Apologia Radio

484. Should Christians Celebrate 4th of July?

Join us for the newest episode of Apologia Radio in which we ask the question, "Should Christians celebrate the 4th of July?" What did those Christians during the time of the War for Independence believe about going to war? Can Christians support what happened? We are joined by Zach Lautenschlager from The Sentinel as we explore this vital portion of our nation's history. https://www.republicsentinel.com/

Duration:: 1h 26m
Broadcast on:: 04 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Non-rockabotas must stop. I don't want to rock the boat. I want to sink it Are you gonna bark all day a little doggy, or are you gonna bite? Delusional is okay in your worldview. I'm an animal. You don't chastise chickens for being delusional You don't chastise pigs for being delusional. So you calling me delusional using your worldview is perfectly okay It doesn't really hurt I just hung up on them Desperate times call for faithful men and not for careful men The careful men come later and write the biographies of the faithful men lauding them for their courage Go into all the world and make disciples not go into the world and make buddies not to make roses, right? Don't go into the world and make homies, right? Disciples, I got a bit of a jiggle neck *Laughing* That's a joke, Master. When we have the real message of truth, we cannot let somebody say their speaking truth when they're not The sum of your word is truth and all of your righteous rules endure forever and then love that verse Love this song It's a good chill way to enter into this Fourth of July celebration. I'm just trying to figure out how you spell "endur" "endur" Like us, we just just sit here for a minute for everyone. Let everyone welcome This is probably what you're doing. You're out barbecuing right now. It's a good background You're out there celebrating the fourth and we're recording kids are playing and we're in the studio Because we are here to serve you about to be some fireworks on this broadcast. That's right This is the gospel heard around the world. Apologia radio everybody get more at Apologia Studios.com APOLOGIA Studios.com go there first and foremost gets you're free Bons and you account if you don't have it you need it. You should have got it a long time ago bons and you all of the teaching seminary lectures courses church sermons Preaching all of that from dr. Greg bonsen is all there as a gift to you through us From the bonsen family dr. Greg bonsen in my mind one of the greatest philosophers christian apologists in the history of the christian church We got his stuff. It's all yours seminary level seminary level education tripping over my words today seminary level education for free And I want to say thank you to all of our all-access partners in ministry you make everything we do possible Including bonsen you for free accessible to everybody for free with their own account If you've seen it across the mininets It's because we have ministry partners just like you the senate for all access when you do You make all this ministry possible bring the gospel around the world with us And you also get all kinds of extra stuff at apology of studios dot com academy after shows Collision episodes lots of stuff and war is coming Uh, so apology all access go sign up for that there at apology of studios dot com that is luke the bear What up? I'm jeff the calm of the ninja that is Zachary conover What's up director communications with end abortion now and one of our very favorite people in the entire world You've seen him before you know him you love him It's mr. Zach loungschlager hodie and he is uh here to join us For this fourth of july celebration special independence day Event that's right. So you know the title of the show today should christian celebrate the fourth of july Some of you guys came in you were like you brought your america with you you were like let me see what these Let me see what these dudes have to say about this. Don't worry. We're on your side We're on your side. I'll just go ahead and wet your appetite. Yes cards up front Yes, yes, yes, but we wanted to say like why like why celebrate the fourth of july? Why celebrate independence day? Why make a big deal over this amazing experiment? And I think that we should have like real christian answers To answer that question. It shouldn't just be it shouldn't just be because america tradition Maga and uh red wine blue. It shouldn't just be that Uh like why why is this such an amazing experiment? Why is it such an amazing thing that god did in history to bless us with so much as of course hanging by a thread Uh, but we can still celebrate the goodness That those Christians and uh that the christian worldview brought into existence in this amazing experiment So fourth of july, if you were to ask there, uh, just a random person on the street today Educated in our government facilities Uh, what is the fourth july? Why are we celebrating it? I think actually you you have a bunch of videos like that where they go out to the Right the pier who's that guy that does this viv markspence not markspence mark? Uh, oh, i'll get his name somewhere He has hilarious videos fourth of july, bird No, I i'll find one of the videos, but it's hilarious. So go out and know this like in you know populated areas I ask questions and be like, you know independence day like why are we celebrating it for what reason and just like the average person on the street Is like a no stinking clue No idea, uh, what for uh, it's you know for bbq and beer for most people and that's a day off Maybe, uh, so what what is the fourth of july? Why are we celebrating? Why is christian should we look back on it with favor and honor? Uh, and so we brought uh one of our great friends and also one of my very favorite historians to listen to and that is zach loungelanger If if it happened in history, he probably knows about it and uh, so i'll just take it as a problem I'll tell you how to prove me wrong about that the other day You actually send me historical details. Did you do all of this? I did did you? Yeah, it was a first time Yeah, it was but I was thinking thanks thanks to my facebook for giving me something that he hadn't seen before But you didn't know this yeah, so i'll tell you funny funny thing is um, so a part of my sermon On sunday it was uh, it was on the proverbs for 14's righteous as exalta nation but sin is a approach upon any people um Part of the sermon as I wanted to talk about different ways that our nation is sinning and uh, how it's a approach on us and how we've moved Away from a christian view of just war theory and you know that that doctrine has been developed You know throughout the history of the christian church and thank god for that because when you hear i brought this up in the message When you hear things like that's a war crime Well, the only reason you would think like that like that something you can't even do in war You have to have like a just way that you employ warfare In in this world like the only reason you can say something like war crime is not because of atheism atheism doesn't develop The idea of war crimes. It doesn't have a ethical It doesn't have ethical boundaries in the first place and if you listen to atheist ethicists Uh, they'll say as much they'll just be as honest as as they can be and they say well of course there's no absolutes here There's you know social conventions and things like that So when you hear people talking about like well, that's a war crime. You can't do that Well, thank god for the christian world view that allows you to say things like that But the christian church developed just war theory you have augustine, uh, or augustin. However scallory you are going back and Looking at him and in the development of some of that just war theory and that moves throughout history um And so anyway, I wanted to talk about ways that we Have have sinned as a nation and how it's a approach on us In how we do warfare and the wars over the last 20 30 years you look at a lot of the things we've been involved in a lot of things that we've done The ways that we uh, you know, build up this military complex. We have bases all over the world We're spread all the way out all over the world. We we stick our nose and in in people's business which we shouldn't do and uh We engage ourselves into combat and warfare in ways that are displeasing to god from a christian perspective and a christian world view So anyway, I wanted to to spend like two minutes talking about pastor luke's favorite pastor Uh, uh, reverend jones clark And I was just gonna just do a quick thing in terms of like how christians used to think And that's all related to the war for independence and and paul revere and all that stuff And so what I did is I said, well, I don't want to mess any of this up I know the story I could tell it, but I want to get them the names right and maybe some timing things right So I just messaged zak, uh, like saturday night. I think it was thanks saturday night And I was like, hey, you know, um If you could just leave me like a couple the quick messages like I just need like person's place That kind of stuff because I want to tell the story of jones clark and you know paul revere and everything else and just do it briefly You know, you don't have to go, you know too crazy with it Next thing you know like I get like this amazing like audio audio audio audio audio