156. Are Rights from God or Government? with Cal Robbins

We use the word freedom so often that it has almost lost its shape. It can mean safety. It can mean privacy. It can mean prosperity. It can mean “leave me alone.” It can also mean “let my side win.”

 In America, freedom is one of those words everybody loves and almost nobody defines.That is why this episode matters. 

Craig opens with the real question right away: does liberty come from government, or does it come from our Creator? And if liberty is a gift from God, then we do not get to talk about it like the state hands it out, manages it, limits it, or takes credit for it. We have to ask a deeper question: what does liberty look like when Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord?

Defining Rightful Liberty

That is where Cal Robbins takes us. He goes back to Thomas Jefferson’s 1819 response to Isaac Tiffany, where Jefferson says the word liberty has been used so many different ways that it no longer gives a clear meaning to the mind. So Jefferson makes a distinction. There is liberty in the broad sense, which Cal treats as freedom, the unobstructed action of our own will. But then there is rightful liberty: the unobstructed action of our own will within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.

That is the thread that holds this whole episode together. Not freedom without limits. Not control dressed up as order. Rightful liberty.

That distinction matters because it exposes the lie at the center of so much of our politics and even so much of our faith talk. We say we want liberty, but what we often want is permission for ourselves and limits for other people. We want freedom when it protects our comfort, then law when other people make us nervous. We want rights when we are talking about our tribe, then rules when we are talking about strangers. Rightful liberty ruins that game. It says the rights I claim for myself belong to my neighbor too.

Equal Rights And The Image Of God

There is a reason this conversation feels heavier than a normal political discussion. It is not just asking whether a system works. It is asking whether we have learned to see other people rightly.

Cal says that once he began to understand rightful liberty, he started to feel sympathy, empathy, even pity where he once might have felt anger or contempt. He says it changed the way he saw people. More than that, he says it brought him back to the teachings of Jesus. He began to see that rightful liberty was not just a political idea but something deeply tied to Christ, to free will, and to the straight and narrow path.

Craig picks up that thread by bringing in Galatians 5:1 and asking whether freedom in Christ might also mean freedom from slavery in a broader sense, even freedom from statism. That move keeps the whole episode from collapsing into civics. This is not a lecture on founding language. It is a wrestling match over whether the liberty we talk about in public life actually matches the freedom Christ calls us into.

If Christ sets people free, why are Christians still so eager to hand themselves over to rulers? Why are we so quick to trust systems of force, systems of control, systems that claim power over image-bearers made by God?

When Liberty Gets Tested

And that is where the episode gets sharp.

Because rightful liberty is not left floating in theory. It gets tested. Slavery comes up quickly, and Craig is blunt: he does not care whether slavery was legal, because legal does not mean moral. That line becomes a door into one of the hardest and clearest parts of the episode. If a law can bless something as evil as slavery, then Christians cannot pretend the law is the final measure of justice.

That same line of thought runs straight into immigration. Not as a side issue, but as a test of whether we really mean what we say about liberty. Craig points to the border as an imaginary line and asks why crossing it suddenly makes a human being “illegal.” Cal pushes further and says denying people free movement because the state says so is not liberty at all. He calls it a rejection of rightful liberty, a rejection of what God gave.

His logic is simple and hard to get around: if I claim a natural right to move, but deny that same right to somebody else because the government told me to, then I am putting man’s law above God’s gift. In his words, that is rendering unto Caesar what belongs to God.

Caesar, Voting, And The Tyrant’s Will

The same test shows up again when the conversation turns to voting and “render unto Caesar.” Cal says that when we vote to impose rulers on our neighbors, we are once again rendering unto Caesar what belongs to God.

Craig pushes back on the usual statist use of Matthew 22 and asks the harder question: what actually belongs to Caesar? If my life is God-given, if my rights are God-given, if my neighbor’s dignity is God-given, then what exactly are we handing over when we call the state our authority?

That is why Jefferson’s fuller line matters here too. Rightful liberty is not merely action within the law, because law is often but the tyrant’s will. That one sentence should break apart a lot of lazy Christian trust in the state. Christians cannot hide behind legality. We cannot keep saying “it’s the law” as if that settles the matter.

Jesus And The Shape Of True Liberty

What keeps this from turning into a cold political argument is that it keeps coming back to Jesus.

