Finding the Founders

Is the "separation of church and state" a Constitutional idea? Was it the prevailing sentiment of the Founding Fathers? Or has an obscure phrase been taken out of context, twisted, and abused?

What is a conscientious voter to do when the candidate they like best seems to have no shot? I offer some thoughts on this election day.

II Chronicles 7:14 is commonly quoted by Christians in regard to our country's political or economic future. But does it's context support that? Is God's promise to the people of Israel translatable to 21st-century America? Why or why not? And, either way, what should be our response?

Examining Hezekiah and Nehemiah, two men featured in the Old Testament, we find an example to follow and one to avoid as we face challenges and threats in our world.

It's time to do away with the left-right political spectrum and replace it with a target with an objective standard as the bullseye.

Ever hear anyone respond to the current state of our country by saying "The only hope for America is revival" or "Well, God's in control"? In this episode, I offer a "yeah, but . . ." response to those comments.

Danger is the price we pay for liberty, and at times the price is steep. But the price we pay for a lack of liberty is far steeper, and the danger far greater.

Celebrating Independence Day can feel hollow considering how far America has strayed from our Founding Fathers' original intent. Should we ignore our country's faults and celebrate freedom in name only? Should we spend the day lamenting what was and what is not? I say neither. Instead, let's embrace the Spirit of '76 by praying daily for America, getting involved where we can, and cherishing the liberty and the opportunity we still have to win the fight for America.

Nathan Hale was America's first spy, a man famous for a single sentence spoken before his death. But there was far more to Hale than how he died; there was how and why he lived, attributes we would do well to emulate today.

Is the American flag just a piece of cloth? Is paying it honor and respect an empty gesture or, worse yet, one that borders on idolatry? Or is the fabric that makes up "Old Glory" symbolic of something much greater, something worth living and dying for?

As we examine other social spheres created by God (family, church, labor) we see that there are obvious limits on the scope of authority within them. Civil government is typically viewed differently, but should it be?

The Bible is clear that we are to submit to civil government. Is that an absolute, or are there instances when, biblically or constitutionally, we are not obligated to obey? Put another way, are there limits on the scope of civil government's authority?

As we approach the Memorial Day weekend, join me in taking a few minutes to reflect upon the sacrifices made by our fellow Americans throughout the centuries so that we might enjoy the blessings of liberty, and to consider how we might live a life that honors that sacrifice.

When we talk about freedom and standing up for our rights, we typically get pushback from within the Christian community. Three clarifications might help us understand why that is and why we shouldn't let that pushback deter us.

Scripture tells us to submit to the government, and doesn't add an exclusion clause if government goes bad. So the Founding Fathers must have been wrong when they said the people have not only the right but also the duty to alter or abolish a government that becomes destructive, right? Duty is often considered a dirty word to Christians, but it and another four-letter word, love, shape our answer.

What is the purpose of civil government, and where does it get its authority? According to the Founding Fathers, its role should be small and precise, and we the people are its rightful masters. But how does that work? And is that a viable belief when compared to Scripture?

The Founding Fathers declared that we have a God-given right to pursue happiness. That doesn't sound like a biblical idea . . . at first. But once we explore their definition of happiness and what the pursuit of it entails, we'll see that it is in fact a right that is biblically supported.

How do we define liberty? It's an important question, because certain definitions don't merit laying our lives down for freedom, nor can we find a biblical case that we have a right to such freedom. The Founding Fathers understood the true essence of liberty, what it entailed and why life without that liberty wasn't worth living, and recognized man's universal right to that liberty. But does the Bible agree?

The Founding Fathers believed that liberty was a gift from God, that it needed to be guarded or it would be lost forever, and that it was worth preserving. In this episode, we explore those three beliefs to understand why the Founders valued liberty above all else.

The basis for all our other rights is the right to life. While it is a simple concept to understand, that doesn't mean it is without nuance. Does supporting a right to life mean opposing war and capital punishment? If we don't advocate for quality of life, are we merely pro-birth instead of pro-life? Is there more to life than the physical, scientific definition? And do the Founding Fathers' beliefs about the right to life match Scripture?

The Founding Fathers believed that all men are entitled to certain rights and privileges. What specific rights did they have in mind? On whose authority are those rights granted? And what is the extent of those rights? We owe it to ourselves and each other to understand these concepts so essential to the idea that is America. More than that, knowing them, we have an obligation to apply them.

The Founding Fathers said that all men (and they meant all people) were created equal. But how do we reconcile that with the fact that women weren't allowed to vote in early America, or that slavery existed for nearly a hundred years thereafter . . . and many of the Founders owned slaves themselves? I address those challenges, and also examine what the Founders meant by equality. There's one word (and one concept) at the root of the meaning, a word and concept many deny today, but one that is deeply imbedded in Scripture, which validates the Founders' claim.

The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence makes several truth claims with huge repercussions. If what the Founders claimed to be true is in fact false, the American ideal crumbles away and our country isn't worth any more than the geography that delineates it. But if the Founders were right, if their truth claims are proven true, then America is the greatest place on earth, and Christians ought to be more enthusiastic about it than anyone. Join me as we start to examine the Founders' claims, holding them up to the ultimate source of truth, the Bible.

The popular narrative today says that the Founding Fathers were irreligious men who, inspired by worldly ideas, formed a secular nation. This episode confronts that lie with just a small sample of quotes from the Founders, revealing that they were deeply religious men who held a Judeo-Christian worldview and built America upon biblical ideas. But don't take my word for it; take theirs!

Before I get too deep into this podcast, I want to head off potential misconceptions by addressing the interplay between Christian faith and American patriotism. Are they interchangeable terms? Some people use them as such. Or are they completely incompatible? Many Christians act like it. Join me as I define these terms and examine how Christian faith and American patriotism connect . . . and how they do not.

In this episode, I explain what I mean by "Finding the Founders" and introduce the listener to me, my methods, and my motivation.

Join me on the Finding the Founders Podcast!