like the details before Details of where it was and how we crossed where he crossed on the map and all the different answer dinner Yeah, exactly. It was it was awesome. So I just had listened to all of them And uh christine was in the office next to me when it was playing it and she comes out She's like that is taking awesome. What is that? I was like I just told zak to give me like brief details. I was like brief Every detail the jeff derben three minutes Yeah, yeah So it was awesome because like uh, I knew zak doesn't do his in town or coming here And then he shows up at church yesterday and I was like I'm not even gonna attempt this like was x here So I asked him before church to say hey in the sermon Is it okay if I call you up just to give like a brief, you know, like talk through this And uh, it was so nice to have zak there for that. But anyway, so zak's always very helpful in terms of a lot of the details About particular historical situations and even conflicts and he'll tell you details like even surrounding Uh that conflict and and why they were thinking in this way. So that's why I really appreciate listening to you zak just because I I'll get more a fuller explanation than just sort of the bullet points of here They were there's where they didn't and all that stuff he get more details as to why they were thinking the way that they were thinking and Maybe even at times you have zak tell you like well, and this is what the people were thinking on the other side And this is why they were in this conflict and so that's always helpful. So fourth of july Independence day should christian celebrate the fourth in july zak should they and why So, uh, obviously the question Uh, is one that does get fought over we do have some well-known theologians who Stick to the idea that somehow america is based on unjustifiable violence Uh and rebellion and that christian should have nothing to do with that Um, and then unfortunately of people on our own side who make arguments like uh, there was a big conspiracy There was this effort to take christ out of all of it. Um, I propose that both sides are are woefully Uh, their research is woefully inadequate. Let's just put it that way um The the short answer is Not only should christians be paying attention to this and observing it Um, but we should know a lot more about it. We should dig into it just a little bit It's we don't have to get go crazy with it, but it is absolutely vital to know What happened in the in the bigger picture and and answer the question Did their actions Please god, where were these actions that are biblically just to justifiable? Uh, obviously, I believe the answer is yes. I think you're about to say jeff's to bival Jeff's defiable I don't know if that's a good thing or bad Are they biblically justifiable and obviously I believe the answer is yes And therefore the yes christians should celebrate it, but that's the standard right christians should celebrate things that are biblically right That are biblically consistent. Yeah and yeah, so I this Question I think is important that maybe ask ahead of time to lay a foundation So we don't get it to it on the end of the conversation, but at the beginning So the challenge that people would have is whether or not you've engaged in in a christian kind of warfare, um Something that is actually just and you know people today, you know a lot of people that I think are just sort of numb in their thinking and maybe pacifistic will be like I don't even like to say things like christian warfare And it's like, okay like I often say like have a good cry wash your face like you live in a fallen world and evil happens and there are victims and there are perpetrators and all the rest and so we we do have a world where there is still conflict and There are still evildoers and people to do unjust things And so you have to be able to protect and defend innocent life And so yes, you have to have a view of christian warfare like how do you defend the innocent? How do you protect and preserve human life? Um, and so you have to you have to have this kind of conversation christian warfare So a lot of people say like I don't even want to say that and but I think you know When you actually put your head into reality and think with a truly christian worldview in different categories, you can say okay christian warfare so But people will say like I don't know if it was right to do that Well, the only way you can say something is right or wrong is if you have a standard an ultimate standard by which to measure And christians historically again have developed the just war theory And it's it's been an amazing Uh, it's it's an amazing study to do uh on on the topic of christian, uh, sorry just war theory And how the christian church has worked very hard on this and thought through these things details Sometimes complicated details. I'm like, I never even thought about that. Yeah, that's the detail of the whole thing like I'm glad christians have thought through those issues Uh, by the way, just as as a as a bonus here Uh, I would encourage you as as you want to if you want to get deeper into this conversation go On youtube that's where I saw it or heard it before in the past and look up douglas wilson just war theory He has an excellent series on the christian view of of just war theory Uh, it it'll blow your mind actually. I think it's very very Informative and it points is even entertaining. It's like well. This is very interesting to think about So, um, but we're having this conversation should we celebrate it and so let's think through that conversation first zak in terms of in history Uh, you know, when you look at people in the colonies and everything they were enduring and how they thought of themselves as you know British citizens and all the rest and and what they were trying to do was was first and foremost not go to war Uh, what they were trying to do is is be good citizens But also they were concerned about the issue of lex rex and the issue of the law is king And the king cannot essentially be a law to himself and you can't oppress us And so when they were responding though, they were restrained at many points because they had a particular thing they had inherited In terms of their thinking about when this is allowed When are we allowed to do this when are we allowed to defend ourselves our property our families our land our rights When can we take up arms? Uh, and that was all sort of in their thinking in their head. It was being preached even The new england pulpit was was the the major Uh, the major support behind the war for independence because they were they were thinking critically about these things as christians So they had adopted or they were descendants of people who had given them this tradition Correct talk about that for a second because you mentioned that in church yesterday, right? And I think it's really I love the note about Um about pastor wilson's Stuff on just war you also need to check out greg bonsons And you already mentioned it on bonson you um, but greg bonsons talk on just war theory Six points and that's really bonson lays out and and encapsulates the reformed perspective, which is a a It doesn't very disagree very much with the catholic perspective Uh, the pre-reformed perspective on just war and so that's the starting point Um, the this concept was developed ever in europe as soon as the gospel arrived as soon as the gospel arrived and people started and we have to recognize that that time It was in greek and latin and so all of europe is studying the bible in that language and they actually became fairly fluent in it and so um I would start by positing that not only is war justifiable sometimes Sometimes war is required that it's a christian. You are obligated You are obligated to fight a war that you may not not And the the the case when that is true is when it is an act of defense Um, we are commanded to provide for the members of our own household Uh, just on a personal level an individual level and this is always where you start this is what dr bonson taught me when I was in high school Um, the number one you reasoned from the individual to the corporate If you want to ask you how does this how does this obligation bear bring to bear come to bear on a country? Well, first of all you asked how does it come to bear on the individual? Individuals are required especially men to provide for their families and in fact the failure to do so is an act of infidelity to christ That is the word used you are worse than not believing in god at all Infidel, right? Correct you are worse than an infidel And so that is given in the context of financial provision, but that obviously you can't provide financial for your children and go That's fine. You can come right in here raping them and kill them. That's that's cool. Go for it, dude No, you you stand guard and you defend your family, right? And so we are and this isn't just for men, although it is primarily a man's job Um, but specifically we are required to provide for the people who are who depend on us and so Then if we take that and reason that corporately as a nation, what's our responsibility? Well, if we are being attacked and my family is in danger of being wiped out by the raiding Vikings, for example, what do we do? Well, I Join together with my neighbors and we go out and we oppose them and we say no you can't do that. Well, that's war it's the concepts of Headship and self-defense