Transcript

America's Providential History Podcast explores seven ideas that have transformed world

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. last week we began what will be a series on seven ideas that have transformed the world and made America a success. And the first idea that we looked at, we examined the concept. The Bible teaches this seed principle, that the type of seed you plant determines the fruit that's produced. This is true naturally, and it's true in the area of ideas as well. And that America became the most free and prosperous nation in history because it started with good seeds. But there have been other nations, of course, that have had good seeds planted within their society. And as we explored this, good seed comes from the Bible. The Bible is the source of truth. So each of these seven ideas that we are examining are like seeds. And that we need to take these seeds today and plant them in our life, our family, our culture, our community, our institutions, so that we can produce good fruit. Now, the first ideas, the Christian idea of God. The Christian idea of God and theology. And we saw how our view of God is the most important thing about us because we become like whom or what we worship. And we saw some unique aspects of the Christian view of God as revealed in the Bible, have impact not only personally, but in society at large. And it's the Christian view of God that has produced flourishing and liberty personally, but also within society and government and economic policies and other things. The second idea then, that has produced great flourishing is the Christian idea of man. First one, the Christian idea of God. Number two, the Christian idea of man. Who is man? Are we fundamentally good? Are we mere bodies? Are we immoral? Ah, just amoral matter. That's just a chance product of millions of years of, evolution, as one writer wrote years ago, from Gu to you by way of the zoo. Just a chance happening of molecules coming together and forming us. So are we merely amoral matter where there's no right and wrong? Are we just like animals? Just like other animals, but grown up, you know, who are we, you know, leaders and governments that have had a pagan view of man just in the past century. In the 20th century alone killed 130 million of their own citizens. You know, the Communist Russia under Stalin and Lenin, Communist China under Mao, the Kim family and the Koreas, and men like Mugabe and Africa, you know, they've killed tens of millions of their own Citizens during that time. Why is that? Because they had a pagan view of man. They saw man as a just a chance product of matter that has come together and it has seen no value in man at all. You know, a dozen or so years ago, there was a professor at the University of Texas, a biologist, a gentleman that received an award from other academics, for, you know, an award for achievement, being a good professor. And here is a man, when he was giving his acceptance speech, from other academic individuals, he made the statement. He was just talking about, you know, there's too many people in the world. Human population is going to destroy us. We're using up all our resources and bringing all kinds of problems, on the earth. He said, really, if we're going to survive, we need to be reduced in population by 90%. Because, as he said, we're no better than bacteria. Here is a biologist, had an evolutionary view of man that man is just a chance product of over millions of years, we're just matter. We're just made up of atoms, and really no different in value than anyone else and no better than bacteria. That was, his words. he then said, well, you know, man's the greatest problem, so we need to get rid of man. And so about 90%. And he said, well, you know, man wars kill off some people, but not fast enough, and people die, but not fast enough. there's too many of us. And so he thought, well, you know, the best way to do this. Let's use disease. And so he suggested a good idea would be to take the Ebola bacteria and release it, in a wide range. And he estimates that might kill about 90% of the people. That should be the solution to our problem. Now, we would find this idea absurd. Even most secularists would think this guy is crazy, even though his fellow academics gave this guy an award. But really, he's just operating upon this pagan view of man. He's just operating upon the view that we teach in our schools and universities and through the marketplace of ideas, that man's just matter. He's just evolved from lower forms of matter. And if that is the case, then man has no value, any more value than bacteria would. What's to say that if you have this view of man, you have no qualms about squashing man under your heel? The same way we m might squash a spider that's gotten in our house. why not have squash man this way, if man is no different, no more valuable than bacteria or spider or cockroach, then why, what's the problem with killing 130 million of them. That's what Stalin and others were operating under, this idea that, you know, men are expendable. They're just, if they get in our way or don't go along with what I want, let's just kill them. And this is the pagan man, secular man, over the centuries and centuries in history have had this view of man that man has no value and so you can do with him whatever you want to do. That's the pagan idea of man. But this is not the view that the Bible teaches. It's not the view of the founders of America. It's not the view of man that produces good fruit. See, the Christian view of man is that man is a created moral being with great value. We see that in the very beginning in Genesis chapter one, where we read God said, let us make man in our image. And so man, both male and female, was created in the image of God. And because we are created in his image, that gives us great value. And the fact that Christ, the son of God, God himself came and died for us in our place, that increases our value anymore even more. We are paid for with the great price the scripture tells us. And so what we learn from the Bible, it teaches us that man has great value. He's a moral being because we're creating God's image that we have some knowledge within us. If there is right and there is wrong in our fallen state, that's not real clear. So God mercifully reveals it in the scripture to us. But we have great value. And so this Christian idea of man has motived, motivated many people in history to do good, to bring blessing. We touched on, told the stories of some of these in earlier podcasts we talked about Cyrus McCormick. He invented a reaper, a machine that would provide a tool for the common farmer to be 10, 20, 30 times more productive. This man did more to elevate men out of poverty than anybody else in history. And he did it not by using the force of government to take from the productive and give to the unproductive, but to give the common farmer a tool to make him more productive. He could flourish and all mankind could flourish. But it was his Christian idea of man. He wanted to bless his fellow man, produce, more food for everyone to make it cheaper, there'd be no starvation or. George Washington Carver was motivated by his Christian view of man to help the farmers in the southeast of America and then around the world how to be, more productive, how to flourish more, how to be to look at the resources around them that God had given and to, use man's mind to rearrange them and use them for the good of man. Joseph Lister was a man. I'll tell his story in future podcasts. But he's developed antiseptics in the use of surgery and saved tens of millions of lives. Because if people went to the doctor, because he had an open wound or something, a third of them would die, not from the operation, but from the infection that set in afterwards.

