David Barton, when Christianity had teeth

Audio review. I want to showcase them as tools to remind how Gods people looked at life within our nation the last 300 yrs and then make an even bigger contextual jump to the last 1700 yrs.

History explains why you are where your at. History can show where you are going and just as important, why. The Bible is God passing on to us the history of everything. The only proper context for understanding the human race is to be found in Gods word. The easiest way to change the direction of a people or their identity is to change there history. Rewrite it.

Psalms 78 shows how Gods people can flee in the day of battle when what God has done gets forgotten, when it isn’t passed on.

Remembering the wondrous deeds of God and recounting them to our children’s, children. That God will be further glorified and our future generations will be mighty in the land. The enemy is always trying to take what God has done and deflect away what should be praises to God and instead pass things off as just happenstance, or inevitable progress. Or maybe it has always been that way? We take it for granted. Therefore this is an area we must apply ourselves with some diligence or the enemy will take our cookies. Maybe by applying ourselves we can take back our cookies!?!

The re-emergence of Evolution is a good example. Darwin re-packaged for his day (new and improved!) the old pagan idea that things just happened.

There are multiple streams and different levels of doing this. Things from your life, your family, your nation/people group or even on a broader scale of what God has changed in humanity as a whole, all as a part of the work of Christ.

The Bible has been our gold standard for the history of what God had done up to Christ. There is no end to the attempts to change it, or cast dispersions on the validity of it. But it continues to stand.

But since then, God has still been working and this where his people get a D- and maybe not even that. We have not grasped, noticed, understood, or we lost track of many of God’s mighty works since Jesus started turning the world upside down through His people. We no longer can remember what life was like, or said another way, what was it that got turned so upside down. What did humanity look like when Jesus walked among us?

Last week I listened again to David Bartons, Developing a Biblical world view CD. Find it here.

He has accumulated all these old reprints of sermons from newspapers. They used to print the Sunday message in the newspaper. So we can see what used to be taught from Americas pulpits, 150-300 years .

Sermon topics on Artillery, executions, railroads, government, government officials, solar eclipse, fires. These were typical sermons, whatever was going on, it was normal for Pastors to open Gods word and speak on it. These men were put through a rigorous education to be able to do this, thats why Harvard and Princton were started.

At the time of the revolution, the English king called the revolution “an Presbeterian parsons rebellion.” Chrisitanity had teeth.

He points out Charles Finney got saved while studying to be a lawyer, there was that much bible laid out as a part of understanding law, that he found God while learning.

Our modern culture see’s money as the end all, and our history writers are certain that the revolution was about money & tax’s, thats all we are ever taught the revolution was about, tax's. And that James town was about money and the pilgrims were just money grubbers too.

Barton points out of the 25 plus items cited for the declaration of independence only one was on tax’s. We never hear about how two colony’s wanted to free their slaves but were told that as a part of English colonies they couldn’t. Others wanted to start a missionary society to reach the Indians but were told by the King that the church of England would do it, if it was necessary . You will never hear that even mentioned about our history today.

Back then, it would have seemed strange to suggest areas of life where Gods word didn’t apply.

This is just a wonderful CD.

But we lost this. Douglas Wilson points out that a big reason was the second awakening. After the revolution. So many being saved at these camp meetings and the need was thought to be so great for preachers (grab the ark) that if you were excited and seemed stable a few weeks after salvation. They might give you a bible and a horse and send you out. This is the birth place of evangelicalism.

These pastors were not going to be giving sermons on artillery, executions, railroads, government, government officials, solar eclipse, fires. They were never equipped to do it. They were never discipled themselves. Much of the teaching became shallow.

So like the tribe of Ephriam in Psalms 78, by the turn of this last century Christians had fled into pietism and abandoned the city square, we were no longer ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you. We had lost or forgotten what God had done. Today our ability to see the Biblical application of Gods, precepts, judgements, and His law are so thin that it is discomforting to hear applications being made that we are not used to. Shouldnt we just preach Christ, can become so much covering fire to excuse our inability use the sword of the word as it was intended.