amendments that really guaranteed that we would
4:28
become a republic and not a democracy.
4:31
Today, we hear that word democracy, you know, thrown around a lot.
4:35
But anyway, my point is this, it's like there's this weird, you know,
4:42
this antichrist spirit that's like, you know, hates this country,
4:45
hates what it's about, and it's doing everything it can to destroy,
4:49
you know, the constitutional republic that was created in 1776.
4:53
And, you know, so that's why I think it's good. Matter of fact,
4:57
I don't know, most people don't realize this, but when the Constitution was signed,
5:02
you know, in 1789, when it was ratified, that what our first chief justice, John Marshall...
5:11
Actually made it a requirement in all education. Of course, they didn't have
5:16
public schools like we have public schools, right? A lot of them were house
5:20
schools and stuff that were part of small communities.
5:23
But they made it mandatory. They required that every American citizen would
5:29
learn to interpret and read the Constitution in their school years,
5:34
so that they would understand their freedoms, the fundamental,
5:38
the foundation of their freedoms, and so forth and so on, you know,
5:42
and of course you have people today that have probably never read the Declaration of Independence.
5:46
And I would recommend, I mean, for the 250th anniversary, I mean,
5:51
go on and I put it on our Substack page, but there's a link to a YouTube,
5:55
where Max McLean, he's kind of a guy that does like Bible reading and stuff,
5:59
but it's set to really, you know, nice, you know, patriotic music, but he's reading,
6:04
the 27 grievances that were brought forth to King George III.
6:09
And I think it's surprising when you listen to it and you hear the passion,
6:14
and you can only picture Thomas Jefferson as he's writing this.
6:19
And you just understand the fervor there was that this was going to be the first
6:25
time a constitutional republic existed without a tyrannical monarchy that was trying to control them.
6:32
And there was a people that was going to be able to have full representation
6:36
and a fair and balanced judicial system, which was surprisingly modeled after, you know,
6:43
the three-tiered system in the Bible where you had the prophet,
6:46
the priest, and the king.
6:48
And so, I don't know, I just, you know, I'm saying all this to say that I think
6:53
it's exciting, and I think it's needful for us to talk a little bit about this.
6:56
And, you know, we hear a lot about the history of our American forefathers,
7:01
but a lot of us don't hardly ever hear anything about the Baptist contribution
7:06
that led up to the Revolutionary War, you know. Now, we all know Lexington, right?
7:11
I know, Alan, you've been there, right, to Lexington, Massachusetts, Concord?
7:15
I've been in that general area. I know you took a trip out there.
7:19
I typically spend a lot of time in Boston, which there's a lot of history there, obviously.
7:25
I've actually never been out there. I'd love to go out there, though. Yeah, we did.
7:29
Me and my wife went out there to Lexington Square, and we walked.
7:33
It's like a little park now, and you can kind of walk, and they've got all these little...
7:37
Like concrete, you know, like signs and stuff and things like that all over.
7:40
And you can kind of walk and it talks about the story about,
7:43
you know, the shots that were fired at Lexington.
7:46
And most people, you know, that know anything about our history,
7:49
you know, especially the American Revolution, they often call the battle at
7:53
Lexington and Concord the shot that was heard around the world, because that's what,
7:58
you know, in the minds of historians, that's what kicked off the Revolutionary War.
8:04
If you go back, and this is what I wanted to talk about, you know,
8:07
with you and kind of go over, there's three major events that kind of led up to.
8:14
You know, that led up to the final war and battle at Yorktown and the surrender,
8:18
of Cornwallis to the American and French forces there when, you know, to General Washington.
8:25
But there was some, you know, there was a lot of history that kind of led up
8:29
to it so in 17 the 1776 so 1776 everybody sees you know the pictures of general
8:37
george washington crossing the delaware right on the boat,
8:40
and he's leading about 2400 continental soldiers across the delaware and at
8:44
least a surprise you know defeat of a hessian stronghold the garrison
8:49
you know at the battle of trenton but that shifted the the momentum of the american
8:53
revolution because the americans were just considered a bunch of farmers.
8:57
And you had, you know, the British forces, which were highly trained,
9:02
highly skilled military men.
9:05
They had tactical strategists, generals, and colonels that were fighting for
9:09
the British that were very experienced in European warfare.
9:13
So as far as they were concerned, they're fighting a bunch of bumpkins, you know.
9:17
But what's interesting is some of the events that led up to it,
9:22
because, again, Concord and Lexington are the ones that are saying,
9:25
well, that's the trigger.
9:26
That's the formal outbreak of the northern colonies against the British.
9:30
That's what started the Revolutionary War. But little is known about two other battles.
9:36
One is called the Battle of Alamance in North Carolina, just a little bit east
9:41
of Raleigh and Durham and Raleigh in that area.
9:44
And then you have the Battle of Kings Mountain that happened after Lexington and Concord.
9:48
But I wanted to, you know, just take a little time tonight to kind of go through
9:52
some of that history, you know, maybe educate some of our listeners and maybe
9:57
it'll spark some interest. There's some books, maybe we can put them in the
10:00
description, like William Grady's book.
10:04
What God hath wrought. And of course, what God hath wrought is probably the
10:08
pinnacle work. I would say that's the work that really sparked my interest in
10:11
the Revolutionary War, and especially the Baptist contribution.
10:15
And then there's also, there's a couple other books. There's American History
10:18
in Crimson Red, but we'll get those links out.
10:21
We'll get those books and some recommendations. And I would highly encourage
10:26
folks, if you've never heard of those people and those stories that reading,
10:32
you know, reading about the history and the general political environment that
10:36
existed that led up to the Revolutionary War, and especially with the Baptist
10:40
contribution, I think it'll really give you an appreciation for our Baptist forefathers.
10:45
Yeah, that What God Hath Wrought book by Bill Grady is a really, really good book.
10:51
If you want to talk about some moments in history that led up to the Revolution
10:55
during in the revolution.
10:57
It's just nothing but providence. Pretty amazing.
11:00
Yeah, you see the hand of God all over this thing. And here's the thing,
11:04
you know, we've talked about it before.
11:07
There's some that believe or think or assume that America was a Christian nation,
11:13
and that was far from what our Baptist forefathers believed.
11:17
They would have rejected that notion, you know, fiercely, because we don't have
11:22
a theocracy. That's what our Protestant brethren believe.
11:26
They think that they have a kingdom of heaven here on earth,
11:29
and that's what they're trying to set up. That was nothing of the kind.
11:32
They believed they just wanted to have a free government so they can freely
11:36
worship God as they see fit, you know, according to their conscience,
11:41
you know, according to the dictates of their conscience.
11:42
They want to be able to worship God, preach the Lord Jesus Christ without,
11:46
you know, forfeiting, you know, or license, you know, persecution,
11:52
fines and all this other stuff that our Baptist brethren had to deal with almost 140 years. And so—,
11:58
Especially, you know, during the colonial time. And so it's important for us
12:02
to kind of understand, you know, why, you know, it's important to understand
12:08
who our Baptist brethren were that were involved.
12:10
But also, you know, the reason why they were fighting, they were both fighting.
12:14
They were fighting along Congregationalists and Puritans that had jailed them.
12:20
And what was interesting is even shortly before, and even after the Revolutionary War,
12:26
before the Constitution was finalized, there was some of those Baptists that
12:31
fought alongside these Congregationalists that were in threat of going back
12:36
to jail and prison for preaching the gospel without a license.
