Watchman on the Wall

Southwest Radio Ministries: 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. A brand new week of bringing clarity to the chaos is underway. This week is American themed. We'll explore American destiny, some of the miracles of American history, and learn how Americans can buy American. We'll also wrap up the week with Josh Davis's headlines from the End Times Report.

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Today on Watchman on the Wall, Prophecy in the News magazine editor Lee’s Cutshall welcomes historian Bill Federer for a fascinating look at God's providential hand during World War I and the Great Depression. Join us as we explore remarkable stories from Miracles in American History and discover how faith sustained a nation through some of its darkest days.

Lee’s Cutshall: Welcome friends to another Watchman on the Wall program. We are this month, as you can imagine, celebrating 250 years of freedom in America. We are also celebrating today having William Bill Federer back to help us better understand the amazing miracles that have occurred in American history. We are excited to have his and his wife Susie's two books, Miracles in American History: Amazing Stories of Answered Prayer, and we are so blessed to have you with us today, Bill. Thank you.

Bill Federer: Well, thank you. It's an honor to be with you.

Lee’s Cutshall: We have been talking about many, many, and there are hundreds of miracles and amazing historical tidbits because you're known as, well, at least with me, America's historian. Also, you are a Christian apologist and well-known in media circles as well as political circles. You have collected over many, many years, I know, many thousands of bits of information, but you can also tell us history from its beginnings, or at least American history from its beginnings abroad to now. Could you tell me today, and what I sort of wanted to start with today is, America was founded, we know, based on Christian principles. How is it that we have moved so far away from that fact and history is being rewritten and people are saying that we are not originally a Christian nation?

Bill Federer: It is a process called deconstruction where you separate a people from their past, get them into a neutral where they don't remember where they came from, and then you brainwash them into the future you have planned for them. It's done throughout history. Whenever a conquering power would come in, like when the Muslims conquered all of North Africa—people forget all of North Africa was Christian for centuries.

St. Augustine of Hippo was from Carthage, today that's Tunisia. Egypt was Christian for six centuries evangelized by Mark that wrote the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And so when the Muslims came in, they destroyed the history. They destroyed the churches. They destroyed museums and graves. In Egypt, they even cut out the tongues of anybody caught speaking Coptic. They eradicated an entire language, and they brought in Arabic. And so this process of erasing the past and then putting in a new DNA, so to speak, is what conquering powers do.

We in America have been under a war, an ideological war, and there is a conquering power. What do they want to do? They want to make it so you get put in jail if you insult the new rulers. And so when Muslims come into Europe, they make it so you cannot insult them. That's one of the parts of Sharia law is that when the Muslims take over a country, the Sharia law is that the infidels are forbidden to insult them, are forbidden to insult their prophet. So when we in the West are really careful not to offend them, we're posturing ourselves as having been conquered. And that's the way they view it as.

Anyway, we've been subjected to this, but when you go back to the history, the history is clearly all Christian. Every colony was started by a different Christian denomination. First, Spain had the New World for a century from Columbus all the way up until the sinking of the Spanish Armada around 1588. And that's when you had more or less an Oklahoma land rush. You had all of these European powers saying, "Hey, Spain's not as tough as we thought." And so the French settled New France, which becomes Canada. Nova Scotia means New Scotland. The British settled New England and Virginia. The Dutch settle New Amsterdam, which becomes New York. The Swedes settle New Sweden, which is then taken over by the Dutch and then turned into Delaware and New Jersey.

Catholics from Ireland settled Maryland, so Baltimore, Maryland. And then Connecticut, New Hampshire were Congregationalists. They were all different Christian denominations. They didn't get along. They would actually chase each other out of each other's colonies. There's lots of history. The Dutch reformed in New York chased out the Quakers. And the Virginia Anglicans chased out the Baptists. Massachusetts Puritans chased out the Quakers and everybody else.

But then when the Revolution started, they all had to work together against the King. And their attitude was, "We don't always agree on religion, but I can't win the war on my own and so I need your help. And then after the war it was, well, you were willing to fight and die for my freedom, I need to let you practice your faith." So they began to tolerate each other.

Lee’s Cutshall: But I guess God is at the center of all of those differing groups and dogmas or disciplines. "In God We Trust" is on our money and was placed on our money and form of exchange, and you mention that in one of your Miracles in American History books. Can you explain to us how that started and maybe we talk about the fact that it's still on our money today?

Bill Federer: Yeah, so Francis Scott Key wrote his Star Spangled Banner and the fourth verse says, "And conquer we must, if our cause it is just, and this be our motto: In God is our trust." Well, it became the motto. Lincoln is the one who put it on our coins around 1862. There was a movement to add Christianity to the preamble of the Constitution. The war was going on and then somebody suggested, "Well, let's add 'In God We Trust' to our coins and leave the Constitution alone."