applied to a national scale. Correct. Exactly Especially self-defense and yes, and then you have that representative nature that it's my job to To represent my family um and to interpose on their behalf, right and so absolutely so um Now and that comes down to the english common law It is one of the most amazing places for seeing the application of the word of god And on sunday jeff you mentioned how amazing it is to hear what they say during a coronation We haven't been to a coronation for a long time, right? Elizabeth was queen for a longish time Longer than i've been alive. Yeah Longer certainly longer than i've been alive. Oh, thanks um, and so You have on display Even though charles the second rightfully named i think you not quite as bad as charles the first of england But still a sucky king in my opinion aren't all kings That's just that's just to my uk friends over there guys. We just relax Relax, we like Alfred relax relax just joking guys. It's just a joke. It was cool Cromwell was great, but he wasn't a king but um The amount the self-conscious effort to apply the word of god to every area of life in england Throughout most of its history is is shocking and it's not that they always succeeded We're actually making the case that they didn't always succeed. We are we're criticizing some of that, but um That is that is something that is unique to england it did not happen in italy because of the the roman catholic structure it did not happen in Germany in the same way because of the holy roman empire and although you had a very reformed populace for a long time They never really could take political power Um, you you did it doesn't happen in france because of st Bartholomew's eve when the the crown just went out and committed mass murder against anyone They suspected to be reformed stinking kick the huganos out right ink and french those durban types, you know Derp my family's from france French people and you can know yourself Yeah, that's right Yeah, durbina. It was it was durbin means city dweller and yeah, they were huganos and remarkably that's fitting Yeah, they I know I hate the hate the country. I like the city and uh, I just feel it on my bones Yeah, okay. Sorry. It's already really a durbins goal in this moment in time is too offended That's right. Exactly. Do you think the king would have been mad if they sent me as like, you know I'll come diplomatically go before the king during the time for the war for independence and I think he'd be mad if I called him chuck Look here. Look here Chuck. No, no, I'm gonna probably throw fit. Look here. Chuck. We're getting sick of this We're trying to reason with you, but you're I'm being unreasonable chucky But in england by the by the grace of god You had this repeated effort and it came again and again and again and again Through you can go back to you go back to alfred you can go back a few years later a few hundred years later You've got runny meat, uh, which is where the magna carda was signed and then you've got Uh repeated efforts, uh throughout between then and the reformation in which the common ordinary people kept saying no You can't do that. That's not okay. That's not all right The king has to do something here the king has to obey the law and so the idea of lex rex Which is finally well articulated by samuel rotherford during the english civil war while the west minister vines were meeting We don't think about that fact, but that whole thing with cronwell and they're fighting is happening while the divines are there meeting in london That's all happening at the same time. It's the 1640s. Wow. Yeah, yeah, and so But lex rex is the battle cry for english for a millennia Is it ever since alfred and i guess i should say i should make sure i acknowledge for those who don't know alfred is one of the earliest saxon kings, right and he had his monster he was incredible Um, not perfect by any means but an awesome dude He had the book of dooms, uh, we use the word doom today to mean a bad judgment your doom has come upon you But it is simply an ancient saxon word that means judgment so the book of laws or judgments Uh, he was his self-conscious effort to apply as much of the word of god to the people of the angles Uh, the anglo-saxons as possible and at the end he says if i forgot anything You're just you go to the bible and you find the part that applies to this and you apply it straight Because you know i'm sure there'll be something i forgot to write down here And so This is this is the incredible well in the reality as the gospel had already reached the british is it already reached britain before alfred got there, right that's where Patrick patrick the britain or who we call saint patrick comes from he's a britain It's his people that alfred their vikings alfred's people arrive and and take over so like i say not perfect And there are all these back and forths and anyway, so but that's the that's the context for all of this How does the word of god apply to us as a nation? And so why is it that robin hood is just this fantastic story that will not go away In the english mind and so it won't go away here because we are still descendants Of albion as it used to be said seeds of albion. We're descendants of the english way of thinking Robinhood is is a fantastic story and an idea in english law Where what other place could you go to where the hero is the guy who fought the government? To us we're like well. Yeah, da but go anywhere else in the world and ask what where's where's your robin hood story? It's not the same. It's not the same. They have a very different concept of these things and so When you finally get to let's say we get to the 1600s and this is when the colonies are being established right the first Columns come over here with a grant or a warrant from the king to settle in Virginia to settle in the new world They have what's called a charter is a big written piece of paper That's it is in the tradition of the magna carda, which is simply latin for big charter or over arching charter, right? and They arrive with this charter and what it does is it gives them the authority to govern themselves They will have their own parliament. It will be called the house of bergices This is why virginia to this day the virginia legislature refers to itself as the oldest deliberative body in america Which it is but it's also full of pompous. You know what? because of that who i've actually fought with for decades, but When they arrived here they had this charter that said we have our own parliament And then we have a governor from the king and when and this is the king's person when the when the governor sits as governor that is the king here Now and he has the authority that the king has he can call the parliament. He can dismiss the parliament He can veto laws. He can ask for taxes And he is he is due respect in the person of the king his soldiers are to be respected He has the authority the civil authority. He doesn't get to make laws by himself He doesn't get to take your house if he wants it there is a law that the king must follow And but he is the king Parliament the parliament of england heads no authority in the colony of virginia They are the parliament of england and they relate to the king the same way the parliament of virginia relates to the king And this is how each of the 13 colonies at the time of the american war for independence 150 years later or so 170 These It is the same each of these different what we would call states at that time they were colonies has its own parliament and There's this whole sweep of history in which After the colonies most of the colonies are founded you have parliament in england taking more power in defense of the people They are the round head the round heads raise up. These are the the Puritan nobility And they are opposing the king and his cavaliers or chevalier They are in the you know, they have this European perspective continental perspective And if you look at pictures of the steward kings, right? These are the this is james and charles and charles and james These are the kings when america is being founded. They all have long flowing hair Um, they've got all this, you know, they dress somewhat of femininely It's everything it's very much in the french model and then you've got all over cronwell and his dudes And they're all rough and very manly Um, they've got they cut their hair short because they believe that's what the bible says, you know We can argue about it, but that's why they cut their short or they couldn't grow hairs as some of us Or you know, it's kind of starting joining your ranks loop. Thank you. I'll be shaving here soon out of embarrassment. Yeah, just Don't even try it. Jeff's over there like I don't know what you're all talking about. Sorry about it. Don't even try red light therapy guys So I pass that point The the parliament eventually begins to interpose between the people of england and this is while the colonies are over here Just kind of there. You know, that's the backwater. Nobody cares This is where you send all the the troublemakers you can get rid of right there The king is just sending puritans over here. Hopefully. I'll be the indians will take care of them basically But given what they want who cares give them their own parliament send them over there get them out of the country That's their attitude. Well the ones who stay take over parliament and eventually you have the english civil war in