12:40
It's amazing, you know, honestly. But when people, and this is what I want Americans
12:45
to understand, especially that really, you know, that are celebrating the 250th
12:49
anniversary of our country and they're waving the flags and they're excited,
12:54
you know, that we have a president at least that's,
12:57
pretty transparent about, you know, liberalism and all this other junk.
13:01
But here's the point is that those freedoms that they enjoy,
13:05
they may not understand that it didn't come from Protestants.
13:09
The Protestants adopted it because it was fueled by the persecution the Baptists went through.
13:16
So anyway, so that's what we'll kind of do today is talk a little bit about just the kind of like,
13:22
the culture and the environment, especially in the North Carolina,
13:25
Virginia area, Tennessee area, that eventually led to the battle at Lexington.
13:31
And then eventually all the other battles of the American Revolutionary War. Yeah, let's do it.
13:38
Before we jump into it, though, you were saying earlier on a few minutes ago
13:43
about the spirit of today and that the spirit of freedom is being destroyed
13:47
and that people will shame you.
13:51
And a lot of it is probably due to ignorance, but I think there's some underlying
13:56
power here that's trying to destroy the spirit of freedom and liberty of conscience.
14:00
I think that's at work today.
14:02
As you implied earlier, I would say personally, my experience is that people don't care either.
14:09
Right. That they're just so dismissive of it. It's like, yeah,
14:12
yeah, yeah, George Washington, founding fathers.
14:15
There's nothing really that great about it. I mean, we're not that great a nation
14:19
anymore anyways. And look at all the problems and systemic issues that you mentioned.
14:25
And they don't know the significance of history or the reasons behind it.
14:29
And I think it's just people don't even care.
14:33
You know, there's a pattern if you think, you know, you just kind of hit the
14:36
nail on the head about apathy, right?
14:38
But what fuels apathy is ignorance.
14:42
Because they don't know anything about history, they're going to be apathetic
14:45
to it, right? Then what happens after apathy is intolerance.
14:50
And tolerance, and then, of course, eventually persecution. And people don't
14:54
understand that in America. That's the danger of where we're at today because
14:57
we have kids, a generation of kids that have grown up that know nothing about our American history.
15:04
I'm not even talking about the Baptist history, just the general political history
15:09
of our forefathers and what they believed and the things that they wrote.
15:15
I remember that one of the first books our dad gave me was the because I was
15:19
trying to understand the Constitution and about what led up to it and some of
15:24
the reasoning and arguments behind it and it was the.
15:29
Oh, what is it called now? Alexander Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison wrote
15:33
it. The Federalist Papers. There you go, the Federalist Papers.
15:36
So the Federalist Papers were a series of articles that those men were writing
15:41
to try to get the American people on board with the Constitution and a United
15:48
States of America, because they liked
15:50
having 13 independent colonies.
15:53
Those independent colonies ran basically their own state, their own governments,
16:00
they had their own representation.
16:02
They just, at the time of the Revolutionary War, the dictator that was in England
16:09
was basically uniting them in battle against England.
16:13
And, of course, after the war, everybody wanted to go back to the 13 colonies again.
16:17
And that's when our forefathers, who were geniuses, realized,
16:21
man, we need to secure a form of government that will protect
16:25
the individual rights of citizens and provide an equal, fair representation
16:32
so that you don't have, you know, because if you read some of the 27 grievances,
16:37
in the Declaration of Independence, and I.
16:40
Read it three times this morning, by the way.
16:42
And I listened to it several times just because I wanted to read through each grievance.
16:47
But, you know, one of the grievances was that there were times where they had
16:51
their own legislatures, like some of the colonies had their own legislatures,
16:55
and they were trying to form their own, you know, make their own decisions politically
16:59
and how they wanted to run their colonies.
17:01
And then George, King George III, would go in and completely eradicate those
17:05
assemblies, and he would bring in his own legislatures and ruin his own laws.
17:11
And it was in a direct violation to the agreements that he had with the colonies.
17:15
And so some people, you know, they argue about the Revolutionary War being anti-Christian
17:19
because it was a war of rebellion.
17:21
And it wasn't. When you read the 27 grievances, these were well within the rights
17:27
of the American people who had an agreement, a standing agreement with George
17:31
III. He just abused them.
17:34
He was abusing those rights. They weren't treated as full British citizens.
17:39
They were treated as something less than that.
17:41
Right. And that was also a part of it.
17:44
You know, it's funny, you know, talking about our Baptist brethren,
17:49
you know, during the time of, you know, these battles that we're going to talk
17:53
a little bit about, during one of them, but there was Isaac Backus.
17:57
We talked a little bit about Isaac Backus, where he was debating with John Adams
18:01
in Massachusetts about the taxation, you know, where all the taxes are being
18:05
raised to basically support the Puritan Congregationalist churches.
18:09
And they had formed the Continental Congress, and Isaac Bacchus actually came
18:15
to the Continental Congress to complain about the persecution of Baptists in Massachusetts.
18:20
And John Adams and Samuel Adams tried to dismiss it as, you know,
18:24
it's just, oh, this is just a local issue.
18:27
It's a local minor grievance.
18:29
It's nothing really that important.
18:31
And what's funny is, you know, what Isaac Bacchus' response was?
18:35
He goes, that's exactly what the English say of you about the 13 colonies.
18:40
Talk about a smack in the face.
18:42
But that's when the people, you know, the American, when they heard,
18:45
the broader audience heard about the Baptist persecutions at the Continental
18:49
Congress, they said, man, we can't just establish a government for,
18:53
you know, the majority. We have to establish it for every single citizen.
18:57
We can't protect the establishment. We have to protect the citizen.
19:01
So anyway, so let's talk about a little bit about, you know,
19:05
kind of like the political and cultural and religious culture that was kind of formulated.
19:09
So if you go back to about 1738, so 1776 is when we signed the Declaration of Independence, right?
19:17
You have 1780 was the Battle of Kings Mountain. 1775 is Lexington Concord.
19:23
And, of course, leading up to—and in between that, you have,
19:26
again, 1776, the declaration signed in July.
19:30
Christmas of 1776 is when General Washington, you know, crossed over the Delaware.
19:35
And then in 1781 is where Cornwallis surrendered at the Battle of Yorktown,
19:41
after the Battle of Yorktown.
19:42
And then the Constitution was eventually ratified in 1789.
19:46
So that's kind of roughly the history. But if you go all the way back to 1738,
19:52
you know, almost basically 50 years prior to the signing of the Constitution,
19:58
you had the Baptist influence started growing tremendously because of one man
20:04
by the name of George Whitefield.
20:06
Now, most people know about George Whitefield. He was a Congregationalist.
20:10
He wasn't a Baptist by any means.
20:12
But he came to America in 1738, and he started preaching across all the colonies.
20:18
There were times where George Whitefield was known by, you know, Benjamin Franklin.
20:24
Benjamin Franklin, he was told that, hey, this George Whitefield can preach,
20:29
and you could hear him almost a mile away.
20:32
And he was in, I think it was Boston Commons or somewhere around there where
20:35
George Whitefield was preaching and Franklin was about two miles from that distance.
20:40
And he could hear George Whitefield preaching from two miles away.
20:44
Now, I don't know if anybody understands that, but just trying to preach.
20:49
You know, get to the end, go to a football field and go to one end of the football
20:54
field and try to preach coherently to where you can hear and,
20:58
you know, somebody articulate every word from 200 yards away.
21:03
Benjamin Franklin said he could hear George Whitefield two miles away.