Cal says outright that rightful liberty became, for him, almost synonymous with Christ. He says Jesus was an excellent example of how to live in rightful liberty. That is not a throwaway line. It is the heart of the whole episode.

Jesus never forced people into discipleship. He never used power the way rulers do. He never treated people as objects to manage. He told the truth, loved His neighbor, and refused the kingdoms of the world when they were offered to Him. Rightful liberty, as this episode describes it, is free will exercised in the light of God and in the presence of neighbors who bear the same dignity we do.

That is why Cal can connect rightful liberty to Christ, free will, and even the path toward salvation. It is not just about politics. It is about what kind of people we are becoming.

The Church Must Tell The Truth Again

Craig also presses on the witness of the Church, especially the cruelty so often seen online from people who claim Christ. That part matters because the failure here is not just political confusion. It is spiritual contradiction.

If we say “No King but Christ,” but still crave rulers, still cheer domination, still use fear as our moral compass, then what are we really confessing? Rightful liberty does not just expose bad policy. It exposes a damaged discipleship that keeps trusting Caesar to do what only love, truth, and self-government under God can do.

By the end, the episode lands in a place that is both simple and demanding. Rightful liberty is the proper exercise of free will under God. It is not limitless freedom. It is freedom with moral shape. It is the refusal to violate the equal rights of others. It is liberty disciplined by love.

That is why Craig can boil the whole thing down to a plain phrase: don’t hurt people, don’t take their stuff. Crude maybe, but clear. And clarity is hard to come by in a world where we are constantly told that coercion is compassion, legality is morality, and empire is order.

“No King but Christ” means more here than a slogan against nationalism. It means no one gets to claim ownership over what God already gave. Not the president. Not the court. Not the border. Not the ballot. Not the church when it acts like an arm of the state.

Connect with Cal Robbins

• Republic Broadcasting

• Michael Gaddy’s Substack

Highlights & Takeaways

• Rightful liberty is not doing whatever we want.

• Rightful liberty means acting within the equal rights of others.

• Rights come from God, not government.

• Legal does not mean moral.

• Borders, ballots, and rulers fail the test when they violate God-given dignity.

• Cal connects rightful liberty to Christ, free will, and the straight and narrow path.

• Jefferson’s warning still stands: law can become the tyrant’s will.
  “No King but Christ” means we stop giving Caesar credit for gifts that came from God.

Listen & Reflect

Listen for how early the episode defines rightful liberty. Everything else builds from that one distinction.

Reflect: Where do we call something freedom when we really mean control? Where do we demand rights for ourselves that we deny to others?

Read: Galatians 5:1, Matthew 22:15–22, and 1 Samuel 8. Then hold them next to Jefferson’s definition of rightful liberty and sit with the tension.

Practice:  Galatians 5:1, Matthew 22:15–22, and 1 Samuel 8. Before you defend any law, policy, border, or political habit this week, ask one question: does this honor the equal rights of others, or violate them?

Episode Timestamps:

0:00 Rightful Liberty

• rights from God, not government

• Golden Rule

• Cal Robbins

1:04 Safety Over Freedom

• people want safety, not liberty

• state narratives

• Minnesota shooting, Venezuela

2:20 Cal’s Liberty Journey

• Ron Paul movement
  pocket Constitution days

• corruption in the system

3:45 Jefferson’s Definition

• many meanings of liberty

• rightful liberty takes shape

• Thomas Jefferson

• Isaac Tiffany

6:21 Equal Rights Of Others

• liberty within limits

• no man above another

• equal rights for all mankind

• Declaration of Independence

8:24 Freedom Vs. Liberty

• freedom without limits

• taking your car example

• limits set by God, not man

• property rights

9:27 Sympathy And Empathy

• seeing your neighbor as equal
  compassion grows when statism fades

• Craig’s old neocon days

11:12 Rightful Liberty And Christ

• pity instead of hatred

• free will

• straight and narrow path

• Jesus Christ

12:50 Freedom In Christ

• freedom from sin, slavery, statism

• Roman oppression

• Galatians 5:1

14:20 Slavery And Immigration

• legal doesn’t mean moral

• imaginary lines and free movement

• Patrick Henry

• Lion of Liberty

15:12 Rejecting God’s Gift

• borders as rejection of rightful liberty

• natural right to travel

• liberty as a gift from God

16:45 Image Of God

• no human becomes less human by law

• “illegal” people still bear God’s image

• God’s law over state law

17:30 Slavery Never Really Left

• chattel slavery, fiscal slavery

• debt and bondage

• posterity

• future generations

18:25 Voting And Coercion

• ballot box as force

• imposing rulers on neighbors

• voting

20:00 Render Unto Caesar

• what actually belongs to Caesar?