the 1640s in which Cromwell rises up and with his allies they try charles the first for the crime of murder and genocide Because he had he had gone Straight up on a war against none of the people of england, but the people of scotland killed over 18,000 Responsible for killing 18,000 scotts covenanters, right? And so Cromwell Eventually the parliament convenes a trial. They try him for his crime. They convict him and they behead him. They execute him This is this is unbelievable. It has never been done In the history of the west and no one has ever said we are going to justly and righteously put a king to death And it was a direct assault on the common concept of the day, which was divine right of kings, right? The king says I have been given a warrant by god to rule That's what they did everyone was christian everyone had believed in god And so their excuse was well, I get to do what I want because I am god on earth divine right correct It wasn't that I am a man. It is that I am god to you Basically, that's that's where it went and abuse correct. Yeah, and so This is going on in england while the colonies are forming and by 1700, of course in 1688 You have the glorious revolution in which you know after Cromwell the crown devolves back to the steward line to charles the I'm sorry. Yes to charles the second and then james the second and there's this back and forth and it's never really a good thing And but it fails it falls apart and eventually the crown devolves to the house of orange, which is from holland They are that beard they are reformed, right? Well, that's because one of the steward Uh, one of the sisters of the steward kings married into the house of orange and her descendant is now the king of england by by descent um, and so Waym and mary come in 1688 take the throne and the house of orange immediately devolves to the house of handover Um, and that's where the georgias come from the three georgias georgias first and georgias second father and son georgias the third is a grand son of georgias the second, um, and so During this period parlament goes beyond and begins to become corrupt This is two or three generations after the puritans and you have this Big power struggle parlament has become ascendant the crown is largely neutered Um, and now parlament is starting to tear in eyes mostly financially that you have this rampant mercantillism in which parlament makes laws saying You can't buy anything except for me And anything you have a value you have to sell to me and I sell it back to you Um, and this and so this is being done worldwide. This is where you have the east india t company. This is where you have So there are elements of historical accuracy and I hate to say this but it's the example everybody knows There are elements of historical accuracy in movies like the pirates of the caribbean in which the king's troops Are somewhat objectionable the king's governors are objectionable. Well, that is partially true because of the rampant excesses of parlament and they were they were Financially subjugating everywhere they could possibly go because they had they they owned all the companies They got these royal warrants and in the east india t company had its own army had its own navy They were they became their own thing because they had a warrant from the king to conduct business and no one else could Get a complete monopoly and then they had a majority in in parlament So they could pass laws saying you have to buy itself from us. And this is mercadialism. So By the mid 1700s George the third is is growing up 1765 he becomes king and Thanks to lord boot b utte He is our b utte. I think it is one tea but the said boot He he advises the king that you need to take power back from Parliament it is imbalanced and the reality was it probably it probably was and at that point boot was probably right in the england But now you have this power struggle between parlament and the crown and the colonies are are worth they're on the board now They're prosperous. They're wealthy. Um, they produce wealth And they want control it's worth having now. It's worth having these colonies And so and who cares we're not they've got a charter the crown didn't care and parlament didn't care And so this is the context now you have 10 years between when george the third becomes king and When the shots are fired on election in concord and during this 10 year period This idea is is resurrected that parlament is actually the primary legislative body over each of the colonial parlaments And that you have the king and then you've got english parlament And then you've got the peons in the americas Um and the problem with this is that the parlament of course they don't care They very soon after this they established roman catholicism as the state church in the next colony over which is called canada Um and our puritan forefathers looked at that and were horrified because george washington Thomas jefferson the lewis family the clark family you name all of these people who lived in northern virginia They are the faithful remnant of the puritan round heads who were with cronwell These are their descendants. These guys were there They were there when they finally said that's it There will be a law for the king and if you break the law you will suffer the consequences And if you commit a capital crime we will put you to death after a fair trial if you're convicted And so the washington's um the lee's Uh the the the names in america that you go wait a minute i've heard that name before These guys are the roundhead cavaliers. That's what they were called. They were they were the they were the descendants of the puritans who who were gentry Um, and that's why you see when this is another remarkable thing about the american war for dependence Handcocks for example. They were not of of that stock Um john handcocks senior was the pastor of the church in lexington. He was not wealthy his brother became a merchant in uh, i'm sorry his son became a merchant in boston became wealthy and um, eventually his grandson john handcock the second who who we know Um became very wealthy. Um, so he was new money the washington's right. Yeah put to john henry here right signature the washington's the lee's the jefferson's um These people were Old money old money in in america and they had money from england, but all of them together you can look at them Um, they're all you can look at fielding louis for example. That's george washington's brother lei married george's sister Uh, if you go to fredricksburg, virginia, you can see his house. It's still there. It's his gorgeous monstrous uh for the day. It was just unbelievably opulent um and Uh, he was the most wealthy man in america. He spent his entire fortune and died a Popper at the end of the war making weapons for the continent. Wow His wife was taken care of by her family in her dotage because in her old age because she did not have money Um, and this is the recurring theme over and over and over again. They were precious few wealthy uh americans who didn't fund the war you'll find fewer who didn't and so um This this is what's what's about that you've got that and then you've got the puritan worth that work ethic In new england where they made this is new money. They made it from shipping um, and so um Through this 10-year period you have the crown and the parlament fighting over who's going to control this wealthy These wealthy colonies And the colonists are looking at going okay. Well, we need to take care of our families But primarily we we worried about what we came here for religious freedom and the ability to serve god in every area of life And if we allow parlament to legislate for us That will no longer be the case and they just proved it by by making What we fear the most roman catholicism the church The state church, which means you would be forced to pay money to them as a tax You would be forced to worship the way they said you would no longer be able if they said you prayed to mary You prayed to mary or they put you to death. They say you can't teach your children the the lord's prayer Well, that had just happened 100 years 150 years earlier and they all remembered it Why they were here fresh in their memories very much so very much so so You come to this period from 1765 to 1775 where the americans are appealing to the crown Their perspective is we answer to the crown the same way the parlament does the king must not be aware Of what the crown is doing that must be what's going on It must be that the king is just out of it And so they spent a decade petitioning the king petitioning the king petitioning the king Remants redress of grievances, please use your authority to disperse parlament use your authority to tell them to stop We are being oppressed and we we appeal to the king And this is a thousand-year history that every commoner had the right to appeal to the king for justice If it wasn't happening anywhere else and his response was and the king's response was Either ignoring it or sending more injury more insult closing the port It eventually Sending troops to america to subjugate his own citizens. So these are the conditions That formed the powder cake which was to be the american revolution exactly when the king started sending troops. That's when they said, oh This is not going to work now. They were long farsighted individuals who said from early on know the king he's complicit privately they would say he's complicit