21:09
Two miles away. That's unreal. You have a pretty strong voice.
21:15
Yep. And what's another, another thing that was amazing is the crowds that George
21:19
Whitefield would bring in during the Great Awakening.
21:22
He was called, he was, you know, they said that his, his, just the way that
21:25
he preached was powerful and convicting.
21:28
But I think it was Ben Franklin mentioned that there's something like,
21:32
there was like 10,000 people that came to hear George Whitefield there in Boston.
21:39
But he said the problem was there wasn't 10,000 people that lived in Boston.
21:44
So there was more people that came to hear George Whitefield than the entire population of the city.
21:50
But see, that's what it was like with George Whitefield, everywhere he would
21:53
go. So there was this religious revival, basically, that just blew up.
21:59
And what's amazing is that, you know, and later Whitefield commented on it,
22:03
but surprisingly enough, people that were actually getting saved,
22:08
ended up converting as Baptists.
22:11
And George Whitefield was bewildered by that. And he made a comment.
22:14
He says, man, he goes, what do you say? He goes, all my chickens are turning
22:18
into ducks because they were being baptized by immersion.
22:22
And of course, Congregationalists, they rejected full immersion and re-baptizers.
22:26
That's why Baptists were hated so much.
22:29
But during that time where he was in the United States preaching,
22:35
eventually a man by the name of Shubel Stearns would end up getting saved.
22:40
And in 1751, Shubel Stearns was ordained as a Baptist minister.
22:45
And by 1755, he and about 15 other people started the church at Sandy Creek,
22:52
North Carolina. Okay, that's 1755.
22:55
By 1757, just two years later, so the Stearns congregation swelled over to 600 members.
23:03
Now, he eventually got almost a thousand members, but then there was some persecution
23:09
that arose in North Carolina that ended up driving all the Baptists out of North Carolina
23:15
into places like Tennessee and Ohio Valley, things like that.
23:20
But by 1829, so this is after the Revolutionary War, after the signing of the
23:28
Constitution, the ratification constitution, by 1829,
23:33
there was over 1,000 distinct Baptist churches that all traced their direct lineage to Sandy Creek.
23:42
That's all within about 70 years or so?
23:46
So, yeah, if you go by 1757 to 1829, so within 70 years, and this is why,
23:53
you know, you've often, I know a lot of people have heard of the Bible Belt, right?
23:58
That's where it came from. Yeah, this is the root.
24:01
This is where it started. This is where the seed was sown. So over a thousand
24:05
distinct Baptist churches. Now, here's what's crazy.
24:08
Men that came out of this Sandy Creek Church movement, and not a lot of people
24:13
know about this revival,
24:14
but you have over a thousand Baptist churches that started across North Carolina,
24:19
Virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois.
24:23
Matter of fact, there's a missionary.
24:27
He was a missionary to the Indian nation.
24:31
I'm saying it now, and it's like off the tip of my tongue, he's one of my favorite
24:36
missionaries. Now I can't remember his name. Oh, it's going to bug me.
24:39
This is what happens when you turn old.
24:40
But anyway, this missionary went into Illinois and he was responsible.
24:46
He spent over 40 years ministering to the American Indians, trying to win their
24:51
freedoms. Matter of fact, a lot of the Indian reservations that exist today,
24:55
Isaac McCoy, there you go, Isaac McCoy.
24:58
Isaac McCoy, as a result of Isaac McCoy's efforts for 40 years,
25:03
he labored. And it was a huge amount of racism against Indians.
25:08
And of course, I mean, and the Indians didn't have a pretty history either.
25:13
They were savages. I mean, they were murdering and killing their own people.
25:16
And a lot of them would kill each other long before the white man would kill them.
25:21
But to Isaac McCoy, they were souls and he wanted to win them to the Lord.
25:25
And he started many churches.
25:27
Well, he preached the very first gospel message in a place called Chicago, Illinois.
25:34
And he started the very first Baptist church in Chicago, Illinois, Isaac McCoy.
25:38
Isaac McCoy was one of the fruits of the Sandy Creek revival.
25:44
The very first Baptist church in Nashville, the very first Baptist church in
25:50
Memphis, the very first Baptist church which in Ohio and Cleveland and all those
25:54
areas all came out of Sandy Creek.
25:58
That is really interesting. And also, while you were talking about it,
26:02
I was looking him up real quick, and you mentioned a lot of the Indian reservations today were a result of.
26:11
His efforts and his work, because he lobbied Congress multiple times to have
26:15
these lands for the Indians out there.
26:19
That we, I guess we see a remnant of that today, all through a Baptist preacher,
26:24
though. But that's cool that you can trace that lineage all the way back to Santa Creek. Right.
26:29
So it all starts with George Whitefield. Now, it's interesting,
26:32
I think there was a movie that was just recently put out, a Christian movie
26:35
about George Whitefield.
26:36
I've heard it's pretty good. I haven't seen it, but I've heard it's a pretty good movie.
26:41
And it really kind of traces George Whitefield's friendship with Benjamin Franklin.
26:45
But the point is, is because of George to Whitfield's revival and preaching,
26:49
it led to Shubel Stearns getting saved.
26:52
And Shubel Stearns starts the church at Sandy Creek, which eventually leads
26:56
to over a thousand distinct Baptist churches.
26:58
And there was even more churches for the next several decades after that.
27:03
So I would say if you come across primitive Baptist churches or old Baptist
27:08
churches in the South, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia,
27:12
West Virginia, and those areas,
27:15
I can almost guarantee it was a result of the sandy creek revival like that
27:20
influence is still seen today as a result yep of sandy creek,
27:24
so that that was the that was the basically the religious and cultural you know
27:30
environment that was created okay,
27:33
so by the that was 1757 right so in the in the mid 1760s north carolina carolina
27:39
became a huge flashpoint,
27:42
you know for kind of public outrage against british parliament and its local representatives.
27:45
Now, they were still under British rule, okay?
27:48
But during that time, you know, the British came in and they enacted several
27:52
tax policies and a lot of resistance.
27:55
And in October 31st, 1764, the denouncement of the Sugar Act,
27:59
North Carolina legislators officially protested the new tax policies.
28:03
The Stamp Act was passed in 1765.
28:06
That required British stamps on all legal documents and newspapers.
28:11
So that fueled more resentment. And then in October 19th of 1765,
28:16
Wilmington demonstration, he had over 500 people burn Lord Butte in an effigy.
28:22
So he was like a ruling governor and marking the person, basically possible
28:27
birth of the Sons of Liberty. Basically that whole movement against,
28:30
you know, the British was kind of in that 1765 area.
28:35
Area. 1767, you had the Townsend Act, placed duties on imported wine,
28:39
paper, glass, lead, and tea.
28:41
And that was, you know, this is before, you know, you had the Stamp Act, you had the Tea Act.
28:45
A lot of this stuff was playing into that part, but a lot of this was happening in North Carolina.
28:49
So November 2nd, 1769, they had the resolutions of non-importation.
28:54
So the lower houses, they passed resolutions to resist the British imports.
29:00
So the British were bringing in their goods, and they weren't taxing. It was no import tax.
29:06
But if you had to import or export taxes from the United States, those got taxed.
29:12
Well, the lower house tried to pass resolutions to resist those British imports.
29:16
Well, Governor Tryon, he was the governor of North Carolina.
29:20
He responds by dissolving the entire assembly. And Governor William Tryon,
29:27
during about 1765 is when he was appointed,
29:30
he was an absolute tyrannical dictator when it came to ruling North Carolina.