• rights from God

• gifts we hand to the state

• Matthew 22

22:45 War And Repentance

• blood on our hands

• owning past support for violence

• War on Terror

• Abby Neer

24:07 Unconditional Love

• love beyond comprehension

• people go out of their way to hate

• God is love

• loving one another

25:15 Broken Christian Witness

• Christians sounding cruel online

• witness to the world

• Church and public life

27:20 One Human Family

• same tribe

• equal dignity

• liberty and neighbor love

30:24 The Golden Rule

• rightful liberty in practice

• Reciprocity

• Jesus

• Confucius

31:30 Rendering To Caesar What Is God’s

• liberty handed over to rulers

• deception dressed as order

• God-given rights

34:00 Jesus Rejected The Kingdoms

• worldly power refused
  service over domination

• temptation of Christ

35:30 Why The World Rejects Us

• Christians not acting like Christ

• public witness problem

• how outsiders see the Church

37:15 Hate Cannot Heal

• unconditional love vs hatred

• good and evil

• what kind of spirit we carry

41:20 No King But Christ

• Christ alone is worthy to rule

• brotherhood over domination

• Kingship of Jesus

43:00 Asking For A King

• people still want rulers

• rejecting God’s rule

• 1 Samuel 8

44:05 What Jesus Never Did

• never imposed His will

• coercion vs discipleship

• WWJD

45:30 The Temptation Of Power

• Satan offers the kingdoms

• Jesus refuses state power

• temptation narrative

47:00 Rights Come From God

• rights not created by paper

• Constitution doesn’t grant liberty

• Creator

• Declaration language

49:45 Proper Exercise Of Liberty

• self-restraint

• rights with limits
  rightful liberty in daily life

53:45 Don’t Hurt People

• don’t take their stuff

• simple moral vision

• Don’t Hurt People and Don’t Take Their Stuff, by Matt Kibbe

54:57 The Full Jefferson Quote

• law is often but the tyrant’s will

• individual rights

• Thomas Jefferson

56:30 Patrick Henry and the Anti-Federalists

• warnings about centralized power

• Constitution skepticism

• Patrick Henry

• anti federalists

57:42 Forensic History

• back to source documents

• letters, speeches, original texts

• Michael Gaddy

• Republic Broadcasting

58:40 Learn The Real History

• history you were never taught

• Substack and classes

---

Related Episodes

Related Blog Post

74. Can We Love More Than We Hate with Hodey Johns

About this Episode

This week Craig is joined by Hodey Johns, co-host of the Enemy of My Enemy podcast from the We Are Libertarians Network. They discuss focussing on love that looks like how God loves us, contrasting these with social media discussions that look more like hate. They talk about political statements that assume God hates those on the wrong end of our favorite policies. However, Christians shouldn't even be on the political spectrum. Can the love of Jesus be made visible when we fight online over our political positioning?

The Israelites received laws from the very hand of God, but they missed His heart for humanity to follow their consciences in loving their neighbors. Not even Jewish regulations could justify people in the sight of God because love is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus proved this when he righteously ignored the Levitical laws, and the Pharisees proved that one could follow the rules perfectly and still be unrighteous.

Unfortunately, we haven't learned this; hate may be more natural to Christians than love. We fail to worship God according to His desires when we fail to love those around us. As Christians, rather than looking for the boundaries we should not step on and assume that the rest of our conduct is loving, we need to seek the narrow path and aggressively love everyone, including our enemies. After all, this is how Christ first loved us.

Hodey Johns:

·       Facebook

·       Instagram

·       Twitter

Episode Timestamps:

1:56 – Introduction to Hodey Johns

·       Loves debates

·       Theologian

·       Writes about video games

·       Parents weren't very interested in their own Christian faith

o   Hodey was self-taught in Christianity and the Bible from a young age

·       Became a Mormon for 15 years

·       Lived all over the states

o   Noticed that Christian culture differs from place to place

6:19 – Christians on Social Media

·       Do more Christians need to put themselves out there on social media?