But it would have been improper and even unjust for them to lay that at the king's feet without proof And so they spent a decade petitioning for Please fix this problem and during this time the parliament demanded all these different taxes and they demanded all different kinds of different things And as long as the correct process was followed In other words, the crown would send a message to the colonial parliament that I need a tax And the colonial parliament would levy that tax and send it back and they did that again And again, the fact they paid massive amounts of taxes for those for those 10 years And even previously largely to fund england's conquest all over the globe, which Well, it was not good But some of it happened here in the what was the seven years word war in europe or what we call the french-Indian war How does this relate to the term or phrase taxation without representation is exactly the key phrase And it's something that is in our psyche today because it often gets repeated And it gets repeated as a cheapening of well, they just didn't want to pay the tax And so it comes down to the charters They had a legal They had the legal authority at constitutionally to govern themselves And once they gave that authority over what would happen well, they would be under the boot of a foreign power The parliament's england would now rule them. Yeah, and they were watching england do all kinds of horrific things to everyone they possibly could and so eventually the king's Officers there are several cases like it's in I believe it's in connecticut where there's was this tree and it was only I mean there are people there may be people alive who saw it today, but there was this big oak tree And they had this meeting at the town hall in in connecticut And the king's men said produce your charter And everyone knew they were going to grab it and take it so they didn't have it And so they they call this douse the lights grab the charter gave it to a guy Then let the lights again in the charter was gone. They went out and hit it in this oak So no it couldn't so they we still have it and you know it exists and we know you don't have it You know you don't have it so you can't destroy it And it spent time inside this hollow like a big knot hollow knot in charter oak Yeah, so there are stories like this where they try to Abrogate the charter and claim it doesn't matter. We don't care And so that's why you have the appeal to heaven. That's why you have we dare defend our rights. That's why you have The segmented snake yeah join or die. It's why you have don't try don't tread on me These are all the same. It's why you have like if you look the Strategic sack, you know strategic air command is gone now when I was a kid I lived outside a sack base Um, and the symbol for strategic air command was a gloved fist Um, it's a male, you know, I like a like a gauntlet coming out of the out of a cloud with a thunderbolt in it in its grip Um, this is an ancient Puritan Concept that comes from Cromwell's era of god will fight for us That's the that's god's fist and if we obey him We he will take care of us and it was a little bit perverted I cringe a little bit when I think about you know them saying that that that that you know that righteous anger of god is actually a Stropan nukes on you which is what say it was Um, but I get it right there there is a sense in which okay if we use it justly then yes um, so During this 10 year period. Yeah, one of the battle cries became no taxation without representation because as they said The power to tax is the power to destroy So in other words, if we pay the tax, we will be acknowledging that they have the authority to make law for us We dare not pay the tax if they want tax they can come and ask and we'll give it to them They did it a bunch and they actually had legal authority in 1713 Parliament in one of the early skirmishes with the Hanover kings if that would have been George the first I believe um They passed attacks on sugar or molasses um Mostly to tax the rum that was being made. Now. Here's a hilarious thing Um road island, uh is the was the first original Baptist state, right and it was Um, and that's not a really bad thing. Although some of us call it rogue island for a reason You're trying not to get angry You're trying not to get angry Yeah, I'm just trying your in emotion suppressing software My battle expert, you know, uh, you have to suppress your Viking urges over there so but um The the great thing is that because there was less regulation there were fewer laws in road island It became the place where you made rum and so all of the rum production was in road island Uh, in fact there are these some people consider them pirates because they would they would smuggle rum The molasses in and the rum out to keep from paying the tax Um, and so in 1713 they passed this and the all the colonies said We you don't have they don't have the power to tax us ignore it And they did and parliament didn't lift a finger. It's why it was so easy to snuggle them until the war started Smuggle the molasses in and the rum out Um, and so That set up a 50 year precedent that under english common law that parliament has no authority to tax us 50 years ago. They said we had to pay a tax. We made the legal argument and we refused to pay it parliament didn't lift a finger They had they had that that would win in any court in in in england Any throughout history that was they was cut and dried and so they were very have very strong legal position and they knew it um, and eventually it came down to um As as parliaments power was threatened in england and as they are actually now in locked in struggle with with george the third Over who was going to control all of this between the crown and parliament Um, everybody started paying a lot more attention to taxing the colonies both sides wanted it And that's and the colonies were just caught in the middle saying hey stop. We were just trying to we're just trying to be englishmen over here Leave us alone. We dare defend our rights. These are the rights of englishmen. They were not we're not some foreigners We're not a subjugated people. We are you we came over here five minutes ago Our leading men have the same names as you're leading men and they're you know like the the um Pits the pit family was William pep the older William pep the younger they were both um, yeah, they were both um Uh Prime minister at in their own time and they both supported the colonial colonists rights They said look we we deny our own existence if we deny them their right It was pipped the younger who said the worst man in the world to deprive an englishmen of his rights is another englishmen They just make the argument. You can't send gauge over there. You can't send These these leading men these guys are the sons of the roundheads just like washington is they're the same They're the same thing And so that's why gauge never could Catch up with and actually subjugate he had all the power nor he could have but he couldn't make himself do it Because he looked at and said that's they're actually mostly right. I mean they was they were fighting over the minutia. Basically Interesting. Um, man. There's so there's so many questions. I want to ask but I just think I hear I listen all this and you think About the fourth of july today and there's a lot of dudes out there that you know that don't tread on me thing It's just kind of a slogan that we've adopted to justify our whatever I want to do rebellion and you know We want to throw off authority and all this but if you listen to the story of the american independence Like these men were all about like pursuing freedom under the god of the bible like that's why we're doing what we're doing That's the primary motivator under all of this like we want to be free to be what god created us to be like as men to serve god Yes to serve god and that carries with it like this responsibility that Were accountable for the actions of our government like exactly were actually responsible for how they act Yes, um that falls directly upon us and so far from it being a call to throw off all authority Which is how independence days? Sometimes posited like i'm my own boss. It's far from that It's a call to return to be subjected to the authority of god in his word exactly And this is what the the pulpits up and down the coast You know up and down of the american colonies, but especially in new england They you know, we would say the pulp is new in new england thundered Right, you've got these strong puritan pastors, but it happened all up and down I mean you've got the same thing going on in the south with slightly different cultural things going on But they were all preaching exactly that they were preaching from isiah chapter five Which says that god is calling in babylon to judge juda to judge the two southern tribes Because they have allowed their authorities to become drunk And to fail to uphold and defend the rights of the poor and the needy Literally drunk heroes at mixing wine, but also drunk on power And yes, and that that there are two famous lines from that from isiah chapter five that we don't think about one is god Whistling in he whistles in babylon like he's calling in a horse like, you know the shadow facts He's whistling in babylon. They're hastening. They're hastening to come and then that that verse about heroes at mixed drinks They are they are no longer heroes at defending