29:36
He made life virtually impossible for American citizens.
29:41
So he was kind of like the primary antagonist, obviously, to the Baptist people.
29:46
Because he hated them. Matter of fact, he would call them an enemies to society
29:51
and a scandal to common sense. That was his opinion of Baptists.
29:56
And so he didn't want Baptists or anybody in North Carolina having any kind
30:02
of independent representation.
30:04
He wanted to basically rule and reign in North Carolina.
30:09
His persecution was codified in the Marriage Act of 1766.
30:15
And you know the marriage act
30:16
of 1766 was where he criminalized marriages performed by baptist ministers,
30:22
so that means if you if you had a baptist preacher marry you and your wife he
30:27
declared it illegal with the marriage act of 1766,
30:31
so you know he just in why because he hated baptists he it's literally the only
30:37
reason he burdened the overtaxed inland farmers to fund the construction of his capital residence.
30:45
So he called it Tryon's Palace. And he raised 15,000 pounds,
30:52
British pounds, in taxes so that he can build his capital and his home.
31:00
And if anybody understands, in 1766, 15,000 British pounds was equal to $3.3 million today. Yeah.
31:10
So he forced the North Carolinians to pay taxes to build his capital and his
31:16
residence, his private residence.
31:18
And, of course, you know, this has just enraged the North Carolinians, you know.
31:23
So eventually what happened was there was a resistance movement that kind of
31:28
grew against Tryon's corrupt, you know, his corrupt.
31:33
And of course, he had his own standing army, you know, but his unequal taxation,
31:38
all this other stuff led to a group of what's called the regulators.
31:42
And they were a group largely comprised of the Baptists, surprisingly.
31:46
The Baptists were just getting so frustrated because this was their,
31:50
you know, their country, even though they were dealing with problems with the,
31:53
you know, the Congregationalists and the Puritans and stuff like that.
31:57
Here's this British governor that absolutely was making it impossible to enjoy
32:03
the fruits of their labor, their freedoms, anything.
32:06
And so one of the key leaders of the regulators was a man by the name of Captain Benjamin Merrill.
32:12
And he was a member of the Jersey Settlement Baptist Church under Pastor John Gano.
32:18
Now, if you know anything about history, John Gano happened to be one of george
32:23
washington's chaplains during the war,
32:27
and and it came out later and this is what brother grady talks about but i think it was,
32:32
george washington's one of his granddaughters or his grandson i can't remember,
32:37
wrote in one of their their journals that because george washington was an episcopalian
32:43
okay he was raised episcopalian.
32:45
Which is basically, you know, British form of the Roman Catholic Church.
32:49
But because John Gaynor was one of his favorite pastors, he ended up,
32:54
from my understanding, is he ended up getting saved and he agreed to a full immersion baptism.
32:59
And Pastor John Gaynor is the one that was, you know, allegedly baptized him.
33:03
Now, this is, again, by testimony of George Washington's granddaughter or grandchild in a journal.
33:10
So it's just interesting you have that connection. So Captain Benjamin Merrill,
33:14
a member of the Jersey Settlement Baptist Church, his pastor was Pastor John Gano.
33:19
So what eventually happened was, you know, obviously the tensions are thick.
33:23
I mean, I don't know if you can imagine. I just can't imagine that because you
33:28
got married in a Baptist church, your marriage is illegal.
33:32
It's hard to imagine that today just because of somebody's preference.
33:38
And yeah, crazy. Yeah. I mean, he just had to, I mean, this guy was a monster.
33:43
Anyway, so because of the mountain mounting tensions, it culminated in what's
33:49
called the Battle of Alamance on May 16th, 1771. So.
33:53
What happened is, you know, Captain Benjamin Merrill, there was,
33:58
I think it was several hundred to, you know, maybe a few thousand,
34:02
rose up against Tryon's organized army.
34:05
And the problem is, is they were organized. They were professional soldiers.
34:10
These men were trained to fight.
34:13
And these regulators were basically just a bunch of farmers and,
34:18
you know, men and young boys trying to protect their home. And they finally just had it.
34:25
And, you know, they were going to try to, you know, go against Tryon's tyranny.
34:29
And they were decimated by his army.
34:33
You know, what happened was, this is what eventually, most people understand
34:38
Lexington and Concord being the first battle, but the Battle of Alamance was
34:42
actually considered the true first battle of the revolution.
34:46
So if there's anything you want to remember is in May 16th, 1771,
34:51
that's where in Alamance, North Carolina, a bunch of Baptist regulators were
34:57
fighting against the tyrannical British governor.
35:00
And they ended up being killed.
35:03
And of course, after the battle, you know, he, you know, Tryon engaged in a
35:07
campaign of terror against the populace, the Baptist populace there.
35:12
So, in June 19th, 1771, that same year, six men were hanged in Hillsborough
35:19
by an order of a Tory court.
35:21
And among them was Captain Benjamin Merrill. Matter of fact,
35:23
you can go to that area and there's actually a plaque or a stone and it talks
35:28
about Benjamin Merrill and the other men that were hanged in that location.
35:33
So, they were sentenced to death because of their rebellion against the British
35:37
government there in North Carolina. Yeah.
35:39
Merrill's sentence for Merrill was exceptionally brutal because the decree was
35:45
that he would be hanged by the neck and then he would be cut down while he was still alive.
35:51
Then his bowels would be taken out and then burnt before his face.
35:56
And then his head would be cut off and his body would be divided into four quarters.
36:01
That was the sentence against Benjamin Merrill for rising up against Governor Tryon.
36:09
I'm sorry, go ahead, Alan. Oh, no, just hearing that description of his execution
36:16
just shows what a fine British gentleman, Mr. Tyron, was. Oh,
36:20
yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'll tell you.
36:23
And again, you have to put yourself in the political... I mean,
36:26
we don't think about this. I mean, we can go down the street and go to Walmart
36:29
and pick up some milk. Right.
36:31
You know what I'm saying? We don't think about the fact that there's a,
36:34
you know, he didn't, Benjamin Merrill didn't commit a crime.
36:38
You know, he didn't harm somebody. He was trying to fight for the freedom of his people.
36:42
And this is how, you know, this is obviously how he was sentenced to die.
36:45
Now, what happened because, man, Tryon was, he was just angry and it just fueled
36:53
his hatred and anger against the Baptists because of this uprising.
36:57
So he encamped his troops at several Baptist churches, including Sandy Creek,
37:03
Abbots Creek, Jersey Settlement, with the express purpose of driving the congregations
37:07
away and wasting their plantations. So he destroyed their homes.
37:11
He destroyed their churches. He burned their crops down.
37:14
He drove men, women, and children out of North Carolina on foot.
37:20
So these people had to pack whatever they had on their back and they headed
37:24
into Tennessee to get away from North Carolina.
37:26
That's why, you know, Sandy Creek, which was almost at a thousand,
37:30
you know, a thousand person congregation dwindled down to 15 people or less.
37:35
So think about it. If anything that kindles the fire of freedom and independence,
37:40
aside from taxation and other things that the British government was imposing,
37:45
was things like this that were targeting people that were targeting the British
37:50
government or tyrants targeting the Baptists specifically and destroying their
37:55
homes and destroying their ability to live. And they had no rights.
38:00
They had no rights as British citizens either.
38:03
And, of course, the irony is their Protestant brethren who persecuted them legally.
38:10
As far as they were concerned, these were American people being persecuted.
