Pathway to Victory

David: Hey podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. You know, Pathway to Victory is a non-profit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. And right now, your generous gift will have twice the impact, thanks to the In God We Trust $1.5 million matching challenge, active now through July 5th. To give a special matching challenge gift, go to PTV.org/donate, or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. What has happened is we have allowed the secularist, the humanist, the atheist, the infidels, to pervert our Constitution into something our founding fathers never intended. And it is time for Americans to stand up and say, "Enough!" We're not going to allow this in our Christian country anymore. It is time to put an end to this.

David: Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. The America in which we live today is but a faint shadow of what our founding fathers fought to establish. Every day, local and high court judges are busy redefining marriage, while politicians are working to silence Christians throughout the public square. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress calls America back to her Christian roots.

David: But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. On the weekend that we celebrate our nation's independence, I can't think of a better subject to address than the Christian heritage that is ours to enjoy. You see, no matter what the pundits say, America is a Christian nation.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: In a moment, I'll give you ample evidence to validate our Christian legacy. But first, it's absolutely essential that I remind you about the In God We Trust matching challenge that concludes Sunday night at midnight. You still have a few more hours remaining to double the impact of your gift to Pathway to Victory. You can choose the size of your gift, and it will be doubled in impact because of this matching challenge. It's a win for you. It's a win for Pathway to Victory, and it's also a win for America.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: These proceeds will be invested directly into providing Pathway to Victory to listeners across our great nation. Please, don't let the day pass without participating in this exciting effort. You can give online by going to PTV.org. And we'll give our phone number and mailing address later in the program as well.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Now, it's time to turn our attention to a message I started earlier this week. I'm going to equip you with the factual history about America's spiritual heritage. I've titled my message, "America is a Christian Nation."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Now today, in the minutes that we have, I want to do three things. First of all, I want us to look at the historical evidence for the Christian founding of our country. Secondly, I want us to look at our detour from that Christian foundation of our nation. And then finally, we're going to look at the consequences of renouncing our Christian foundation as a country.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: First of all, let's look at the historical evidence. What is the evidence this nation was founded as a Christian nation? Well, first of all, let's look at the spiritual beliefs of our founders. 52 of the 55 men who attended the Constitutional Convention were orthodox Christians. Some years ago, two professors from the University of Houston, Charles Lynam and Donald Luntz, did a study to try to determine whom our founding fathers quoted the most.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: More than a third of all the founding fathers' quotes came directly from the Bible. And another 60% came from those authors who had based their writings on the Bible. And it's that historical fact that caused Ken Woodward, writing in Newsweek Magazine, in an article, "How the Bible Made America", to come to this conclusion. He said, "Now, historians are discovering that the Bible, even perhaps more than the Constitution, is our founding document."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: That is Newsweek Magazine. This is not Christianity Today, it's Newsweek Magazine. Our founding document is the Bible. That is what the history says. Never did the founders believe the so-called establishment clause would be used to absolutely silence prayers at graduations or Ten Commandment displays in the courthouses or nativity displays in the town square. That was never the intent of the founding fathers.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: You say, "Well, that kind of makes sense, but how do you know that for sure?" Not only listen to the writings and the words of our founding fathers, look at the early court rulings. These court rulings not only show that the nation was founded on a Christian foundation, but in many cases, government was encouraged to support the Christian faith.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: For example, consider the case of Runkel versus Winemiller in 1799. Now, remember, 1799 is seven years after the ratification of the First Amendment and the no establishment of a religion clause. In 1799, the Supreme Court of Maryland said in its decision, "By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: For the next case, Vidal versus Girard's Executors, 1844. Now, this was a complicated case, but here's the gist of it. A man died in Philadelphia, a very wealthy man, and in his will, he left his proceeds to the starting of a school for orphans. They used to call those colleges back then, a school for orphans, but he had one stipulation, that is no Christian minister could teach in his school that he was funding. And the Supreme Court actually ended up upholding this man's will.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Why did they uphold it? Because they said the fact that you can't have a minister teach doesn't keep Christianity from being taught in the schools. And this was what they said, "Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the college? Its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: And likewise, the court had something to say about those who would say, "Well then you've got to treat all religions the same." They said, "It is unnecessary for us, however, to consider what the legal effect of such a device in Pennsylvania for the establishment of a school or college for the propagation of Judaism or Deism or any other form of infidelity."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: "Such a case is not to be presumed to exist in a Christian country." Not only do you have to look to the court rulings and the utterances of the fathers, but look at something else that is so fascinating. Did you know for the first 150 years of the founding of America, and even after the ratification of the Constitution, for 150 years, there was a schoolbook that was used in grade schools for children? It was called the New England Primer.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: It contained prayers, creeds, even Bible verses that children had to memorize. Can you imagine children having to learn that today in schools? Today, they're not even allowed to acknowledge there is a God, or there's even a designer who created the world in which we live. But 150 years ago, this is what children were learning.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: You say, "What happened, pastor? How do you account for the seismic shift away from our nation's Christian foundation?" Well, it all began in 1947. That is the first time that the United States Supreme Court ever used the phrase, "the separation of church and state." And that's an amazing thing when you think about it. If this was such a foundational doctrine of our country, why did the Supreme Court never mention that for 150 years?

