Watchman on the Wall

Guest (Male): Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne, and prayer changes things. How did biblical truth influence the founding fathers? Well, today, Dr. Larry Spargimino and Josh Davis will answer this question, and they're going to dig even deeper into the faith of our nation's founders.

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America was not built by a ragtag collection of godless rebels. Rather, biblical principles guided many patriots to establish a nation unique in world history—a nation not built on geography, but on an ideal. How did biblical truth influence America's founders? Dr. Larry Spargimino and Josh Davis explore statements from the founding fathers and their impact on the world. Plus, Pastor Larry provides several practical ways that you and I can pray for America on today's Watchman on the Wall.

Josh Davis: Greetings, friends. We are privileged to be joined by the host of Watchman on the Wall, Pastor Larry Spargimino, as we bring you more "Faith of America's Founding Fathers." We understand the biblical foundation upon which this nation was formed, and many of our founding fathers, including the pilgrim forefathers who came generations before this country was officially birthed, they came seeking religious liberty, religious freedom, freedom to worship God according to the scriptures. We are so glad for the biblical foundation of this nation. Pastor Larry, thank you so much for joining me again.

Larry Spargimino: Glad to be with you, Josh.

Josh Davis: Let's begin by looking at Benjamin Franklin. You have some unique information that you'd like to share with our listeners regarding this man, Benjamin Franklin, and his viewpoints on Christianity.

Larry Spargimino: Well, Ben Franklin was 70 when he signed the Declaration of Independence. He was the oldest signer. Franklin's sometimes witty statements and personal quotations continue even today to generate discussions about the relationship between faith, reason, and morality. He really had a complex view on Christianity and its place in society.

Was he a Bible-believing Christian? Some even call Franklin a towering figure of the Enlightenment because of some of the things he said. Well, Franklin, along with the other signers of the Declaration, believed in the importance of virtue and moral conduct. He emphasized that religion should promote ethical behavior and civic responsibility.

Well, was Franklin a believer or a skeptic? One of his most noteworthy statements reveals a lot about his beliefs. He said, "I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his knowledge, is it probable that a nation can rise without his aid?" That was from Ben Franklin, and that sounds very basic. I would say amen 100 times to that.

But here are some of the remarkable quotations from Franklin and their possible alignment with the Bible. He said, "The best way to make a friend is to be one." The meaning: the importance of reciprocal relationships. Actually, there are some 58 "one another" verses in the New Testament. So, yeah, I think that statement, "the best way to make a friend is to be one," really lines up with scripture.

Here's another of Franklin's quotes. He says this: "A good reputation is better than money." Now, that's certainly in line with scripture. The emphasis is on good character, something money can't buy. In the book of Proverbs and throughout the scriptures, we find that truth that is hammered away many times.

Here's another one. Franklin said, "God helps those who help themselves." You know, at first sight, it looks carnal beyond belief, but I don't believe it is. Praying will only be effective if you and I are willing to be a part of the answer. Don't pray for the salvation of a friend unless you're willing to share the gospel with him. Don't pray to lose weight unless you're willing to stick with an exercise and diet program.

I like this one from Franklin. He said, "Wish not for more, but make the most of what you have." Of course, in the Bible, Christian contentment is a priority in the life of a disciple of Jesus. Here's another one that Franklin put together: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." You know, there's a high priority on diligence and hard work in scripture.

We're to be responsible stewards of the time and resources that the Lord has given to us. And we certainly need to abide by this one: "A penny saved is a penny earned." Frugality and hard work are key biblical virtues. So, I like Benjamin Franklin. He was one of a kind. He was willing to put his life on the line and sign the Declaration of Independence. His wit, his endeavors in the field of science with lightning was a little dangerous, but he was a man of great learning, great depth, and I think he understood the basics very, very well.

Josh Davis: That's so true. And another aspect of Benjamin Franklin's life that a lot of people are just not aware of was that he was close friends with George Whitefield, that famous preacher from the Great Awakening. In fact, it was Franklin who printed a lot of Whitefield's sermons and attended a lot of his meetings in Philadelphia's courthouse steps.

They estimated that at one of those services, about 25,000 people were in attendance. Churches weren't available to hold a crowd that large, and so Franklin helped to build an auditorium, and that would become part of the University of Pennsylvania. They commemorated that with a bronze statue of George Whitefield.