·       People don't change their minds in an instant or one conversation

o   They contemplate new ideas for a while

o   Like planting a new tree, waiting and tasting its fruit

·       We can't let others do the theological thinking for us

o   Not even religious folks

o   Jesus called the Pharisees a brood of vipers

·       No Christian has everything figured out

o   Christianity is a process

o   But we don't need to worry because we know who God is

16:14 – Love one another and love your enemy

·       Christians have a tough time balancing being in the world but not of the world

·       Thankfully, it's not all over once you sin

·       When you sin and recover, you get better

·       Christians wield hate and fear as a conversion method

o   We have all experienced hate

o   As Christians, we know that hate is evil

·       Love is the highest commandment

o   Jesus loved us and died for us

o   Would we give up our lives for those we are fighting with on social media

·       Love is not just the absence of hate

·       We ought to be aggressively loving

o   Christianity is a narrow path

·       Christianity should not be us saying, "God opposes [insert pet peeve here]"

·       There is real hate from both left- and right-wing Christians

·       Christians should not be on a political spectrum

·       Biden's student loan debt write-offs are not forgiveness

·       The left likes to think it has a monopoly on love

·       Jesus only spoke in parables to the public

o   Stories of love and goodness

o   We should be using stories too and asking, "who is the loving neighbour?"

·       Moral choices are required for good deeds to be produced

·       Paying taxes is not a virtue

33:09 – How ethical is the law?

·       Immigrants from Mexico who come to better their lives are human beings too

o   They cross an imaginary line to come here

o   The law of the land is in opposition to God's law

o   They only come to eat and feed their families

o   Christians don't seem to understand this

o   They are still image bearers of God

·       Jewish law was superior to today's laws

o   They still condemned people

o   They still allowed for the killing of Jesus Christ

·       The Bible can be summarised as people trying to justify themselves by the law

o   It was to show the way to being led by the Holy Spirit

o   It was to give the Israelites time to escape the slave mentality of Egypt

·       Where is your faith?

o   Do politicians protect you and your nation?

o   It should be in Jesus Christ

o   Why are Christians scared of immigrants?

o   In Jesus' death and resurrection Christianity grew

·       Christianity's hey-day was when Christians were stateless

·       The Israelites' laws changed from chapter to chapter of Leviticus

o   The law was being revised constantly

§  God was stable; His people were not

o   They couldn't enter the promised land until they realised the law could not save them

·       Even the wandering Israelites went astray when they tried to turn their relationship with God into a law-based system

40:19 – We can't legislate love.

·       The complex legal system that we have cannot be used to promote Christian values

o   The Israelites walked together with God and couldn't make the law work

·       Laws are written on paper, but let's try to figure out what is right

·       The will of God is to love one another

o   Love is the command

o   We worship someone else when we fail to love

·       When Christians think they are God, they become hateful

·       Are you really a Christian if you are not moving towards love?

·       Are we being motivated by the love of Christ?

45:57 – Church is unappealing when we don't have love

·       Church attendance has dropped off since 2013

·       There are reasons why people don't go to church

o   Hate-filled sermons

o   Hate-filled conversations with people after church

·       Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax-collectors

o   We should also be showing them the love of Christ

·       Jesus' measure of how to get into heaven was to forgive and not judge others

o   That is mentioned more often than other methods usually suggested

·       Homosexuality is not a sin

·       Whosoever is angry with his brother is at risk of being judged

·        Jesus said himself that if you call someone gay, you are in danger of being judged

·       Wanting to punish people crossing a border is wrong

·       Jesus ignored the law and healed on the Sabbath

o   This is why Hodey trashes the law

o   Jesus never denied breaking the Sabbath

·       The scriptures are stories of people working out morality in a complex world

·       The transformation of your heart is all that matters

·       You can break the law and be right

·       You can follow the Levitical law and be wrong

o   The Pharisees proved it

·       Jesus ignored the laws, so we can ignore immoral laws also

1:05:47 – Smoked meats

·       During covid, Hodey picked up a smoking meats hobby

·       Smoking meat makes Hodey a better person

o   It's a philosophical journey

o   The community is full of nice people

·       Well-cooked brisket is a bad piece of meat turned good through cooking

·       Mesquite trees make the best-smoked meats

---

Related Episodes

Related Blog Post

42. Is Political Power Devilish with Mark West

In this episode, Craig speaks with author Mark West about his article, Is Political Power Devilish, and his book, What He Said: Living the Sermon on the Mount Transforming American Culture.