Dr. Robert Jeffress: It wasn't until 1947, the case of Everson versus the Board of Education. This was a case in which the state of New Jersey was using tax dollars to support religious schools. Back then, the only religious schools were Catholic schools. And the justice who delivered the majority opinion was Justice Hugo Black. And he said, "This breaches the separation of church and state, which is high and impregnable."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Now, many researchers of recent days have pointed out that Hugo Black, the justice who delivered this decision, had also been a member of the Ku Klux Klan. And the only people the Ku Klux Klan hated more than blacks were Catholics. In fact, two recent members of the Supreme Court, the late Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas, agreed that this was a bigoted ruling. In fact, Clarence Thomas said, "This doctrine, the separation of church and state, born in bigotry, should be buried."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: That was the first stone in this wall that is being built by secularists. The second stone was Engel versus Vitale, 1962. In that case, the court ruled that students could no longer voluntarily offer this 22-word prayer. "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Have you ever read anything more offensive than that? We pray for our teachers, our country, our parents. But the Supreme Court said, "Children can no longer voluntarily say that prayer." Why? Because it breached the constitutional wall of separation between church and state. And the court went on to say, "A union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Now, that sounds so enlightened and intellectual to us today. But compare that to what John Quincy Adams said, "The highest glory of the American Revolution was that it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government and the precepts of Christianity." You know, ironically, even though these schoolchildren can't say that 22-word prayer, every day, every session, the United States Congress begins its session in prayer.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: And yet, in 1970, the Supreme Court said that it was unconstitutional for a group of students before school to gather together on school ground and read the prayer printed in the Congressional Record of the United States. Is that not lunacy? That's where we're going as a country.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: A third case, Abington School District versus Schempp, 1963. This is the case that outlawed students voluntarily reading ten verses of Scripture at the beginning of each school day. They brought in experts to say why that was not a good thing. One expert actually said, "If portions of the New Testament were read without exclamation, they could be psychologically harmful to the children."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Now, again, compare that to what the Supreme Court had said in 1844, "Why may not the Bible, especially the New Testament, be read and taught as divine revelation in the schools? Its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Then the next stone, 1967, the Spain versus DeKalb County Community School District. In that case, the Supreme Court allowed a lower court ruling saying that a kindergarten teacher could no longer have her students recite not a prayer, but this poem. And here's the poem: "We thank You for the flowers so sweet. We thank You for the food we eat. We thank You for the birds that sing. We thank You for everything."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: The Supreme Court said you can no longer have children say that. Because even though the poem doesn't mention God, it could cause the children to think about God, and that's unconstitutional.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: The final stone came in 1980. Interestingly, the case is Stone versus Graham. And the situation here was, copies of the Ten Commandments had been donated to schools in Kentucky and were posted in hallways. Nothing else was on the display except the Ten Commandments. No teaching of it, no recitation of it. It was just purchased with private funds and posted in the hallways of Kentucky schools.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: And in 1980, the Supreme Court said, "You can no longer post these words, Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not murder." You can't post it any longer. What was their reasoning? I quote directly from Stone versus Graham, "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey the commandments."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: "However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotional, it is not permissible as a state objective under the establishment clause of the First Amendment." Can you believe that? We can't post these words any longer, because if we do, the children might read them. They might venerate and respect them. And if they respect the words, heaven forbid, they might actually obey the words. And that is unconstitutional. What lunacy. We have let the inmates out to run the asylum here.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: That's exactly what is going on. Compare that to what, for example, John Adams said, "Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is totally incapable of governing any other kind of people." Or think about again, 1844, the Supreme Court, "Why may not the Bible, especially the New Testament, be read and taught as divine revelation, and its glorious principles of morality inculcated?"