the people they're now heroes at day drinking They're day drinking. Oh, when they should be working. This is not a holiday Right. This is not just a holiday. So This is what's being preached up and down for a hundred years And so yes, the american people have it ingrained in them so much so that they're not really even many of them And we have these interviews like to tokville interviewed elderly Rev or vets and asked them revolution or vets Why did you do this and they they would say they kind of this common man's approach They're like, well, I don't know that I ever even read the Declaration of Independence one of them said Um, I just knew that they they meant to take our freedom and our ability to serve god away from us And we meant they shouldn't and he just left it at that it was this it's what david hackett fissure my favorite historian I'm not really a historian. I'm a historical geek Um, my favorite historian is david. Yes nerd um uncool I was uncool before it was cool. Yeah, so let's And that's that I believe take that christian national. So, um the original christian nation but um Now I forget what i was gonna say david hackett fissure points out that this is really a what he would call a habit of the heart There is an ingrained way of thinking that is not going to be heavily articulated by the common man It is just the way this is what they were inculcated in and it's not necessarily a good thing But it is in the sense that look not everyone will be able will be highly articulate not everyone can just say it What what are we gonna do? What are we going to do when it actually comes down to it? And that was the amazing thing to a man? um The americans believed that number one we cannot give up our freedom without denying god's commands And number two they believed and we can't just go to war with the king because that would be denying god's commands So we have to walk the tightrope and that was the gorgeous and beautiful thing of the 10 years from 70 60 and 5 to 17 75 Of them walking this tightrope and begging and pleading and and how all these maneuverings They recognize that financial sanctions or economic sanctions were the best way to fight back because that's what really hurt parlament Parlament is run by the guys that own all of these mercantile operations. And so if they said we're not going to buy tea Suddenly a huge chunk of parlament goes broke Because they depended on the american colonies for the majority of their business and the colonies were were heavily regulated by You can't buy tea from anyone else. Yeah, it's good strategy for christians today not patronizing the businesses that has paid us And especially if you'll do it on on on on mass You know, we do move beyond while we don't like bud light because they went from bikinis in american flags to gays in american flag Well, that is okay. I get it. I don't like movaney either that don't want But i'm sorry. This is not let's go back to you know good-looking women and bikinis in rock and roll in the ads That's this is not That's not good advertising. This is not a christian perspective And so so they petition their government for regressive grievances they engage in all these Things, you know that they believe were wise and last resorts, but what kicked the can down the street to where they actually took up a rifle So next year 2025 is the 250th anniversary of the battle of lexin and concord That will be april 18 and 19. It is eight months. No. Yeah eight months away Wow, that will be the 250th. So and the year after that is the 250th of the signing of the declaration 26 And so we are coming up on Exactly when that happened. So eventually you have the the the focal point became Massachusetts Because it is the it is the industrial and and mercantile hub of the colonies. This is boston harbor is is where it's at and so And you have a strong group of men In sam adams and his his mentor john odus who we don't think about but he was just an incredible dude Eventually he got hit on the head and and lost much of his capacity But he was incredibly articulate Um, you have dr. Joseph warren who did not live beyond 30 years of age and or just barely and ran the entire thing He was friends with market cambral gage who was General gage's wife. She was an american And we're pretty sure that she is the one who told who confirmed. Yes. They are going by sea and it's tonight Um, and that's how they knew but this all happens by the time you get to 70 73 is the boston massacre in which Uh, the king's troops opened fire, not unprovoked, but they respond with with unbelievably in uh, uh, Um, what's the word disproportionate use of force? Yeah, you got a bunch of dudes with rocks Yeah, and the the soldiers opened fire with their muskets and they kill a two of your old boy A street kid, um, and so you've got that and then you've got, um, the boston tea party The boston tea party was a an economic protest and we've talked a little bit about that. Well, we can get up to it here um, but ultimately, um, some of the things that are super fun like with the uh, the aftermath of the Of the boston massacre Uh, we call it the boston massacre the english call it the boston massacre Everybody calls it the boston massacre even though the crown was horrified that that no, it wasn't a massacre It was, you know, it was putting down some kind of rebellion There was this one big seaman who was loud and probably drunk who if he'd been able to get close enough to the soldiers Probably could have it'd be like you probably could kill him with your bear with the bear hands He was huge and they were scared of him But that doesn't mean you form up and just fire indiscriminately into the crowd of women and children You know, you these guys are carrying Bannett fixed muskets. They've all got spears and very they you know, they can handle themselves Um, the two fascinating things that happen number one Um, because this is massachusetts this is the best seafaring port Arguably in the world right now And our ships are faster than anyone else's are clippers And so sam adam sits down with joseph warren and they write the account and they put it on the clipper ship And they send it to london and it gets their weeks ahead of the british Of the official record and so by the time gauges report gets there Uh, the people everybody on the people on the street they have folk songs about it They've got the you know, the punch and judy shows, you know, the whole little puppet shows used to be really popular You see him in the movies where they're like doing stuff that those were a thing That's how that's how that was popular media at the time You had these shows about the boston massacre that everybody in london at least knew about it and thought their government was wrong Because we got there first. We were better at it than than they were Um, and then the other really cool thing is that john adam's volunteers to provide Defense counsel for the officers who commanded the soldiers to fire. Yeah, um, and he said what they did was wrong I'm not i'm not going to try to pretend that they should get off but they should get a fair trial And he was widely respected Instead of being shunned by his people he was widely respected by his people Not because he was trying to, you know, excuse murder, but because he said We would be denying our very existence if we didn't ensure they got a fair trial and there was this huge problem There was a core of of very rowdy types the mob in in brits there in boston who Were just waiting to burn down public property or tar and feather someone or beat the tar out of somebody else or steal their stuff Um, and in fact, they were honed and there were two sides There was an north end in the south end and this was the two sides of boston There was an north end mob in the south end mob and every um, fifth of november Remember remember the fifth of november? Okay, this is a bad day in history because is when the papers tried to blow up the the protestant parliament in england in the 1600s Okay, well by this time it's called pope day And that's the common reference to it and they would burn in the pope in effigy in the streets, which okay It's political protest whatever that's freedom of speech, but the mob even though you may not agree with it I don't but the mob would between north and south end would fight they would have these full pitched think gangs of new york Full pitched battles with clubs and even edged weapons people would be Mamed and sometimes die every year for the honor of who got to burn the pope in effigy in the streets of boston battle for the five points. Yeah, it's just wild and so Hold swale with five points This is this is the last that's the last vestige of what the what inner city culture was like in the u.s And so it's fascinating but um Early on when the taxes first start being protested the loyal nine who are the nine they are the proto sons of liberty They go out and they decide they they go to the Um, it was the south end mob that usually won and I can't now remember the name of the guy who ran it But he was the mob leader they went to him and said we want you to stage the protest because you can turn on a crowd And it was a foolish move because they equipped him to start rioting and he actually did He actually led and these guys of course they can't they beat one of them through a pope every year They can't wait to start wailing on the king's tax collectors and burn and stuff down and tar and