The two shared letters back and forth with one another, encouraging each other in the Christian faith. In fact, in 1764, Franklin wrote to Whitefield and ended with this salutation: "Your frequently repeated wishes and prayers for my eternal as well as temporal happiness are very obliging. I can only thank you for them and offer you mine in return." And so we see this close friendship that he had with the famous preacher George Whitefield.

Speaking of Benjamin Franklin, Pastor Larry, I know that one of the big things going on in our nation right now, the US Supreme Court recently ruled about birthright citizenship and all those kinds of things. Citizenship is very much in the news today. You've done some research and you've found some things that our founders had to say about citizenship. Could you share that with us today as well?

Larry Spargimino: Yes, thank you, Joshua. What is a citizen of the United States? Well, citizenship is a very, very important concept. It's important with me and you, and it was certainly important with the founders. The 14th Amendment says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

Citizenship means you meet certain qualifications and that you support the flag of the United States and are in support of the US Constitution. Now, that's pretty important. If you're going to live here, if you're going to be able to vote, if you're going to be walking our streets, I think there are some requirements. Are you a friend, or are you a foe? How can we have somebody in the country with all the privileges and rights of citizenship who is an enemy of the US Constitution?

But what about birthright citizenship? If your mother comes from another country illegally and she's pregnant and you are born in America, does that mean you are a citizen of the United States? We need to remember that the 14th Amendment was never imagined to provide a loophole for lawlessness or illegal immigration. That's very basic, and it's sometimes used in a very wrong way.

Its purpose was to secure the full civil status of former slaves who had been brought here against their will and then freed. They were living here. They knew about this country. The 14th Amendment declared them citizens, not as a political trick, but as a moral necessity for people who were already in this nation.

So after a time, the 14th Amendment produced what was called birth tourism and anchor baby strategies. These were efforts to establish permanent footholds in the United States without any commitment to its laws, history, or ideals. I think that's very dangerous. This becomes especially dangerous when combined with ideologies that clearly reject the US Constitution, like Islam, and we've spoken about that previously.

Our republic cannot survive if it grants the highest civic status to people who neither respect our laws nor intend to protect its liberties. And I think this is where there are people who are knowledgeable and they try to use their knowledge against us and the good and the well-being of the United States of America. So, I think we need to take citizenship very, very seriously. It is important. Citizens have been here. They've built the country. They've built towns, they've built churches, they've built companies. They've put their sweat and tears and farms and lands and so forth, and to just disregard that is, I believe, immoral.

Josh Davis: Yes, Pastor Larry, and we understand that it is a great privilege to be a citizen of the United States of America and that it is an important distinction. I know that the globalists today would like to wash away all national citizenships. I believe that there is a strong push for making people part of a global citizenship.

I remember reading something that was on some university campuses, even here in the United States of America, saying your natural citizenship was an accident. In other words, you didn't really have anything to do with which country you were born in, but your global citizenship can be your choice. And they were encouraging people to be part of this global citizenship. No more seeing the importance of your sovereign country in which you were born, but be part of this global whole. And there's a strong push for those kinds of things.

We need to really understand what citizenship is and why the founding fathers drafted some of the documents and the parameters that you've just described to us, Pastor Larry. Friends, we are visiting with Pastor Larry Spargimino. He's the host of Watchman on the Wall, and we're bringing you some patriotic programming to help you understand the biblical foundations upon which this nation was built.

Many of our founding documents, people who had biblical worldviews helped to frame those very documents. We're bringing you this information so that you'll understand the foundation of this country and how it is built upon the historic Christian faith. We have lots of great resources available to you, whether that's DVDs, videos, books, so much wonderful information that you can avail yourself of by going to swrc.com.

That's swrc.com or give us a call, 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Just to give you an idea of the kinds of things that we have available during this special month of July, we have a brand-new book by Pastor Doug Stauffer, "America at 250." And we also have wonderful books about certain people from American history, including a book about George Washington.

We have wonderful resources from people like Bill Federer, "America's God and Country," an encyclopedia of quotations, "Miracles in American History," and on and on and on we could go. So we encourage you to check out those resources and bring those things into your home so that you can have the information and the resources to continually go back to so that you can equip yourself with this information and that you can show the next generation coming: look at how this nation was begun and look at who helped to start these things.

Pastor Larry, as we return to some of our founding fathers, let's look at the Federalist Papers. There were some men who were instrumental in the Federalist Papers, which helped to promote the US Constitution and that very crucial document that was formed in the early years of the USA. Men like James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay—so instrumental in the Federalist Papers. Could you explore a little bit and explain a little bit about who they were, the background behind them?