Dr. Robert Jeffress: And here's the question: What has changed? What has changed? In these 150 years, has the Constitution changed and nobody told us? Is that what happened? Of course not. What has happened is we have allowed the secularist, the humanist, the atheist, the infidels, to pervert our Constitution into something our founding fathers never intended. And it is time for Americans to stand up and say, "Enough!" We're not going to allow this in our Christian country anymore. It is time to put an end to this.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Now, I'm almost through, but I'm not quite through. This morning, I got up early, and I was flipping through my telephone, different articles, and I read a column about me. And this liberal writer made an amazing concession. He made an amazing concession. He said, "You know, the truth is, Jeffress probably has a point to make. Looking at the early writings of the fathers, the early court rulings, he has a case to make that America was founded with a bias toward Christianity."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: "But I would remind Jeffress that the founding fathers, and even the Constitution at times, also embraced slavery. But that didn't make it right." By the way, that shows you how perverted and twisted the liberal mind is, to equate obedience to God with slavery. He said, "Just because the early founders subscribed to this proposition that America is a Christian nation, doesn't make it right."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Well, fair enough. Let's look finally at the consequences. What has happened in our country since we have loosed ourselves from our Christian foundation and become a secular nation? Is our country better off today that we have found this freedom from God? Is it? Let's look at the evidence. William Bennett, the former Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan, back in the early '90s, issued what he called the Index of Leading Cultural Indicators.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: He studied the trends for 30 years between 1960 and 1990, the years that correspond with the judiciary's all-out assault on Christianity in our country. What happened during that period of time? There was a 419% increase in illegitimate births, a quadrupling in divorce rates, a more than 200% increase in the teenage suicide rate, a drop of almost 80 points in SAT scores, and a 560% increase in violent crimes.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: And today, the trend continues. Over 10 million teenagers in the US drink alcohol regularly. 20% of those engage in binge drinking. Nearly 2,800 children die each year as a result of gun violence, and another 14,300 are injured. Nearly 1 million babies were murdered in the womb last year, and one in four women in the US will have aborted at least one of their children by age 45. In 2011, over half a million teenagers became pregnant, with about 30% of those pregnancies ending in abortion.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Are these tragedies just a coincidence? Not when you consider God's warning to His people 3,000 years ago. A warning that is just as applicable today as it was then. In Hosea 4:6, God talked about what happens to a nation that forgets Him and forsakes Him. He said, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being my priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Ladies and gentlemen, God is no respecter of people or nations. Any nation that reverences God will be blessed by God. And any nation, including the United States, that rejects God will be rejected by God. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: I close today with the reflections of a man who could hardly be labeled a conservative. When I was growing up here in Dallas, in the '50s and '60s, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for much of that time was a man named Earl Warren. Many of you remember Chief Justice Earl Warren. In the South, he was vilified. He was thought to be a communist pinko liberal. People hated Earl Warren.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: As I look back as an adult now, I see the reason people in the South hated him in many cases, it was because he believed in the equality of the races. He was trying to get justice for people regardless of their race. But that wasn't always talked about. It was talked about how liberal he was. And yet, in 1954, Earl Warren gave this assessment of our nation's Christian heritage. He said, "I believe no one can read the history of our country without realizing the Good Book and the spirit of the Savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: "Whether we look to the first charter of Virginia, or to the charter of New England, or to the charter of Massachusetts Bay, or to the fundamental orders of Connecticut, the same object is present, a Christian land governed by Christian principles. I believe the entire Bill of Rights came into being because the knowledge our forefathers had of the Bible and their belief in it."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: "Freedom of belief, of expression, of assembly, of petition, the dignity of the individual, the sanctity of the home, equal justice under the law, and the reservation of powers to the people. I like to believe that we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: The nation that reverences God will be blessed by God. The nation that rejects God will be rejected by God. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: May God be honored, and may our country prosper as we declare our allegiance to God alone. I'm pleased to say that we're prepared to send a video DVD of today's message in its entirety to anyone who gives a generous gift to the In God We Trust matching challenge. My message is called, "America is a Christian Nation."

Dr. Robert Jeffress: To be clear, the goal amount of the matching challenge is $1.5 million. And the deadline for receiving your gift is July 5th at midnight. So, it's critically important that you respond right away. Every dollar you're able to give to the matching challenge will be matched and therefore doubled in ministry impact until we reach the goal.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: In an age where the Christian values that we hold dear are being mocked and scorned, let us stand firm on the biblical principles of faith, family, and freedom that have guided our great nation. Your generous contribution to the matching challenge allows us to boldly proclaim Christ and His word and to remain a beacon of hope to a world in need. When you give, I'll be sending you two resources.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: The first is the 250th commemorative edition of "America is a Christian Nation." Next, the In God We Trust DVD featuring teaching from me on the future of our nation and a patriotic music disc featuring 12 powerful performances by the First Baptist Dallas Choir and Orchestra. Together, these resources will strengthen your faith, stir your patriotism, and remind you that God has blessed our nation. Thank you for standing by our side. I deeply appreciate your partnership in the ministry of Pathway to Victory.

David: Here's David to tell you more. When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request the brand new 250th commemorative edition of "America Is a Christian Nation." In addition to the book, you'll also receive In God We Trust, a brand new two-disc set featuring music performances by the First Baptist Dallas Choir and Orchestra, and teaching from Dr. Robert Jeffress.

David: To request these resources, call 866-999-2965, visit PTV.org, or text PTV to 78800. And when you give $100 or more, we'll also send you the America and the Bible message series on DVD, video, and MP3 format audio disc set. And remember, because of the In God We Trust matching challenge, your gift to Pathway to Victory will be matched and therefore doubled in impact. But the deadline is quickly approaching on July 5th at midnight.

David: So be sure to get in touch with us today before it's too late. One more time, call 866-999-2965, or go online to PTV.org. You can also send your donation by mail. Write to PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.

David: I'm David J. Mullins, wishing you a very happy Fourth of July weekend. And join us next week for the start of the series, "The Solomon Secrets", right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

David: You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. And right now, your ministry gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact thanks to the In God We Trust $1.5 million matching challenge. Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on July 5th. To give toward the matching challenge, go to PTV.org/donate, or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.