And so that's what happened. And so it was originally a penny that had "In God We Trust" and then eventually it went to all our coins. And then you had, I think it was 1931, Congress officially adopted "In God We Trust" as our national motto. And then you had the Korean War and Eisenhower. And Eisenhower signed the bill adding "under God" to the pledge of allegiance, this nation under God. And Eisenhower signed the bill to put "In God We Trust" on our paper currency. And so the first paper currency that had "In God We Trust" came off the press October 1st, 1957. Why do I know that? Because that's my birthday. So it was like okay, something special happened that day.

And so we have this heritage and the polling has consistently showed that the majority of Americans believe in God. It peaked with Christianity in the 1950s. About 38 percent of the world identified itself as Christian, only 10 percent Muslim. And then in America, even 1965, the different surveys showed that about 98 percent of Americans identified as Christian. About 25 percent Catholic and then the rest different Protestant denominations, and then just a couple percent Jewish, like even a fraction of a percent atheist.

But Christians have voluntarily removed themselves from government, voluntarily removed themselves from the public school system for whatever series of reasons. They think they're holier, they don't want to get involved because they're waiting for Jesus to come back. And of course the question I ask is, who do you think you're going to meet when you're raptured? Jesus. Does Jesus love the little children? Yes, Jesus loves the little children. You think he might wonder why you didn't do anything to protect them? It's like you know that he loves the children and you're letting them get mutilated in surgeries and you know that he loves the children and you're letting them get aborted.

Lee’s Cutshall: And you talk about that in your book, Silence Equals Consent. That whole book is about should Christians be silent or be bold.

Bill Federer: Yes, and I appreciate Southwest Radio Ministries and yourself for helping to publish that. And so, whatever reason, we've pulled back and now Muslims are coming in and they're voting 100 percent. And they're voting as a block. They don't have a concept of one person, one vote. It's our team against their team. And there's James O'Keefe type videos of Muslim families sitting around their table forging ballots and then having an auction at midnight and then whoever wins, they take their ballots and drop them off in the drop-off box.

But it's our team against their team. That's their Ummah community concept. And so 100 percent of them, I saw one video where they're taking a map of the United States and finding the places where there's low voter turnout where Christians aren't voting and they say, "Hey, let's move in there, we'll take over." So we not only have a Muslim mayor of New York, but there's a concern about Los Angeles and how they now have a Muslim candidate that might win. We need to remind people that America, especially the first 1600s, the first century, you literally had churches founding cities. So everybody's involved in church and everybody's involved in city government.

But the books that we are really excited about is called Miracles in American History and these are stories from our country's past where there's a crisis, they pray, and things turn around. Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, Barbary Pirate War, and some of them even a cholera epidemic of 1849. And if you want I can share something about that.

Lee’s Cutshall: Yes, I have a feeling that something that most people don't even remember from their history classes now. Help us understand how prayer really changed that as you do in your book.

Bill Federer: Yeah, so we have the Revolution, we become independent, and there's what's called the Second Great Awakening revival where you have preachers and camp meeting revivals. Timothy Dwight has a revival at Yale. And then when Jefferson has the Louisiana Purchase, you have what missionaries like Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa go all the way up to Walla Walla, Washington and they're spreading the gospel.

You have the Barbary Pirate wars at this time. People forget the Muslims raided caravans and then they raided ships. And so you'd have countries of Europe paying tribute to the Muslim pirates of the North African coast called Barbary Coast. And when we became independent from Britain, we were no longer covered under the British tribute payment and so that's when the Muslims demanded that we pay up. And so we were paying 20 percent of our federal budget to these Muslim countries as a bribe to leave our ships alone.

When Jefferson gets elected President, he gets a demand from the Pasha of Tripoli for a quarter of a million dollars extortion tribute payment and Jefferson said enough, I want to put my money into building a Navy and he sends over our Navy and Marines and we have the Barbary Pirate wars. There is Francis Scott Key writes a song nine years before he writes the Star Spangled Banner and he celebrates the victory over the Muslim pirates. And he has a line in there: "And pale beamed the crescent, its splendor obscured by the light of the star-spangled flag of our nation, where the turbaned head bowed to the terrible glare and mixed with the olive the laurel shall wave and form a bright wreath for the brow of the brave."