As a self-proclaimed Xvangelical(a term for a former Evangelical who now centers all scripture interpretation on the words and actions of Christ, with a focus on living out His kingdom right now), Mark helps us strip back our political attachment to a nation-state so we may return to Christ’s vision for us, not a politician’s. 

Mark does not want us to deconstruct our faith, but rather renovate it from its complexities so we can refocus on what Jesus said and did. Christ’s challenge for us is not easy, it is hard to love one’s enemy, to turn the other cheek, to not worry about tomorrow, to not outsource our responsibilities as Christians through electing “Christian” leaders to politics, but our call will always be greater than any nation past or to come.

Our King and our Kingdom are not of this world and Mark invites us to rise to this challenge to be the body of Christ in our everyday life, not at a ballot box.

You can connect with Mark and read more of his work at mark4libertas.wordpress.com and purchase his book at markwest-author.com.

TIMESTAMPS:

01:52 What Mark has been up to

• Spiritual pilgrimage, culminating in his book

• God Archy, “that’s me in the corner”

  • Mental health advocacy

• IF YOU NEED HELP, PLEASE REACH OUT

  • National suicide hotline: 800-273-8255

06:13 Covid Anxiety

• Some people are afraid to reacclimate to public life   

08:38 Deconstruction/Renovation of Faith

• Not tearing it all down, taking away the bad, but realigning one’s faith with what Jesus actually said

• Jesus did not go around debating people

• We make it more complicated but Jesus keeps it simple

11:02 Love your enemy is a command, not a suggestion

• Your “enemy” should be the hardest person to love, but if you can love them then you can love everyone between you and your enemy as well 

• Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled

• Red-letter Christain heretic

• Simple to understand, hard to do

• Leave the bad beliefs behind, and renovate the misshapen into something better, that more fully honors God  

 13:59 Renovation of Faith and The Political stance of Christian-Anarchy

• If you want no government what would you have done about Nazi Germany or Slavery?

  • Nazi Germany and Slavery were made possible via a goverment that assumed power/authority it did not have

• As Christian Anarchists, we recuse ourselves of using governments to get others to do something, even if it’s the “right” thing

• Christianity comes before the anarchy

  • Craig: “I’m only an anarchist because I’m a Christain”

17:19 Mark’s Article, Is Political Power Devilish

• “Exhausted and defeated” - we are worn out by our current political system

• Mark’s run for Governor

  • Had been preaching twelve sermon series on Sermon on the Mount

  • Felt Christ calling him away from politics, that they were opposite to what Jesus taught

  • Fell into a deep depression 

23:06 Moving away from politics entangled with faith in Jesus

• Chris Polk

• Looking to the early church for a model of how to interact with the state

• The Temptation of Christ

  • Satan tempted him at the end of his fast when he should be weakest

  • Satan offered to give him the authority over all the kingdoms, implying he has the authority over them making them of the devil, not of God

• Daniel’s prophecy

  • Had an image of all the kingdoms that have existed, and smashes them because Christ’s kingdom is different, it is not of this world

• The political systems of our world have a violence based authority, while Christ’s kingdom is the anthesis of this

• “Divine right of kings” is being applied to our political leaders when we think they will lead us to the Kingdom of Heaven

  • Jesus was asked to be king by force and almost killed for refusing, it’s just not our thing as Christians

32:45 Mark’s book: What He Said: Living the Sermon on the Mount Transforming American Culture

• Why he wrote the book:

  • Felt he received a message while preaching the sermon on the mount a message American Christians really needed to hear

    • What we hear: if we get the right politician or policy or program in place then things will be transformed

      • This gets reduced to solganism and hashtags, “make America Christian again”

    • Jesus said plenty that is good enough and we don’t do it--put the slogans down; he’s calling for a whole life transformation