The Bible teaches that man has great value, but he's sinful

And it was Lister's desire to preserve valuable man to save their lives that he then began to seek out and apply biblical medical principles and develop antiseptics and surgery so we could go on and on that men, motivated by the Christian idea man is valuable, that is, impacted and affected how they worked in all different areas, of life. And so the Bible teaches us that man has great value, in contrast to the secular view that man has no value. But while the Bible teaches man has great value, it also teaches that man is fallen and sinful. It's interesting that the pagan view, the non Christian view, says, you know, that man, has no value. He's like bacteria and you can do with him what you will. But man's basically good. That's what we hear today. Yeah, man's basically good. And you can trust him and let him do that. But that's not what the scripture says. The scripture teaches that man has great value, but he's fallen and sinful. Now, what does that mean? Well, that has implications for many things, one in the whole area of civil government. Because since man is sinful, man should not be entrusted with too much power. We see what happens when men get too much power in civil government. When you look at Stalin and Mao and Kim Jong Un and others like him, the founders of America, when they were forming our government, they had the premise of the sinful nature of man. They understood what the Bible says of the nature of man. John Adams, our second president, he said that the word of God informs us the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. He, of course, is quoting the book of Jeremiah. So he reflecting the view of about everybody in early America, they had a Christian view of man. Man has great value, but the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And then he goes on to say, to think that nations and great bodies of men left to themselves will practice a course of self denial is either to babble like a newborn infant or to deceive like an Unprincipled imposter. See, what he's talking about here is in the context of what kind of civil government are you going to have? Are we going to set up? What should it look like? Well, one, it has to embrace the concept that man is sinful. You cannot entrust men with too much power. So whatever form of government you have, you have to have checks and balances. Bind down man, limit his authority, limit his power. because as Adams points out, if you leave men or man or bodies of men to themselves, they're not going to practice a course of self denial. They're not going to deny themselves. They're always seeking, you know, how can I benefit from my power, my position? Because if you think that he's going to practice self denial, it's either to babble like a newborn infant or to deceive like an imprint, imposter. So they recognize the sinful nature of man. That's why that's one purpose of the Constitution. Our Constitution, or a constitutional form of government is based upon the premise of the sinful nature of man. Because this chains man down. It binds him down from having too much power and from abusing power. So in our Constitution, we separate the powers of government, the executive, legislative and judicial powers into different branches. And then we set up a series of checks and balances. We specifically lay out here the numerated powers that the government can have. And it can have no other, all the rest with the people or the localities. It does many, many things to bind down sinful man from abus power because they were knowledgeable of the governments of men throughout all of history. You know, John Adams studied the Constitution or the laws, the structure of 50 different nations, their governments, to prepare himself when he went to the Constitutional Convention and so that he could have a knowledge of men and how men work. And they were and thoroughly had an understanding of history as well. So it's important to have a Christian view of man. Man has great value. God wants us to live in liberty. So our laws, our governmental institutions, our economic policies will encourage liberty, will encourage man to be able to labor and benefit from the fruit of his labor. It will encourage man to become self governed so that he can live in liberty. a Christian view of man will affect what type of government you have, how much authority and power you give to civil leaders as well. So it has a great impact upon many areas of life. So this is an important seed principle of liberty, a seed of liberty that we must understand and plant.