There's a haystack prayer meeting revival that takes place where we're sending missionaries around the world, even to Hawaii. But then the British Empire went on to become the biggest empire in the world and they had India. And India had a religious group that bathed in the sewage-filled Ganges River and they got cholera. And when the British put in railroads, people infected with cholera could quickly go back from India to Europe and spread cholera. It was the disease of the 19th century. Millions died around the world and then it started to come to America.

And you have the President Zachary Taylor has a day of fasting and prayer, the first Thursday in August of 1849. But the death rates were thousands in New York, St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans. 150,000, 12,000 died going out to California and the Oregon Trail because the wagon train would pull around the watering hole and they didn't have proper sewage treatment and it would go in there and the next wagon train would drink the water and get cholera and die.

So Zachary Taylor said, "At a season when a fearful pestilence is spreading itself throughout the land, it is fitting that a people whose reliance has ever been in His protection should humble themselves before His throne, and while acknowledging past transgressions, ask a continuance of Divine mercy. It is therefore recommended that the first Friday in August be observed throughout the United States as a day of fasting and prayer." And so they have this day of fast and the death rates drop off almost immediately there in August of 1849. Just an amazing story that a lot of people don't know about.

Lee’s Cutshall: We're here today with historian Bill Federer looking at the incredible miracles in American history. He has a two-book set called Miracles in American History and it covers from before they land in America to present day and even President Trump between the two differing and very fascinating collections of things that have occurred where prayer made all the difference. You can obtain these books at Southwest Radio Ministries by going to swrc.com or calling us, because we still speak to humans and are humans that you can speak to at 1-800-652-1144.

Bill, thank you so much for that story on cholera and amazingly that an entire country that decides to fast and pray turned the tide and gradually cholera backed off. Are there other instances such as that, let's say maybe during World War I or World War II that you'd like to share with us?

Bill Federer: Yeah, so the President of the United States is Woodrow Wilson when World War I starts and he has a day of fasting and prayer. Imagine that. He says, May 11th, 1918, in a time of war humbly to acknowledge our dependence on Almighty God, implore His aid and protection, a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting. Exhort my fellow citizens of all faiths and creeds to assemble on that day in their several places of worship to pray Almighty God that He may forgive our sins.

And then Woodrow Wilson passes out Bibles. And he writes in the foreword of the Bible: "The Bible is the word of life. I beg that you will read it and find this out for yourselves. When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God because you will have found in it the key to your own heart."

One of the stories is Sergeant Alvin York. And so he is sent over to the Deconville rail line north of Chatel-Chehery, France, Oct 8th, 1918, and they're ambushed. And Sergeant York says the Germans got us, they stopped us dead in our tracks, their machine guns were up there on the highs overlooking well hidden, and then he said we couldn't tell for certain where the terrible heavy fire was coming from. Those machine guns were spitting fire cutting down the undergrowth all around me. Well, all but eight of his group were killed and single-handedly he shoots back and he takes out 32 machine guns.

He kills 28 of the enemy. They stopped lifting their heads up to shoot their machine guns and so he would make turkey calls because he was from the backwoods Kentucky. And then he was charged from behind with six guys with bayonets and he had a revolver with six shots in it and he said I shot them the way you shoot turkey; you shoot the furthest away one first because if you shoot the closest one they'll scatter and you'll never get them. And then he turns back around and up comes a little white flag and the German commander marches down with 132 Germans.

Lee’s Cutshall: Godly turkey hunting.

Bill Federer: He gets the Medal of Honor. He says, "Some of them officers been saying that I, being a mountain boy and accustomed to the woods, done all these things the right way just by instinct. I hadn't never got much learning from books except the Bible. Maybe my instincts are more natural, but that ain't enough to account for the way I come out alive with all those German soldiers raining death on me."

He goes on, "I'm a telling you the hand of God must have been in that fight. Just thinking of them 30 machine guns raining fire point-blank range of 25 yards, and them there pistols and bombs, and those men charged with fixed bayonets and I never receive in a scratch and bringing in 132 prisoners. I've got only one explanation: that God must have heard my prayers." Sergeant Alvin York comes back to America and he starts a Bible school, the Sergeant York Bible Institute, and then Gary Cooper even does a movie about him. Just an amazing story of a courageous Bible-believing man there.

Lee’s Cutshall: And they say that there are no atheists in foxholes and it seems like during wartime countries typically, especially America has come together, its people have come together to pray for their soldiers. How did you see that change things in World War II?

Bill Federer: Yeah, we had Pearl Harbor and then we enter the war. The Japanese take over the Philippines and Douglas MacArthur is one of the highest-ranking officers in our country. Franklin Roosevelt doesn't want him captured so he orders him to leave the Philippines. Meanwhile, you have the Bataan Death March and all kinds of terrible stuff and then finally MacArthur is able to return, October 20th, 1944. And he says, "People of the Philippines, I have returned." He goes on, "By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil. Let no heart be faint, let every arm be steel, let the guidance of Divine God point the way. Follow in His name to the holy grail of righteous victory."