feathering and that kind of thing did start to happen and Everyone but this small mob was horrified and they said what are we gonna do? They said hey wait and one of them said I know this guy who's really well connected. He's a silversmith He's on the north end. He's not connected to the mob, but he knows all those guys and they respect him because he's a he's a mechanic He's not he's not a merchant. He's a commoner And his name is paul vier And they went to him and said we are getting rid of the south end mob as soon as possible here Would you go out and form use your influence to lead these guys? And so after they boston massacre, it was revere who they would they would make these Big frames and they were usually like six or eight sided and they're huge They're like each of those frames is like two feet across and like six feet tall And revere would hand draw and hand color these huge pictures with words on them They were like human monstrous political cartoons and then they would stretch the pictures the paper around these big frames So they'd have like eight of them at the same time And then they put a bunch of candles in the middle and they'd walk down the street with it And everybody so you could read and they go slow and turn it and it was a way of disseminating information It's called an illumination an illumination and so they would do this and this is how they communicated to the town born And to communicate this is what happened. So that's how they communicate. This is what happened with the boston massacre And and they had pictures of you can you can see those old drawings are still there they're a little bit hoke either 2d it's like political cartoon from the 1700s and um, there are pictures of like the troops firing into you know unarmed women and And it was probably wasn't quite like that. It was a little stylized. There were some they were definitely making their point Sure, even though it was true that the women were in the crowd. It wasn't like they were all up front, right? um, and so this those two things eventually it led to the parliament of england Bottling up or closing the harbor at boston which was starvation. They were starving literally starving them out That's how they ate. They had to they had shipped food in and so now they were dependent on their friends Uh in the countryside to bring food in and they set up a guard on boston neck Which is the only other way in the boston. It's it is almost an islander. It was then now They've actually filled in the back bay. That's where fenway is Um and they they used to be water where where revere rode across early. Yeah, and so um, they bottled up boston and threatened to starve them out um and um in this is the continue to get worse and worse The last straw was the boston tea party in which they said okay They're refusing to pay these the taxes. They have beaten us at every corner again and again and again Parliament would enact attacks the the colonists would say well then we're not buying whatever that is And the parliament would would be starved out They their expenses would overrun their income and they would repeal the tax and they did it again and again until finally the tax on tea Came up. They sent these the ships into boston harbor with the tea the uh boston authorities Placed troops the colonial troops marching up and down on the pier saying we're not going to let you unload that tea Um, and so the boston the governor of the massachusetts said okay I'll pay the tax if it sits here past this date I'll just pay it from the public monies and then we'll take control the tea and we'll sell it But you will have sick you will have symbolically paid for the tea You will have symbolically paid the tax And now that's all parliament would need to say great next up This is the new church for for for massachusetts and it's anglicum Uh, you know no more no more private association here. You're gonna come to our church um, and so That's when revere and the sons of liberty said well, we have no recourse They if we allow that ship to sit at the pier for one minute past Whatever time it was i think it was midnight on that day. Um They will claim we have paid the tax And so they said we will make one final appeal to the king in the person of his governor um, and they met they gathered at fannel hall, which was kind of the independence hall in boston And they had speeches and eventually the word came back And sam adam's got up and and gave the pre or the pre-arranged signal This meeting can do no more to save the country And at that moment revere runs out of fannel hall and blows the whistle That can be heard and the whistle gets passed and blown in several places till they get over to uh, the green dragon tavern where Uh, the guys are ready to go They have dressed themselves up as as you know, a caricatures of indians They've got face paint on and the main reason was to disguise their identity if they weren't a face paint They couldn't they couldn't blame any one person revere They knew somebody has to be responsible if we just go as a mob They'll be able to argue his mob violence and so revere went as himself And he said come and arrest me And sam adam's showed up after a while as well, and so they marched down to the pier They walked up to the boat. They said captain. We have need of your keys. The captain was like there you go He wanted to leave Their his ship is rotting in the harbor literally rotting for months And he can't get he's losing money. He still has to feed his men. You know, there's all these problems They walk on board the ship. They unlock all the tea lockers. They get the tea out They cut open the bags. They dump it in the tea They dump it in the harbor There was one locker that the keys didn't work or it was it was missing or something so they broke the lock they cut the lock And got the tea out. They swept everything up. They cleaned everything up They actually a pilloried one of the guys tried to steal some of the tea and they caught him And they locked him up and the next day he was locked up in the stocks downtown on the green Uh, and they fined him for it Um, and the next that next morning revere went back to the ship with a brand new lock that he had made and gave it the captain Sorry, we broke one of the locks. Here we go. Sorry about that. Yeah, here's here you go And so it is one of the pretty controlled rebellion. Oh, yeah It's one of the most fantastic examples of an economic protest that it did it require some civil disobedience. Yes Um, did it require destroying property? Well, only the property that was now in question and had been made into a political tool or a toy Um, and in fact apocryphal we don't know for sure But in multiple places it's reported that the governor got up the next day and said To the effect darn it. They've done it legally We can't go after them and then they didn't lift a finger revere and adam's everyone knew it was them Nothing happened. They didn't do a single thing to him. And so um, boston port gets closed up and uh, then the governor the They give him a military governor. It's governor gage who is the general of of the of the army commander of the navy lord gage And um, he is now sending bodies of troops out to all the little farmsteads and everywhere confiscating not privately owned weapons Uh, though they did compensate scum. Mostly they're confiscating the stores of munitions and canon That are owned by all the little counties and the towns. These are municipally owned This is like going to your neighboring it's like the governor saying we're going to go down to that police station And we're going to take all their stuff and we're going to go to the hand police station We're going to take all their stuff and we're going to bring it all into the middle because We fear that the police in these little towns will not enforce our laws Yeah, that's what they were doing. Yeah, and so eventually these were called the powder alarms They happened for for a couple of years Um, this is when verver rode to all these places and he became known not only just in boston But on all these country sides and they knew everybody and uh, he would ride out and warn them like it happened in sailam The british marched up Uh, sailam had a drawbridge across the creek that they had so they raised the drawbridge so the british couldn't get across They got all the boats and they brought them across so they couldn't use those and then they sent them up the parson Out to negotiate with the british the commander of the british column said, I know you're here to take their arms You're munition we've already moved them long before you got here. They're gone Um, but we will we will lower the bridge if you agree that you will not do anything But you will be able to say you reached your your the destination you were commanded you have your honor to defend You will come to the middle of town. You'll turn around and you'll march back And we won't hurt you and you won't hurt us. It was this classic puritan way of of doing it And the the commander of the british column was also the son of the puritans He's you know, I mean he was serving in what was effectively crumwell the descendant of crumwell's army And so he's like, okay, so they lowered the bridge they march in there The uh, they've got their weapons the american militia men have their weapons They turn around and they march them back out of time basically frog march them out of town And on your way and they