Third idea that has Transformed the world and made America success is the family

Now, a third idea that has Transformed the world and made America success is the Christian idea, of the family. In some previous podcasts, we've touched on this here and there a little bit. But it's important, a, very important idea. Because as the family goes in a nation, so goes the nation. You know, the family is a divine institution and the basic building block of society. We see that in Genesis chapter one, that God created man, male and female, in his image, and he gave them a mission. Be fruitful man, multiply. So the family is the, creation institution. That's the institution that God created in the very beginning. It's the basic building block of society. As the family goes, so goes the nation. And so we read from Genesis chapter one and Genesis chapter two and three, even we get an understanding of the mission of the family. So the scripture says, let us make man in our image and let them rule. And the scripture tells us that God gave the cultural mandate, the creation commission, to the family in the very beginning. He said to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, rule over the earth, take dominion over the earth, cultivate the earth in Genesis 2. And so we see in general, part of the mission of the family, one is to bear the image of God. You know, the Godhead is a picture of the family, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit from all eternity. we have that model that the Godhead as a family. And so God, we reflect that male and female and the children that come forth from the union of male and female is the basic building block. But it's a reflection of the nature of God himself. So we're to bear that image. And that's why Satan wants to destroy the family and attack the family. Because if he can do that, he's actually attacking God. The second aspect of the mission of the family from Genesis 1 is we are to have dominion over God's creation. God created man, put him in the earth, gave him a mission. And so, that mission is that we are to be vice regents ruling with him. That's the initial mission, that he created it. He owns all the earth, but he gave to man to have dominion over the earth, that we're to rule in his place in God's earth. We're to cultivate the earth, be productive, in the earth. Now that mission carries on even after the fall of man, after man, fell, disobeyed God after he followed the lies of Satan, turned over the keys, if you will, of the earth to Satan. when Christ came into the world and died for us and rose again, he actually Restored to man the capacity to fulfill the original mission. He was the firstborn from the dead. He was bringing the new creation into the fallen creation and giving us the mission. I'm, showing the way. I have brought life. I've restored my relationship. your relationship to God. I'm alive in a resurrected body. That gives insight into the future of our new resurrected body when he returns the second. A second time. But he reinstilled the mission to disciple the nations to bring heaven to earth to be salt and light. That we are to go and do battle with the usurper Satan, who man surrendered the earth to him when he disobeyed God. But when Jesus came, he destroyed the power of Satan. He crushed him under his feet. And that is the church that we've been given authority over, Satan. And our mission is to go and take back everything that Satan took through the fall. And so now that he is bound by the work of Christ, we can now plunder his property, as Jesus taught us in the parable. And so we are to have dominion over God's creation, and that means to fulfill the original mission of ruling over the earth. Taking dominion over the earth. But it also involves today we're living in that era of taking back, every square inch of the earth that belongs to him. And then we finally see Genesis 1, that we're to be fruitful and multiply. Now, this is true of being fruitful by bearing children, that we're to have many children. Why? Because our children are our greatest weapon in taking back and transforming the culture. Taking back what belongs to God, transforming the culture, our children. We shoot into the future like arrows. As Psalm 127 tells us, Our children are arrows of the Lord. So God wants us to be fruitful, wants us to multiply. And this is true of having more children, but it's also true, true of being fruitful and productive in all of our responsibilities, all of our activities, through our calling, our work. We're to be fruitful. We're to be productive producing goods and services. We're to be productive in structuring society, governments and institutions in a way that will plant godly seeds and bring flourishing, to all of mankind. We're to, manage and control property. This mission, by the way, is given primarily to the family. Not to civil government, not to the church, not to just individuals alone. Even though we all operate in a unique calling, it's to be done in context of the family unit, the basic building block of society. Because its mission is to extend the righteous rule of Jesus Christ over the whole earth. There's no end to the increase of his government, of his kingdom, his family, both the natural family and the spiritual family. Because the church is like a spiritual family that's to carry on aspects of this mission. But the natural family is the primarily one who's to govern property and to govern education. And we've talked about some of this in past podcasts and we'll talk more in future ones. So the family is the foundational unit of society. It's the central institution of society. Now, the biblical conception of society is that there's one ultimate authority, God. And God created individuals in his image, male and female, and he created three divine institutions, the family, church, and state, or civil government. And the Bible reveals to us the purpose and responsibilities of each one of these. The individual family, church and state. And so it's important that we learn to whom God has given authority to do what we need to search out and find out, okay, what is, as an individual, my purpose and responsibility. We need to search out. All of us are in families, some way or another, have families or part of families. And we need to find out what is the purpose and responsibility of the family, something we've touched on in the past and will in the future. We need to recognize that the family is the primary institution to provide health, education and welfare for the children. It's not civil government. It's not the church. The church can come alongside the family, and if there's no natural family available, then the church can fill in and meet that need. But the primary responsibility, provide health and educational welfare is the family to provide for its own.