  • Chapter 8 was the hardest to write

  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer: what the world needs to see is a new monasticism, he saw back in Nazi Germany what we are seeing today in today’s Christianity 

    • Bonhoeffer also wrote on the sermon on the mount

36:50 The Early Church did not seek power

• They actively helped others rather than electing people to do it

38:32 Chapter 8 - A series of Don’ts

• Don’t collect earthly treasures, don’t worry about your life, don’t worry about today, and don’t worry about tomorrow 

• Jesus told us not to worry, and when we worry we get distracted from advancing the Kingdom of Christ

39:32 Don’t collect earthly treasures

• Matthew 6:19 KVJ

  • When we collect earthly treasures we want to get something from them, we are focused on the wrong treasure, Jesus wants to give not get

  • All our stuff will sit here, collect dust, and go bad - nothing here last

  • In Christ, we can find things that will last forever

• Pursue the things you can store in heaven

  • The true treasures are the fruits of the spirit in our life

  • The fallacy of the American dream: work hard and get a bunch of stuff, but people are where we get our rewards

• Mammon - God of material wealth and blessing

  • Can’t have two kings God and Mammon(often translated as money)

43:45 Don’t Worry About Your Life

• Matthew 6:25 KVJ

• Jessica Green - being prepared

• If we are working together we should be able to provide for each other and not worry 

  • We like to make sure we are provided for

• Mental illness and faith

  • Mental illness is irrational, takes away the ability to see tomorrow coming

  • Jesus is telling us to look at the flowers, the birds, and everything else that works without worry

    • The worry get in the way, when we go to the store and take more than we need, providing for ourselves at the expense of our neighbor, we all have less in the long run

  • Live the kingdom life by thinking about the other

48:12 Don’t worry about today

•  Matthew 6:31-33 KVJ

  • “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be provided for you”

• We are called into christ to be a new creature a new creation, all the chasing distracts us and keeps us from what we are supposed to be

• The real issue with Christians in America is we are not living Kingdom lives

  • Blame LBGTQIA community or entertainment or Donald Trump and Joe Biden

  • If Christians in America lived by the sermon on the mount the country would be transformed

50:09 Don’t Worry About Tomorrow 

• Matthew 6:34 KVJ

• “Why worry about tomorrow? Each day has enough trouble of its own”

  • This moment you are in is the most important moment of your life

  • Live in trust that God will keep his promises

51:56 Kindness is Key

• Matthew 5:5 KVJ

  • “The gentle are blessed for they will inherit the earth”

• Inheriting does not mean all the possessions and goodies

• False dichotomy: if I hurt you I will buy you something to make up for it; more stuff makes things better(money, accolades, achievement)

  • All Jesus is calling us to is to be kind

• Humility to not always have the place you think you deserve  

• The only thing we are entitled to in the gospel is to have less than our master did(aka Jesus who they killed)

• Culture of disenchantment among Christians

41. Is the U.S. Constitution a Christian Document? with Mike Gaddy

“We the People..” have you ever stopped to consider who was included in that “we”?  

This week Mike Gaddy returns to discuss the question: Is the Constitution a Christian document? Join us for a trip to 1785 Philadelphia where we look inside “the room where it happened” and uncover the possible motives and supposed religiosity of the 55 white men who devised the system that we, two centuries later, are still trying to untangle our basic Liberties from.

Many Christians on the political right, and even the left, considered the United States Constitution to be a Christian document. Yet, the founders avoided consulting with or even making reference to the teachings of Christ or any Deity, Creator, or Higher Power for that matter, in the formation of the Constitution. When we look at what the founders said and did we are left with a very different image of the motives that may have inspired the document that for too long Christians have been misled to see as divine.

You can connect with Mike at rebelmadman.com. He hosts two radio shows, Addicted to Your Own Destruction, (Fridays at 12 PM EST) Forensic Autopsy of Consitution & its Characters, as well as Addicted to Our Own Destruction (6 PM EST) On Rev radio.

Timestamps:

1:35  Mike’s Episode on Succession (Ep. 24)

2:12 Does the Christian-right view the constitution as God-Breathed?

• It’s important to look at how both sides view the constitution in relation to their Christianity

3:31 What Mike has learned from his studies of the Christian Right and Left

• Jury Duty selection and biases

• We should be led by evidence rather than emotion

5:38 Were all the founders Christain?