38:15
So despite the religious differences, how dare this governor,
38:21
this British governor do? So that's why it started sparking that fuel to the American Revolution.
38:27
So that was the first battle. And eventually, four years later,
38:30
of course, Lexington, you know, kind of further ignited it, right?
38:35
And of course, you know, that defeat of Alamance, it didn't,
38:38
obviously, it didn't extinguish the desire for liberty, kind of fueled it.
38:42
It spread revolutionary fires throughout the colony. So historian William Cathcart.
38:47
He writes later on that the broader colonial population learned the principles
38:51
of resisting tyranny by watching the Baptists, who had already been standing
38:56
for religious and civil liberty for over 140 years in this country.
39:00
So the Baptist documents, such as the Portsmouth Compact in 1638 and the Rhode Island Charter,
39:06
of Religious Freedom, they established the precedent for a republic with complete
39:11
religious liberty long before the national movement across the state started.
39:16
So, you know, what fueled the Declaration of Independence, the wording in it,
39:21
the formulation of the Constitution,
39:23
the fiery sermons that were being preached behind the pulpits across America
39:27
during the Revolutionary War, this was all fueled by the same principles that
39:32
the Baptists had been preaching and espousing for over 140 years.
39:36
There's people like John Leland that understood that when it's because of him
39:40
and his congregation in Virginia. You talked about this in our Baptist Distinct series.
39:47
Guys like him understood that 140 years of Baptists were being persecuted.
39:52
Which is the reason why we've got a Constitution today.
39:55
Yep, that's absolutely right.
39:57
And so that's why when you think about that decimation of the Baptists and them
40:02
being driven out of North Carolina, and again, kind of starting to fuel those
40:06
fires across the country, you had the revolution.
40:10
As far as the revolution, Baptists were among the earliest and most vocal supporters
40:15
of the Continental Congress and the Warren Association, the Philadelphia Baptist
40:19
Association, declaring it the Supreme Court of the colonies in 1774.
40:24
So there was Baptist involvement that was starting to support the American Revolution and the cause.
40:31
And so most people don't realize it, Well, why do you think that happened?
40:34
Because here's a bunch of Baptists that see freedom. They see light at the end
40:38
of the tunnel, that this could be possibly the country that they were looking for.
40:43
They can finally live in a country where they can freely worship God without
40:48
fear of reprisal, persecution, imprisonment, right? Taxation.
40:53
So it was crazy. So obviously the Baptists that were driven out of,
40:59
you know, they were driven out over the mountains. They had to go over through
41:02
the Appalachian Mountains into Tennessee and.
41:05
Because of Tryon's persecution, they settled in what would become Tennessee and Kentucky.
41:10
These pioneers, so you had men like Tidon Lane, who organized the Buffalo Ridge
41:16
Baptist Church in 1779, which I believe was the first Baptist church in the state of Tennessee.
41:23
He spent years defending their families and lands from the British Allied Tribal Forces.
41:27
So they went over the mountains, and what eventually happened is a lot of these
41:31
men that escaped Alamance, North Carolina, going into Tennessee and Kentucky,
41:37
that was some rough country.
41:39
You and I, we spent one Christmas there. Remember when we went up to go see
41:43
the Ark up there in Kentucky?
41:45
But you remember the country. You remember Nashville and then northern Tennessee
41:49
going into Ohio and Kentucky, the mountains, the forest.
41:54
Very remote. And, of course, you can only imagine what it was like in the 1700s.
42:00
I suspect it hasn't really changed much, at least from the way it looks today.
42:04
It probably hasn't changed much since it's a rough environment if you don't
42:08
have a vehicle and modern-day conveniences.
42:12
That's right. And then, of course, that forced migration. There was over 1,500,
42:18
Baptist families that had to leave the Piedmont Valley to escape Trion in North Carolina.
42:25
And that forced migration inadvertently, it seeds the frontier with these hardened,
42:30
independent families who had to learn how to survive and fight in that rugged terrain.
42:35
And of course, those exiled regulators, right, they'll become eventually the
42:39
legendary overmountain men that would lead to the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.
42:45
So we're skipping over Lexington and Concord, and we're going to go to the next
42:49
battle, which is the Battle of Kings Mountain.
42:51
So the Battle of Kings Mountain represented a huge turning point in the war.
42:56
Because, you know, if you can imagine, here's this massive thousands upon thousands
43:02
of soldiers and Hessian mercenaries, these German mercenaries that the British government employed.
43:09
Professional soldiers, very experienced men of war coming in.
43:15
And, you know, you can tell, you know, here's a bunch of American farmers and
43:19
ranch hands and, you know, leathersmiths and people like that.
43:23
Like, who are these people to fight against, you know, an experienced professional army?
43:29
And it could be daunting.
43:31
So, when this Battle of Kings Mountain happened, because of the victory that
43:36
occurred there, it ended up fueling the fire for the rest of the colonies,
43:41
realizing, hey, we might actually have a chance, you know,
43:45
to actually win this war. And so...
43:49
Battle Kings Mountain, what happened, you had a boat, mostly Baptist contingent.
43:53
So a lot of these men and these families, those 1,500 Baptist families that
43:57
had to leave North Carolina, ended up becoming this group of what's called the Overmountain Men.
44:04
So following, you know, the threat from, there was a British Colonel Patrick Ferguson, you know.
44:10
He had a bunch of different military, you know, men installed in like basically
44:15
forts and camps throughout, you know, Virginia, North Carolina,
44:19
South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, those areas.
44:22
Well, he ended up getting threats over and over again, Colonel Patrick Ferguson
44:26
and his contingent, with these overmountain men. So these small groups of kind
44:32
of like guerrilla forces, right?
44:34
You know, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, where all these Baptists
44:37
ended up migrating into, they started becoming a pain in his side.
44:41
So, and again, there was largely a Baptist group of frontiersmen.
44:45
They ended up walking nearly nonstop for 11 days to reach Kings Mountain.
44:51
And this is where Colonel Patrick Ferguson ended up deploying his men on the
44:55
top of a very steep mountain.
44:57
And they said it was so steep that it represented like an upside down ice cream cone.
45:02
And he figured because he was up at the top of the mountain,
45:05
that gave him, you know, a tactical advantage.
45:08
And so what ended up happening is you had these men that ended up marching over the mountains and.
45:14
What was it? Oh, yeah. They ended up doing a four-pronged attack,
45:18
the over-mountain men, against the British forces of Ferguson at the top of the mountain.
45:23
It was a simultaneous attack.
45:25
So they mustered the men, you know, from, again, all these Baptists,
45:30
and not just Baptists, but a large portion of them were Baptists.
45:33
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee,
45:36
they all gathered at the Sycamore Shoals there at Kings Mountain.
45:40
And they ended up marching again for 11 days. And then what happened in,
45:45
this four-pronged attack, these untrained militia, these untrained mountain
45:50
men, these rough frontiers men, basically, you can imagine like Davy Crockett and those types of men.
45:56
These are like the kind of men you think about who live up in the hollers,
46:00
you know, in the mountains and the Appalachians, people that,
46:03
you know, you would be afraid to go camping at night around those areas.
46:07
This is what these people were.
46:09
And there was a four-pronged attack. So they attacked Ferguson on four sides simultaneously.
46:17
And they ended up, this untrained militia captured the mountain and killed Colonel Ferguson in the battle.
46:24
The victory was so unique because it was achieved without the leadership of
46:27
the state or the Continental Line. There was no Continental soldiers involved.
46:31
It was just a bunch of frontiersmen.