Larry Spargimino: Well, yes. The Federalist Papers are a collection of 85 essays written by Alexander Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay, as you've mentioned, under the collective pseudonym Publius. Let's look at the faith of these three men and some of the things they believed.

Now, Madison was the fourth president of the United States. He wrote, "The belief in God, who is all-powerful, wise, and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man." Now, that's a tremendous statement.

Here's one by Alexander Hamilton. He wrote, "How clearly is it proved by this that the praise of a civilized world is justly due to Christianity. War, by the humane principles of that religion, has been stripped of half its horrors. The French renounce Christianity and they relapse into barbarism. War resumes the same hideous and savage form which it wore in the ages of Gothic and Roman violence."

So, Hamilton, I think that was a tremendous statement. He points out about the French renouncing Christianity and he says they have relapsed into barbarism. Hamilton considered that despotism was an inevitable result of the loss of morality stemming from a decline in religious practice. So he really believed that Christianity was very important.

Here's something by John Jay, who would be appointed by George Washington as the nation's first Supreme Court Justice. He wrote this: "The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and the next. Continue, therefore, to read it and regulate your life by its precepts."

So these quotations from the authors of the Federalist Papers do not even remotely suggest that the founders intended to establish some kind of a theocratic kingdom. That's not what they were trying to do. But these quotes provide, I believe, solid evidence that the major spiritual influence of America's founders was the Christian faith.

And I think we can always go back to that. I know there are those who try to separate Christianity from our founders. I don't think you can really do it. I know there's been a lot of books written from the other side. I think they all fall flat, and we have certainly quoted some things that prove that Christianity was very, very important and is still important.

Josh Davis: Yes, that's so true because their biblical worldview guided and directed their decision, their motivation, and why they did what they did in so many cases. And I know that we are somewhat painting with a broad brush. There were certainly founders who were not God-honoring people, and we understand that, but these men that we are pointing out, they had that biblical foundation, they had that worldview framework, and that guided and propelled a lot of the decisions that they made. Pastor Larry, why is America unique in human history? What's so special about the United States of America?

Larry Spargimino: America is really unique in human history because it's the first nation founded on ideas rather than race, tribe, geography, monarchy, or conquest. You look at all the other countries, these are things that got them going. They were different from other people. They won a war. They lived in a different geographical area and so forth.

The idea that we're founded on ideas rather than race, or tribe, or geography, or monarchy, or conquest—so anyone willing to embrace those ideas could be an American. And I think that's a very, very important point. It has nothing to do with race, ethnicity, gender, but do you embrace these ideas? And that, I think, is what we're all about.

Josh Davis: That is true. You know, it's become popular for a lot of people to trash America and to bash its founding fathers and just to say they hate America and they want to get out of here and everything else. So what would you say to those who trash America constantly?

Larry Spargimino: Well, the founders did not believe that America was perfect in every way, nor did they speak of a continual line of divine approval. But they did believe that America has a specific destiny. Daniel 2:21, I think, captures the idea. He changeth the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and setteth up kings. He giveth wisdom to the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding.

I would readily admit that from the very beginning, America had deep moral failures: slavery, injustice toward the Indian population, and others. But the presence of sin did not cancel God's plans, but it did call the nation to humility, repentance, and confession of sin. The Bible shows that God blesses nations when they repent and seek repentance. And I think we see so much of that in our founders. They were not deluded like, oh, we're going to be a perfect people. No, we have a lot of issues, but we believe that God does hear our prayers. We believe that there is a place for repentance and changing our way and changing our thinking. And I think that's commendable.

Josh Davis: Absolutely. And you're talking about prayer, you're talking about repentance. I know that you have some special points that you want to share with our audience about how we can pray for America in our current day. Would you share that with us, Pastor Larry?

Larry Spargimino: Well, certainly we believe that God is still on the throne and prayer changes things. America needs prayer. So I want to suggest some high-priority items.

First of all, we need to pray that truth will prevail. Truth means conformity to fact, but today truth is what you want it to be. Everyone has their own truth. For many people, something is true if it conforms to an ideology. Boy, that's a basic item of prayer. Pray that truth will prevail.