• Religious - yes; Christain - not necessarily

• Many came to the US to escape religious persecution

• Monotheism vs. Trinitarianism

• Most popular verses with founders were old testament

  • Leviticus 26 KVJ

  • Deuteronomy 28 KVJ

  • New Test: Galatians 5:1 KVJ

9:59 Why Mike is so passionate about this topic

•  Believing something false is going to affect our decision-making process over and over again

• False narratives don’t bear good fruit

13:10 How did we get to the Constitutional Convention?

• Not everyone came for religious freedom, many came for profits

• After 6 years of articles of confederation, many Federalists had gained power

• John Dickinson - author

• Articles of Confederation would prevent career politicians

17:38 Term Limits

• John Birch Society - against term limits

• People vote on emotion not the Constitution

• Thomas Jefferson - Rotation(term limits) allows the people to benefit from the genius of their community, don’t know it without rotation.

• Articles of Confederation allowed for instant recall - do a bad job get instantly recalled

22:26 Term Limits, Taxes, and the Federalist push for the Amending the Articles of Confederation

•  Unlimited taxes from unlimited sources blocked by Article 134 of Articles of Confederation

• Important question: Did the people who went to Philadelphia for the second constitutional convention go to protect the rights of the people or to destroy them and gain power?

  • Red flag: Secrecy of the Convention

    • Constitutional Convention was made secret for 50 years no one could say anything about what occurred even to constituents

    • Blacked out windows and soundproof attempts

26:24 Did the founders at the Constitutional Convention act like Christians?

• “Thou shall not steal” includes taxes

• Quakers in Philadelphia provided a written proposal to Constitutional Convention asking them to outlaw slavery - given to Tinch Cox (president Quaker foundation) and Benjamin Franklin

  • Was never read to the convention for consideration

  • Antislavery/Abolishing slavery was never discussed

•  When slavery was discussed:

  • Luther Martin - known drunk, longest sitting attorney general in US, not a Christain by any record

    • On the topic of slavery: “the revolution was grounded in defense of the natural god-given rights possessed by all mankind, but this constitution is an insult to that god who views with equal eye the poor African slave and his American slave master.

      • Geroge Mason only one who agreed - calling it a “crime against heaven”

• Gandhi: I like your Christ but I don’t like your Christianity

• Were the founders there as delegates to protect the rights of the people or to protect their financial interests?

• Federalist: Oliver Ellsworth and Robert Livingston “we are not here to discuss moral or religious issues, we are here to discuss commerce”

34:11 Samuel Bryant - The Cloak of Divinity

• Antifederalist

• Federalists will have to “cloak their message in divinity to sell it to the American public”

• The easiest thing is to get people to believe what they want to believe

• Patrick Henry - Federalist used his Christain image to push the constitution, though he was most vocal against it (the invention of fake news) 

• 1 Samuel 8 KVJ - choosing a King other than God(probably a bad idea)

39:57 Daniel Dresback (American University Professor) - “one of the most striking features is the absence of the acknowledgment of a supreme deity…”

• Articles of Confederation and Declaration of Independence included acknowledgments to a supreme being

• Franklin noted lack of prayers in the second constitutional convention vs. first

• Alexander Hamilton referred to it’s lack as avoidance of foreign aid

• 12 of 13 colonies has Christian oaths in their states’ Constitutions; Article 6 Clause 3 Federal Constitution did away with these

• Flip Wilson - Christians and Lions; Christians got a great coach but their team is shaky

53:33 Henry Abbot - North Carolina ratification convention delegate

• Foresaw what Article 6 Clause 3 impact would be

54:59 The Fraud of “We the People”

• The population at the time was about 3 million.

• The “we” excluded: women, non-land-owning white men, and enslaved people(about 700,000 at the time)  

• The “we” was about 65,000-80,000 people were eligible to vote out of the 3 million

 57:00 Have things changed since 1787?

• Constitution created a system

• Voting as states the 55 delegates rejected a Bill of Rights but made provisions for slavery

• The first power they gave congress was unlimited taxation from unlimited sources 

59:19 One Verse from New Testament repeated throughout countries founding

• “Stand fast therefore in the liberty of which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yolk of bondage”

• Did they do this, did they protect the individual, or did they protect their own interest?