46:33
And again, mostly Baptists, relying instead on the flesh and the muscle and
46:37
sinew of the integrated frontiersmen force, right?
46:39
The casualties, the numbers is pretty crazy. The British ended up with 244 killed,
46:46
163 wounded, and 688 captured.
46:51
And the Patriots, These frontiersmen only lost 29 people.
46:56
Unreal. And these are, again, these are untrained frontiersmen against highly
47:01
regulated professional soldiers of the British Army. And...
47:06
After the, obviously after the battle, oh, go ahead, go ahead.
47:09
Oh, no, I was going to say this is, it was different too for the British forces
47:13
because, yeah, they were a professional army, but they were fighting against
47:17
guerrilla forces, a different way of fighting. Right. You know, these are mountain men.
47:21
They hunted in the woods. They survived in the woods. They're also sharpshooters.
47:25
And there was just, it was just a lopsided victory.
47:29
But yeah, it's the beginning of the end of British rule in the colonies was
47:33
that battle. That's what a lot of historians, you said, considered that battle
47:38
the turning point of the war, right?
47:41
And there's one thing I want to add to you about Ferguson, Patrick Ferguson.
47:45
He made a statement, I guess because of his overconfidence of his army and his
47:51
professionalism, saying that his defense was so strong.
47:54
And I'm just, I can't remember exactly the statement that he said his defense
47:58
was so strong or something to that effect that God himself could not move him from that mountain.
48:04
Yep, that's right. Or move them out of that mountain. So that was actually a true statement.
48:08
And that was true as far as the outcome because he is still there on that mountain.
48:12
His grave is actually on King's Mountain to this day. And you can go and see it.
48:17
And what's interesting is those over-mountain men, a lot of them were the exiled
48:23
survivors of the Battle of Alamance, those families that were driven out of North Carolina.
48:29
So they fueled a fire in those people, especially those Baptists,
48:33
that came face-to-face with this type of tyranny and persecution.
48:37
And, of course, it was just fueling the American spirit, you know,
48:42
especially for freedom.
48:44
And so what happened, what's interesting is the Continental Congress is meeting.
48:48
They have no clue that this Battle of Kings Mountain even occurred.
48:53
And what ended up happening is they came and they went to the Continental Congress
48:58
and told them about, I think, one of the survivors,
49:01
or one of the men that was involved in it, one of those mountain men,
49:04
ended up showing up at Philadelphia and told the story of the Battle of Kings Mountain.
49:09
And Thomas Jefferson wrote the joyful enunciation of the turn of the tide of
49:15
success. He goes of that turn of the tide of success.
49:18
So he, you know, basically Thomas Jefferson was saying that because of the battle,
49:23
at Kings Mountain, that overwhelming defeat of professional soldiers by frontiersmen,
49:28
it shattered the Tory recruitment because they were trying to recruit the Tories
49:32
from American citizens.
49:34
Corn, it checked Cornwallis because he was trying to recruit more soldiers,
49:39
you know, and try to disrupt, you know, the American involvement in trying to protect themselves.
49:44
And of course, that began the domino effect that eventually led to the loss at Yorktown.
49:49
It's amazing, honestly. It's such a cool story.
49:53
What some people don't know is the Baptist military and the clerical contributions
49:58
during this time, they were not only represented in the militia,
50:02
but they also served as dedicated advocates and leaders throughout the war.
50:07
Historians note that no class of people was more devoted to the principles of
50:12
the revolution or more prompt to march to the field of battle than the Baptists of Virginia.
50:18
Matter of fact, there was many of the Virginian Baptists that ended up becoming
50:22
chaplains in the armies, but also was part of the ranks.
50:27
And I think it was George Washington that had noted—I know Brother Grady mentions
50:32
it in his book—but the Baptists were noted for their amazing contributions to
50:38
the American Revolution.
50:40
Baptist preachers, they served as chaplains.
50:44
Some of the notable chaplains were John Gano, who we mentioned,
50:46
Hezekiah Smith, Charles Thompson.
50:49
The history of the Baptist people during the American Revolution is one—I think
50:53
Charles Thompson, he wrote this.
50:54
He says, the history of the Baptist people during the American Revolution is
50:57
one of relentless commitment to the separation of church and state and the absolute
51:02
necessity of liberty, principles that eventually moved from the fringes of persecuted
51:07
congregations to the heart of the American founding.
51:09
And, of course, you know, after the Battle of Alamance, you know,
51:13
eventually you had the Declaration of Independence was signed.
51:16
It was actually signed, you know, four years prior to it.
51:20
And then, of course, 1776, General Washington crossed the Delaware.
51:24
And then eventually, a year after the Battle of Kings Mountain,
51:29
1781 is where Cornwallis surrenders after the Battle of Yorktown to the American and French forces.
51:37
And of course, eight years later, the Constitution is finally ratified.
51:41
So what's cool is that when you think about the domino effect,
51:46
right, from these frontiersmen to their ranches and their farms to Yorktown,
51:52
all of that started with the Battle of Alamance and the persecution that the
51:57
Baptists, particularly the Baptists, you know, were persecuted.
52:02
And, of course, that whole wartime loyalty that the Baptists became highly respected.
52:07
So people like John Leland, that he influenced Madison and Jefferson,
52:11
Isaac Backus, some of the things that he was talking about, the persecution
52:14
that basically revealed and exposed the absolute hypocrisy
52:19
of the congregations and the Puritan churches against their Baptist brethren.
52:23
And eventually what happened, right? The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
52:27
and the First Amendment was birthed by, you know, John Jefferson and Madison.
52:31
When they wrote that, they were highly influenced by Baptists.
52:36
So when people talk about the freedoms that we enjoy today, especially, you know.
52:41
Surprisingly enough, a lot of our Protestant brethren today,
52:44
you know, a lot of flag-waving religious right-wing conservatives today
52:49
are not Baptists, but they do not understand the specific contributions of the
52:55
Baptists that led to the freedoms that we have.
52:58
So I just want to encourage our listeners, hey, when you think about July 4th,
53:03
the 250th anniversary, we ought to think about specifically what our Baptist
53:09
brethren, how they bled and died to give us these freedoms.
53:13
They suffered 140 years of persecutions in this country.
53:17
And they're the ones that fueled the fire and provided the seed and the soil
53:23
that, you know, the American liberties and the constitution and everything that
53:27
our forefathers espoused was born out of Baptist principles.
53:32
I mean, if you're sitting here listening to this right now, if this doesn't
53:36
make you interested in history, especially U.S. history, Baptist history,
53:40
how it's intertwined, I don't know what will.
53:43
But this is the kind of stuff that you don't hear every day,
53:47
but is so significant to what we're able to enjoy when it comes to liberties and freedoms.
53:54
This is what distinguishes us from any other nation.
53:57
This is what makes us different. And that's something that we can celebrate,
54:03
especially with July 4th coming up, and to really sit and reflect on these things.
54:07
It's really, really amazing.
54:09
And here's the most interesting thing, too, about it, is that this is only scraping
54:13
the surface of some of this history that has led up.
54:16
Obviously, these are momentous events, the Battle of Alamance leading all the
54:20
way up to King's Mountain and the surrender of Cornwallis, all the way up into
54:25
the ratification of our Constitution.
54:28
But in that time and that time period and how God used certain men and Baptist
54:33
preachers and even people like George Washington, you could see the hand of
54:37
providence is just all over the place.
54:40
It's really quite amazing. That's where Bill Grady's book, you know,
54:43
I couldn't recommend it enough, where it does cover a lot of those really,
54:48
really fascinating pieces of history.