The purpose of the family is to take dominion and procreation

So we could present the family's purpose and responsibilities with three points. One, the families to take dominion and procreate. we were talking about that from the very beginning. God said, be fruitful and multiply subdue the earth. A biblical understanding of man. And the family will recognize the sanctity of life will be pro life because all life is valuable because it's created in the image of God. We will see children as a blessing. They're not a curse, they're not a hardship. They're not someone through whom we can vicariously live our life. But God said, blessed is the man whose quiver is full, because they're how we transfer a way of life and transform the culture in the future. And so, the purpose of the family is to take dominion and procreation. A second aspect of the purpose of the family is to provide education. You shall teach your sons. Deuteronomy 6, 6, 7 tells us. So God gives to the family the responsibility to teach their sons, your children, when they rise up, when they walk, by the way, when you sit down and eat, when you're going to bed, use every opportunity possible to train and educate and teach your children. If you train up a child in the way it should go, he'll continue to go. That way, he won't depart from it. Proverbs 20:22 6 tells us. So we're to fit children to fulfill their individual purpose and responsibilities. It's the responsibility of the family to build godly character within the children, to train them in a biblical worldview, to produce internal character, but also a, knowledge of truth, of a biblical worldview. And the scripture gives us great insight into how to train children, how to discipline children in a loving way, how to prepare them to be God's instruments to extend his kingdom in the earth. So the family one is to take dominion and procreation. It's to provide education, and it's to provide health and welfare as well. Scripture tells us to practice hospitality, especially for those of your own household. So we're first to take care of our own. If we can't take care of our own, we're worse than an infidel, worse than those that lack faith. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for failing to recognize their obligations to take care of their own family. And they were even doing it in guise of religious work, doing things. And so providing health and welfare involves many things. It involves preventative health care, proper exercise, good nutrition, sanitation. Scripture teaches us that we are the temple of God and should seek to take care of ourselves and those in our charge. We see in the scripture that God is concerned with all aspects of our life and our health. It's concerned with sanitation. God told the children of Israel when and how to go to the bathroom. Said, if you have to go, go outside the camp, carry a shovel and cover up your excrement. Why did God say that? Because God knew all about germs a long time before man learned about them only less than two centuries ago. And God knew all about them. So his laws to Israel took into account, knowledge of things man did not know then. And that's why if they obeyed him, it was good with them. It's a way to keep the germs from spreading among the people. So God's concerned with sanitation. He's concerned with what we eat. He's concerned with how we take care of our bodies. Scripture has much to say about health and welfare, talks about taking care of the sick, the elderly, the orphan and the widow as well. And it talks about saving and investing for your retirement and your posterity. Some of these things in future podcasts we'll explore more. And in many of my books, I talk about this more and that steward in the a Biblical view of economics, I talk some, for example, about saving and investing and being productive and taking care of the sick, even and who the poor are, because the Bible defines who the poor are. So we'll explore some of that in more detail. But the point is this. It's important that we understand our mission. What is the purpose, responsibility of the family, which is the basic building block of society. And we need to understand it if we're going to be able to obey. If we're going to adopt and obey the principles of the Christian faith regarding the family and its mission and purpose, we need to understand them. Of course, this is true for every area as well. And so the Christian view of the family historically elevated women that in secular cultures, most often the women were seen as kind of servants, to men or others that they did not have the same equal footing or setting as the man did, but were. The Christian faith has gone like the commandment, honor your father and your mother. That commandment was unique to man when God gave it to Moses, revealed to Israel. Because most cultures you honor the father, the mother, they were there just as a servant, at best in so many cultures. But the Bible elevated the role of women in equal footing with man because God created man in his image, male and female. So we're to honor our mother, honor our father, both of those. And there's much more in the scripture that elevates women and puts them in equal footing, equal standing with God as men. But it's where these ideas have gone that the view of women has progressed as well and been of great benefit to females. And the family is responsible to govern property and children. So the family is the foundational unit of society. The family's purpose is to be fruitful and take dominion. The Christian view of the family elevated women and the family is responsible to govern property and children. Now I'm going to explore that more in future podcasts.