Franklin Roosevelt passes out Gideons New Testaments and Book of Psalms to all the soldiers. And so he writes the foreword: "As Commander in Chief, I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who served in the armed forces of the United States." He goes on to pass all these out, blue ones to the Navy and brown ones to the Army.

And then he gives a D-Day prayer when D-Day happened. He says, "Almighty God, our sons, the pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization." And you think religion? Well, he's passing out New Testaments so what religion is he talking about? Well, Christianity. And so here FDR says that they were fighting to preserve our Christian religion.

I wonder if they'd accuse FDR of being a Christian Nationalist, sort of a funny thought there. But it's really a compliment, right? Yes, I mean the term used to be Christian Patriot but they want to use a negative term. I mean, think of it, why do they call pro-life people anti-abortion? There's no pro-life group that calls itself anti-abortion. It's a label that the leftist media wants to put on them. Negative word association. Well, why do they call patriots nationalists? Negative word association. They just want to put them in a negative light.

But you read some of these quotes from FDR. He said, "Preservation of these rights is vitally important to the whole future of Christian civilization." In another place FDR said, "Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization." And then on May 27th, 1941, FDR says, "The whole world is divided between pagan brutality and the Christian ideal. We choose human freedom which is the Christian ideal."

Lee’s Cutshall: And that's so true today as well.

Bill Federer: Yes, these are important times in our country's past where we've turned to the Lord. We had the victory in the Pacific with the Battle of Midway where we finally decode the Japanese messages. And so we were able to find out that they had four aircraft carriers headed toward this island of Midway and they were going to wipe it out. But we heard about it because we decoded and so we sent off torpedo bombers which go right along the water, release a torpedo that continues to go straight and then they fly away.

Just about all the torpedo bombers got killed, but it wasn't in vain because all of the airplanes on the Japanese carriers had to take off to fly to get rid of the torpedo bombers. And they're landed back on the aircraft carrier and they're all being refueled. Well, while they're being refueled they can't fly. Their whole deck is taken up with this.

We have dive bombers. And these dive bombers are going on radio silence so the Japanese don't know they're coming. They're trying to find the Japanese ships but can't. But then they notice the trail in the water and they follow it and they find these aircraft carriers and a dive bomber gets above the aircraft carrier, points its nose down and dives straight down like you're going to crash into it. At the last minute they unhook the bomb that continues to go down and meanwhile they pull back as fast as they can to try to not crash and then they get away.

In 15 minutes the dive bombers sank three of the four Japanese carriers. And immediately the Japanese had to go from the offensive to the defensive. That eventually led to the defeat of the Imperial Japanese in the Pacific. And then in Europe you have the Nazis and I don't know if we have time to share any of those stories.

Lee’s Cutshall: Well, maybe we'll save those for our next talk with you, our next program because there's just so much to cover we can't squeeze that into just a few minutes. But to maybe close things today I want to remind everyone that we've been talking with William Bill Federer, America's historian as I call him, about Miracles in American History, a two-book set by him and his wife who helped him put all the amazing stories about how prayer has changed and made such a great difference in our country. You can get that or those, both those books, for yourself and for others at swrc.com or by calling 1-800-652-1144. Bill, thank you so much for another array of incredible stories from American history from a godly perspective. We look forward to hearing more of those and we are so grateful to God for you. Thank you for joining us again.

Bill Federer: Thank you, it's always an honor.

Southwest Radio Ministries: Has God intervened in the history of the United States? Discover the answer with the Miracles in American History collection from Southwest Radio Ministries. This inspiring collection includes four DVDs and two books that explore remarkable moments where God's providential hand can be seen throughout our nation's history.

Volume One examines the Revolutionary War era and the extraordinary events that helped secure America's freedom. Volume Two of the DVD explores independence, the Barbary Pirate conflicts, and the War of 1812. Volume Three covers the Battle of New Orleans, the Bank War, cholera outbreaks, the Civil War, the founding of the Red Cross, George Washington Carver, World War I, and the Great Depression. Volume Four continues with World War II, the Korean War, the Apollo space program, and other incredible stories of God's providence in modern history.

You'll also receive Miracles in American History Volumes One and Two, two fascinating books filled with inspiring accounts of faith, courage, prayer, and divine intervention that help shape the American story. Get all four DVDs and two books for a gift of just 110 dollars, with shipping included. Order 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. To learn more, visit swrc.com.