54:51
And it's just, it's what gets us really interested.
54:54
It's what got us interested in history. You know, our stepdad obviously had
54:59
gotten us interested, but just stuff like this, just fascinating.
55:03
I can't see why somebody wouldn't be just amazed about the events of history
55:07
and providence that's been involved.
55:10
Yep there's a.
55:12
Oh, man, there's a there's so many stories, especially in the,
55:16
you know, the revolution.
55:18
But one of the things that, you know, I remember when we were in Boston,
55:22
we ended up had a chance to go in to the back to Bunker Hill. Right.
55:27
And that's where, you know, the battle, there was an entrenchment there.
55:31
There was there was fighting. I can't remember the British forces had moved
55:34
into the bay. They were bombing, you know, that area.
55:38
And what was amazing is there was a fort there and on Breed's Hill is where the fort was.
55:45
And the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was adjacent to it. What's interesting
55:49
is that Breed's Hill is actually where the, I think the, I can't remember which,
55:53
it's either or, I don't have the story in front of me yet.
55:56
But there was a Baptist preacher that ended up going to the top,
56:00
I think it was the top of Breed's Hill.
56:03
And there was, and he prayed the entire time during that battle,
56:08
just like, cause it was the story,
56:10
you know, like Moses, whenever they were, they were fighting Canaan and Aaron
56:14
and them, they were holding up the arms of, of Moses as he was praying.
56:18
Cause the Bible says that whenever his hands would fall down,
56:21
the enemy would take, you know, they would overcome the Israelites.
56:25
But whenever his hands were stayed up, the Israelites would, would receive victory.
56:30
Well, there was, again, I think it was John Leland wrote about it,
56:34
but he talked about, and some of the other Baptist historians,
56:37
I can't remember the name of it.
56:39
Maybe we could do a story on it, but it's just interesting because there was
56:41
another Baptist preacher that through the power of his prayer,
56:46
you know, that they believe that they won the battle of Bunker Hill.
56:50
And that was another significant turning point in 1775 there in Boston.
56:55
So it's just, I don't know. there's just so many contributions and things that we can point out,
57:01
you know, that just, again, it's Baptist after Baptist after Baptist,
57:05
you know, these people were desperate to be able to worship as they pleased
57:10
without the government dictating to them how they should worship.
57:14
And you know what, Alan, I was just thinking about this.
57:17
I mean, I just, it gets me fueled up because I just, I think about the sacrifices
57:22
that our forefathers had to pay.
57:25
And now you have a stinking law in Canada where it's illegal to preach certain parts of the Bible.
57:33
Well, this is part of the distinction that I was implying is like,
57:37
oh, they have freedom of speech. They've got freedoms just like we do.
57:41
We're no different. This is the difference.
57:43
It's that First Amendment and the purpose behind the First Amendment is the
57:48
liberty of conscience. They don't have that up there in Canada.
57:50
Do they have liberty of conscience up there?
57:53
That's the foundation of true freedom. No, they don't have that.
57:57
And so since it's in their mind, that freedom was given by the government.
58:02
If it's given by the government, it could be taken away by the government. That's right.
58:06
That's right. So that's the difference if you're hearing that argument like,
58:10
well, you know, these countries have freedom.
58:13
I mean, even in China, you have the freedom to worship. But when it comes to,
58:19
the freedom to believe and say what you want, forget it.
58:22
You don't have that. You don't have true freedom of conscience.
58:24
So that's going to be the distinction. You've got to think about that.
58:28
But Canada, you'll be fined, I think, depending on what you say and preach,
58:32
out of the Bible, you can be fined, and I think you can even go to prison.
58:37
I know there's stories about that. We could probably look up.
58:40
But that's happening right now. It's happening today, just north of us.
58:44
And a lot of people don't realize that.
58:46
Where people think that they have freedom of speech. Yeah, they don't.
58:52
Not truly, they don't. Yeah, I think it was a hate crime. I think it's Bill,
58:58
I'm looking at it, it's Charlie C9, and it says that.
59:03
The new legislation alters how Canada handles hate speech and religious texts in the following ways.
59:09
Removal of the religious defense, the act which received royal assent,
59:14
removed a long-standing provision
59:17
in the Canadian Criminal Code Section 319 that protected individuals who stated
59:23
opinions in good faith based on a religious text.
59:26
So they removed that. They no longer have that protection.
59:30
So critics, including religious and legal groups, warn that the removal of this
59:34
explicit statutory defense opens the door for certain biblical verses to be
59:40
prosecuted as willful promotion of hatred,
59:44
depending on the context in which they're shared.
59:46
So even though that they overtly say, no, we're not trying to ban it.
59:50
The problem is, is that section 319 in the Canadian Criminal Code said that,
59:55
hey, you cannot be persecuted by, you know, by quoting a religious text on good
1:00:01
faith because you're a Christian that's been removed.
1:00:04
So that protection doesn't exist, which means there is a logical conclusion
1:00:08
to that. It can be, there can be prosecution and there is no protection for it.
1:00:13
And so essentially, yes, the Bible can be marked and tagged as hate speech at some level.
1:00:20
Meaning that you don't have the freedom to say or speak your mind or even read
1:00:26
from the Bible in a pulpit in Canada.
1:00:29
That's right. That's right. That's insane. That's today.
1:00:33
Man, there's so much stuff that I don't know. You know, Alan,
1:00:34
did you hear about the, you know, they made it mandatory to read the Bible in the state of Texas?
1:00:40
No. So, yeah, that was recently passed by, and now it sounds as,
1:00:45
you know, to our Christian brethren, they're like, oh, praise the Lord for that.
1:00:48
But here's a question to think about.
1:00:53
If you were in New York and the mayor there said, hey, we're making it mandatory
1:00:58
to read the Quran, how would people feel about that? Yeah.
1:01:02
This is exactly what our Baptist brethren were trying to get away from.
1:01:05
Right. It sounds good on the surface when it comes to Christian nationalism,
1:01:09
the whole Christian nation thing. We used to be a Christian nation.
1:01:11
When you get back to a Christian nation, that can be further from the truth.
1:01:16
Very dangerous speech. Yep. I do not.
1:01:21
Baptists should never let Christian nationalism and Christian nation escape their lips.
1:01:27
That's just, to me, that just exhibits ignorance of our Baptist history.
1:01:33
Now, I'll say this, you know, Brother Randy Keener on Unmovable Apologetics,
1:01:39
he wrote an article on the Watchman's Warning and he states this.
1:01:42
He goes, I am a nationalist and I'm
1:01:44
a Christian, but I'm not a Christian nationalist. There's a distinction.
1:01:49
It's an important one. Yep.
1:01:51
But anyway, so that, so, you know, ladies and gentlemen, I would just encourage
1:01:56
you learn American history, pick up brother William Grady's book,
1:02:02
you know, what God hath wrought.
1:02:04
That's a great, it's an easy read. It's a thick book, but I'm going to tell
1:02:08
you, I remember I was in high school, I got that thing in my hands and I probably,
1:02:12
it was, I think it was like 500, 600 pages.
1:02:16
I think I read that in a week. It was just so enticing because I'd learned so
1:02:21
much history that I didn't learn in school. And you know what I mean?
1:02:26
In 10 years of school, public school.
1:02:29
It's what they don't tell you, but it's the most fascinating part of history.
1:02:33
Man, I loved it. It was awesome. Yeah, I could have recommended more.