Noah Webster says the foundation for self and civil government is in families

the concept of property and other things, we've touched on it in the past, but Noah Webster points out that the foundation for self and civil government is laid in the families of a nation. As the family goes, so goes the nation. Noel Webster Said in the family are formed the elements of civil government. The family discipline is the model of all social order. The respect for the law and the magistrate begins in the respect for parents. Families are the nurseries of good and bad citizens. The parent who neglects to restrain and govern his child or, who by his example corrupts him, is the enemy of the community to which he belongs. The parent who instructs his child in good principles and subjects him to correct discipline is the guardian angel of his child and the best benefactor of society. It's in the family where children first learn about government, how to be self governed. They learn about who God is. They learn about war and conflict resolution. They learn respect for law and respect for leaders and respect for parents. Families are the nurseries of good and bad citizens. If our families reflect what the Bible says that the family is and man is and how we're to live, the family imparts that it's going to go well not just with the children who are impacted, but the whole nation. And so, as Webster said, if families, if parents neglect to teach and train and govern their child, then it not only corrupts him, but it becomes the enemy of the whole community. But if a parent instructs his child in good principles, subjects him to correct discipline, in other words, plants godly seeds and godly character, then that parent becomes the guardian angel of his child and the best benefactor of society. So if we're going to transform America or any nation, we have to understand the important role of the family. And the family needs to begin to act and obey the purpose and responsibility of the family. And that includes providing health, education and welfare and to equip children to fulfill their Godly calling. Theologian R.L. dabney said, the education of children for God is the most important business done on earth. It is the one business for which the earth exists. To it, all politics, all war, all literature, all money making ought to be support subordinated. And every parent especially ought to feel every hour of the day that next to making his own calling an election, sure, this is the end for which he is kept alive by God. This is his task on earth. Very well said. See, the education of children is the most important business done on earth. It's the one business for which the earth exists. To it, all politics, all war, all money making, everything ought to be subjected, and parents need to understand this. Besides keeping our relationship alive with God, this is the most important thing. This is our purpose, this is our end. This is our task to prepare children to Carry on God's purposes and the future. another theologian of the early 20th century, J. Gresham Machen. He said he was a professor at Princeton University but was too biblical, so he had to leave there and he started a seminary. But he said, if liberty is not maintained with regard to education, there's no use trying to maintain it in any other sphere. If you give the bureaucrats the children, you might just as well give them everything else. So if you give them the children, and that's what, unfortunately, most Christians have done in recent generations, they've turned over to the state, secular state, the training and preparation and education of their children. And because of that, now the state's taken everything. It's taken our freedom, our liberty, our money, our property, control of life, taking our children. You might well just pull out your wallet and bank account and give it to the bureaucrats if you give them your children. See, whoever controls the property controls the present in a nation. and whoever controls the children controls the future. And God has given that responsibility for both of those things primarily to the family. So the Christian idea of the family is utmost importance. We just released a new film called Educated for Liberty, and we deal with the importance of education and the fact that parents have the right and responsibility to govern the education of their children. A fundamental right that every family should have in a nation, if that nation's going to be free, is to. To give them the freedom to educate their children in whatever way they believe that God wants them to educate their child. If there's no freedom to educate your children, you have little freedom within a society. And secular societies, democratic, socialist societies of the west, have taken that away from so many families. But in America, many of them Christians gave that