Secondly, pray for protection from our national enemies. We remember on December the 7th, 1941, the Japanese Empire launched a surprise attack on the American naval fleet at Pearl Harbor. 2,400 Americans were killed; another 1,100 were wounded. Or on September the 11th, 2001, Islamic terrorists hijacked four airliners and crashed them into several important sites. Thousands were killed. Now, these groups wanted world conquest. America was in the way. There are still those who hate us. Some are already here. So we need to pray for protection from our national enemies.

And then thirdly, we need to pray for protection from our spiritual enemies. We all have powerful enemies who want to interfere with our well-being. Ephesians 6:12 tells us that our struggle is not against people, but against a very dark and malevolent spirit world. Because of our national sins, or I believe our hedge of protection is gone, we have to stand strong. We won't survive without God's help.

Here's the fourth one: pray for missions and evangelism. Right now, America has more opportunities for gospel outreach than ever before, and that's good news. Jesus never canceled the Great Commission.

Here's number five: pray for national unity. Oh, I think we need that. We're so divided. That's a big prayer item. We remember that on April the 4th, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. That produced race riots across America. Now, in that same year, Alabama Governor George Wallace entered the presidential race. His slogan was—listen to this—segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever. Wow. So today many people believe that unity is impossible. Christians need to show that it is possible. The church needs to be an example.

Number six, and I believe this one very strongly, we as Americans need to pray for those in law enforcement. Thank God for the men and women who serve in law enforcement. Many officers carry heavy burdens. Constant exposure to violence, public criticism, and the strain of their work puts on families makes life difficult for officers and their families. So some people they think of the police as a necessary evil. I think we should think of the police as God's gift to society.

And then number seven: pray for those who are deceived by false religions. Jesus promised that in the last days, there will be many false teachers and false prophets. They are in our midst right now. The culture making great inroads and there's a new spirituality and the New Age movement. Sadly, they are attractive and promise peace without conviction, joy without righteousness. And there are many other prayer needs, but these seven, I think, are very fundamental. We need to really be prayer warriors for America, our beloved country.

Josh Davis: Amen. Thank you so much, Pastor Larry. That's very practical and helpful to help us to understand how we can be praying for the United States of America. I love the freedoms that we enjoy here, and we have the freedom to share the good news of Jesus Christ. We have the freedom to proclaim his gospel. In some countries, that is just not the case, and that's why we as the church need to protect the freedom to share the gospel so that our churches can freely support missions endeavors around the world, as we have done for many, many, many, many years. And we're so glad that we can do that. Pastor Larry, we just have about a minute or so left. Do you have any closing thoughts you'd like to leave our audience with today?

Larry Spargimino: Yes, I really do. I pastor a bilingual church, Mandarin and English, and these folks come from another country, most of them do, and they really appreciate America. We need to appreciate America. And I think the reason why they appreciate America is because they know what it's like in other parts of the world. So, friends, love America. We're not perfect, but we are certainly exceptional, and people who have been raised under a different system, under a tyranny, they really appreciate our country, and that's what we need to do as well.

Josh Davis: Amen. Thank you so much, Pastor Larry. It's been a joy to visit with you these last couple of days, and thank you for all the wealth of information and knowledge that you have shared with us, and we're just praying the Lord would continue to bless you and minister through you to many others.

Larry Spargimino: Thank you so much. It's always a blessing to me to be with you. You do such a great job in keeping things moving.

Josh Davis: Well, thank you, Pastor Larry. And friends, don't forget to check out all the wonderful resources that we have available at swrc.com. That's swrc.com or by giving us a call, 1-800-652-1144, 1-800-652-1144. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

Guest (Male): As America celebrates 250 years of freedom, now is the perfect time to rediscover the faith and principles that shaped our nation. Southwest Radio Ministries invites you to explore four powerful resources: learn America's Christian heritage with historian Bill Federer in the book "America's God and Country"; discover the faith-filled legacy of our first president in Scott Ischia's book, "George Washington: A Life Lived for God and Country"; trace four centuries of God's providential hand on our nation with Michael Samuel Smith's DVD, "American Destiny: 400 Years"; and examine America's possible role in the last days through Donald Perkins' eye-opening DVD, "America in Bible Prophecy."

These timeless resources will deepen your understanding of America's past and help you view its future through a biblical lens. Order these books and DVDs today at swrc.com or call 1-800-652-1144. That's swrc.com or 1-800-652-1144. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful listeners like you. Learn more by visiting swrc.com.