1:02:36
And I could have recommended more now, so if you want to pick it up and over the weekend.
1:02:40
Celebration of our 250th anniversary of July of our Declaration of Independence, pick that up.
1:02:47
And one other thing I'd recommend, too, is pick up a constitution and read through it.
1:02:52
Read the Declaration of Independence, read the Bill of Rights,
1:02:55
now knowing with this knowledge where that came from and what the influence
1:03:01
was behind that. I'm going to look up the—so we're going to add it,
1:03:04
Alan, let's add into the description.
1:03:07
So we'll add the books, right? Well, it's American Crimson Red.
1:03:10
I'll send you the information for that. We want to put the link for What God
1:03:14
is Wrought by Bill Grady.
1:03:16
And then there is a book put out by a Christian group, a political group that
1:03:21
tries to teach the Constitution.
1:03:23
And they actually have a book. It's a copy of the Constitution.
1:03:26
On one page, on the left-hand page, is the raw text of the Constitution.
1:03:31
And on the right-hand side is a commentary explaining what the Constitution is referring to.
1:03:37
So it's actually a really good book educating you on how to understand the Constitution.
1:03:43
And I do, I think every Bible-believing Baptist preacher in America,
1:03:49
every Bible-believing Baptist Christian in America should know their Constitution. You should read it.
1:03:56
You should understand it. You should teach it to your kids.
1:03:59
Listen, I mean, I'm going to tell you all the time, we're Bible believers first, right?
1:04:03
But when it comes to, like, here's my argument.
1:04:08
Paul, whenever he was in prison by the Romans in Acts chapter 16.
1:04:14
And they basically said, hey, you know, did you buy your freedom,
1:04:19
whatever? He said he was a Roman citizen.
1:04:22
And the guy said, well, I obtained my citizenship through payment.
1:04:26
And you know what Paul said? He goes, I'm free born. I was born free.
1:04:31
Paul appealed to his Roman citizenship to further his ability to preach the gospel.
1:04:38
And I'm going to tell you the best way, and I'm a street preacher by heart,
1:04:41
and I'm going to tell you every preacher on the street ought to know that constitution,
1:04:46
because I'm going to tell you, there's friends of mine, they were just at the
1:04:49
FIFA games up in Atlanta, and they were being pushed off of public streets by
1:04:54
the Atlanta Police Department.
1:04:56
And the Atlanta Police Department, when they asked them, what law am I breaking?
1:05:02
You know what the Atlanta Police Department said? There's no law.
1:05:06
The sponsors of the FIFA game just don't want you here. That's what they said.
1:05:10
And America, this is Atlanta, Georgia.
1:05:13
And friends of mine that were out there that know how to push back and challenge
1:05:18
police officers, don't be afraid of them.
1:05:20
The problem with police officers, they're not trained in the Constitution.
1:05:24
They're trained in their local city ordinances.
1:05:27
And they will, all day long, they will override your constitutional rights for
1:05:35
a city ordinance, because that's where they get their paycheck from,
1:05:38
city council and the city taxes and so forth and so on.
1:05:41
So a lot of the, especially lower ranked police officers don't understand the
1:05:48
importance of your civil liberties that are contained in the First amendment.
1:05:53
So they will stop you all day long. They'll say you're soliciting,
1:05:57
even though you're giving free tracks out, you're not selling anything.
1:06:00
You're preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're telling you
1:06:03
that you don't have a permit to do it. Are you kidding me? Yeah.
1:06:06
Does that sound familiar? Yeah.
1:06:08
But here's the thing, Alan, those types of city ordinances will go unchallenged,
1:06:14
because American Christians refuse to exercise their first amendment rights.
1:06:20
Yeah, it's a shame what we're seeing today. But yeah, it's the ignorance.
1:06:23
If you want to be patriotic, too, a lot of people think, well,
1:06:25
I'm patriotic because I'm wearing a flag shirt. I got flags in my yard.
1:06:31
That's fine. But if you want to be patriotic, truly.
1:06:33
Know the Constitution, know the Declaration of Independence,
1:06:36
know your Bible, because it's where those principles come from.
1:06:39
And put it into practice. And put it into practice. You're a patriot.
1:06:43
So, yeah, with that, I think that's a great way to wrap it up and dedicating
1:06:48
this episode to the 250th year anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
1:06:55
It's good to sit down and just reflect on it and the freedoms that we enjoy today.
1:07:00
We are, I think we're still the greatest nation on earth. I believe that we
1:07:04
had been blessed historically and how God has used this nation to be a focal point for.
1:07:12
The Great Awakening. And God used those events and also used— The worldwide
1:07:16
missions. Missions. The publication of the Bible, the American Bible Society was actually run.
1:07:24
As a government project for almost 100 years.
1:07:29
You know, we produce more missionaries around the world than any other country.
1:07:33
We print more Bibles than any other country did in history.
1:07:38
Anyway, there's just, yeah, I mean, there's a reason.
1:07:41
I don't think it's just because of the fact that we're Americans,
1:07:43
but I think it's for the fact that we're also, we were the first ones to recognize the state of Israel.
1:07:49
We allowed the Jews to escape Roman Catholic persecution in Europe.
1:07:56
And we allowed them places here in the United States to freely worship.
1:08:00
Matter of fact, the oldest Baptist church in America is right across the street
1:08:06
from the second oldest synagogue. The first oldest synagogue was burned down.
1:08:10
The second oldest synagogue in America is right across the street in Rhode Island
1:08:15
from the oldest Baptist church.
1:08:18
Not a coincidence because Rhode Island was the only colony that would allow, that had 100%.
1:08:26
Freedom of religion. They're the ones that put out that charter,
1:08:30
you know, the charter, you know, the Rhode Island charter of religious liberty.
1:08:35
Before the Constitution, before the First Amendment, the Rhode Island charter
1:08:40
and the Portsmouth Compact were the only two documents in the history
1:08:46
of the world that granted absolute, complete religious liberty.
1:08:51
And it was because it It was a Baptist colony. Let that sink in.
1:08:56
Yeah, imagine that. All right, man. Well, I think this is another great episode
1:09:01
to cover right up my alley, personally. I know it's up yours,
1:09:04
too, when it comes to the history, U.S. history and Baptist history.
1:09:10
It all weaves in together. I hope folks that have been listening has enjoyed the series.
1:09:16
We covered this a little bit in the Baptist acrostic. but in this one in general
1:09:20
we'll share out the books and put it in description or the book names and put it in our description
1:09:25
so that way some folks can have resources again you can find the constitution
1:09:30
anywhere you can look it up on the internet or get the little booklets get them
1:09:33
for really cheap just good to,
1:09:35
have around and maybe read on July 4th so it'll be a and just a reminder too.
1:09:42
July 4th Saturday is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence It's,
1:09:48
Read it. It takes less than 10 minutes to read it. But if you can, and we'll put it,
1:09:53
if you go to our Substack page, the most recent one, I put a challenge out there
1:09:58
to take 10 minutes this week and just listen to the Declaration of Independence being read.
1:10:04
It's a great, if anybody knows Max McLean, he's a great, you know,
1:10:08
he's kind of got that Shakespearean voice, but he reads the Constitution and
1:10:13
there's like really nice patriotic music in the background. It's actually very emotional.
1:10:18
And I would please, I would recommend anybody this week, take 10 minutes and
1:10:23
listen to the Declaration of Independence being read. Right on.
1:10:27
All right. Well, thanks, man. Well, we'll see everybody next time and happy 4th of July.