responsibility up. See, the home is primarily where the transfer of a way of life occurs. That's what education is. It's a transfer of a way of life. And that primarily and firstly takes place in the home. The ability to affect society can grow exponentially with each succeeding generation. Remember, education is like a seed. The seed you plant determines the fruit that's produced. And so when you're educating and training, you're planting seeds. And those seeds might be real small at first, but over time it gets bigger and bigger and produces more fruit. And that fruit has seeds that can be planted and produce more fruit. A great example of the impact of education over generations can be seen in the life of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was a leader in the first Great Awakening, was perhaps America's greatest theologian, but, he and his wife Sarah, perhaps impacted the nation just as much through training their children successfully. In the 19th century, there was a study done of 1400 descendants of Jonathan Edwards. Eleven children. They had 11 children. And of course, over time, they had lots of grandchildren, great grandchildren. And so someone studied them to see what did they do, what became of the seed, if you will, of the Edwards family. So what they found is that of these 1400 descendants, 13 were college professors, college presidents, 13 were college presidents, 65 were professors, 100 lawyers, 30 judges, 66 physicians, 80 holders of office, including three senators, three governors, and a vice president of the United States. So this is the fruit of the seed of one family. And so if we are faithful to train our children and help teach and encourage them to train their children, likewise, what a great impact that we can have over. Over the generations. It's a transfer of a way of life. And if we're going to transfer the life of liberty that the Christian faith brings to future generations of Americans, we must begin to educate our children based upon biblical truth and teach them, among other things, these seven ideas that have transformed the world. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, there's a statue to the Pilgrim Mother presenting the pivotal central role that the Pilgrim Mother played in the beginning of not just that colony, but really of all the nation, all the colonies. And engraved on that statue is this. They brought up their families in sturdy virtue and a living faith in God, without which nations perish. If families do not bring up the next generations in a sturdy virtue and a living faith in God, then we'll perish. This is one reason that America has been declining in recent generations, because the families have failed to train up the generations in a living faith in God and strike sturdy virtue. So, once again, the families must begin to assume their responsibilities to train, to educate, provide health, education, and welfare, to prepare those arrows and shoot them into the future, into the culture. And so, in fact, we've looked at this in some of the podcasts in the past, and we'll explore it more in the future. The solution to America's problems is restoring the biblical family and especially its role in education.

Sam: We've covered three of seven ideas that have transformed the world

Well, we've covered three of those seven ideas that have transformed the world and made America a success. I hope you can join us in the next couple of podcasts in the future, because we're going to look at four others. We're going to examine seven foundational principles, fundamental principles, seven ideas that have transformed, the world. Well, I point you to our website, providencefoundation.com to get written materials, videos, and other things. Also, if you want to see our film, Educated for Liberty, there's a link on our homepage, providencefoundation.com or you can go directly to the website, educatedforliberty.com you can watch the whole film, which talks about, especially education, the role of the family, as we've just been looking at one of those ideas that transformed the world. And you can see the whole film, hour and 40 minutes. But we also have it divided up into six different segments so that you, or your church group or home group or educational group can go through it. Because we look at the situation, look at the impact of education, and we show how do we restore biblical education to the nation. How do we embrace the Christian idea of education, the Christian idea of the family, the Christian idea of truth, and how can we embrace that? So I encourage you to take a look at the film. I think you'll find it is a great tool, great resource. It's free, free to view and then see at our website, providencefoundation.com many books and resources we have as well. Well, thanks for joining us on this, podcast. I hope to see, you next week. God. Sam.