go back home. So this is what was happening. Well The temperature was going up and up and up and finally Um, they know, okay They're mounting another one of these for all they knew it was just going to be another Powder alarm another expedition to go out and take more stuff Only now they want to arrest atoms and handcock who were at the uh, clork house in lexington and so Um, this is we have to understand that this house was built by john hancox grandpa john hancox grandfather built that house because he was the pastor of that same church um And then hancox the hancox we know his father died when he was seven And he was sent to live as a grandpa. He grew up in that house. Wow And then his cousin married the person who pastored that church And so when they needed a place to go, he's like, oh, yeah, let's go to my cousin's house I grew up there And so that's they're hanging out there and so that was a new development that now they're going to start arresting us And they're going to send us to england and they're going to it You know abuse us in their courts um, and so This was that added that added layer to the whole problem But as far as all the townsmen knew as far as everybody knew that's why, you know, the the lexington militia didn't form up around the house They didn't form up across the road When you get to when you go downtown in lexington The green there is triangular shaped because there are three roads coming in There's a road that comes in from boston and it makes a slight left hand curve and goes straight to the clork house Or you can make a sharp right and go around one side of the green And then you can keep going down the road or you can make another or even a shark left And go down the other side where you'll meet the road going to the clork house buckman taverns that's across over here And so when the british column came up from boston this way the minutemen are over here by buckman tavern They're not even on any other roads The british were free to go down the british streets were free to go down to the clork house Or over the other way towards conquered and everybody already knew that's where they're going And so they had made sure adam's and handcock were gone They were they were not there anymore. They were long gone And there's this hilarious story about a trout that handcock had got I think he caught it and he'd been trying to eat for like three days And they would get it out and get ready to cook it and something would happen They have to put it away again And finally they're like revere shows up at 2am banging on the door And he's like what he opens the door revere what what And they're like the the red coat the regulars are out and he's like oh He goes and he wraps up his trout and he puts it in the carriage and they take it with him when they leave town Um, then it's you see handcock is used to living at a certain level And this is not working out for him and adam's is champing at the bit He is he knows that war is coming and he's like, please god, please don't let us shoot first Um, but let's get this over with let's get it over with And so they leave they head out of town. The column comes up It's led by the young marine captain jessie adair who is a hard charger Pit karen and smith are in command of the column They put adair at the head so that he'll keep the pace And then they're at the rear, you know, bring in where you have to be to make sure your column stays together He comes up to the and he sees okay. He knows there's where we're going the clark house. There's a body of armed Troops not in our way, but if we go that way we're going to leave them on our flank And so he made the decision to file out onto the green and face These disarmed militiamen, but they were just standing there Just standing there and they could have gone past and that was the whole point It was john parker the commander of the militia who said stand firm Do not fire unless fired upon but if they mean to have a war let it begin here They were not afraid to die. In fact, he knew he was dying of tuberculosis Uh, he could and it was he couldn't really speak anymore He could he was gravelly and he could talk but if there was very much noise he couldn't be heard Which is probably one of the reasons why there was so much confusion on leggsington green And so the column comes up Um pit karen rides up to the front of the column very rapidly. He sees oh no we're facing off against the militia This is very bad. We do not want to have a war here He is he's a class. He's a classic, you know, the worst man to deprive an Englishman of his liberty as another Englishman He rides up and he very cleverly gives the one order that he knows will work disperse he rebels disperse Um, the and since the time and I I don't know how long you want to go But there's this cool story from henry the third this is a thousand years or almost a thousand years before 800 years before When there was one of the first english peasant rebellions and a guy named watt tyler was leading them the king He's young he's like 14 years old and he goes I will go out and I will talk to these englishman um, because I am an englishman too and he does and he he talks the he rides up and he says countryman, what is what's the problem? Why you know why and he's 14 and they're somewhat appa, you know Just thunderstruck that this kid is here and tyler who is a neir du well rises up to club him And the king's bodyguard runs him through and the king stops him. It's a stop stop now men You saw he just attacked me I'm not here to attack you what do you want and they came up and they they they stated their grievance And he said if you will disperse now, I will sit here I will camp here tonight and I will hoard court and you can come before me and tell me your grievance and I'll I will answer And they did and it it was the beginning of the common law that the king could disperse any body of englishman If the king said go home, you went home. That's the king's right. You don't stay there You don't continue whatever you're doing you stop and that became this was before parliament before the house of commons So in a house of commons formed it was under this understanding that if the king says go home you go home And so the king could always disperse parliament. Well, pit care knew this of course And so he sees a body of men. He says disperse and they turn around to leave Just like that But they don't put their guns on the ground they leave with their guns And he says lay down you later on your arms curse you damn you And they that you know, they're like no, we're not leaving That's an unlawful order and they kept walking off with them Well, at that point someone fired and the american perspective was always that it was a british officer It was an officer's pistol There were british soldiers who probably that we The depositions that we have from right after that It looks it sounds like there was somebody who was not on the green and one of them saw that saw a musket discharged May have been a negligent discharge. Who knows maybe it was something crazy person Um the historian I respect the most posits that they there may have been two simultaneous shots Um, and it is very possible So, but in any case as soon as a shot was fired the british soldiers who were angry It started shooting they started shooting right away and pit queen again was horrified He rode up and down the line. He was striking the ends of their muskets with his sword blade trying to make them stop Um, and they ignored him and charged the the americans who had a few of them turned around So jones parker who was john parkers cousin was shot along with seven other guys um, some of them were bayonetted They finally got all the troops back together and they were there for quite a while And then they continued on to conquered Well, when they got to conquered their goal was to take the can and that had been buried on this farm and the muskets and and powder Well by the time they got there, of course, they had all been hidden The americans actually went out and plowed in the middle of the night. They plowed up the field laid the muskets In wrapped them up laid them in the furrows and buried them in a line. So it looked like it was a flesh freshly planted field it is in the canon tubes and the Um, there were a couple canons that they couldn't move. They were these huge like bomb bard when it can't canons that they actually the british actually destroyed Um, but when they get to conquered Um, the americans are now on this hill up above town so they can see what's going on But the american commander Bartlett I think was his name intentionally removed them from town so that they couldn't fight because he had heard rumors That there had been shooting in lexington and they were all horrified because they were they worried that oh no We shot at the king we shot at the king the king's man. This is the king in you know in front of us We can't do that. God will not bless us and so they get there they go about their job They look for the canon in town. They send a contingent over to the farm and to get to the farm They have to cross an old north bridge, which is conquered bridge. And so they leave a contingent of troops there There's only about 90. I think Uh, yeah, I think it was about 90 on that bridge And the it so happens that the american militia the town militia is up on the Bluff and they have to cross the bridge to get back to town while a fire breaks out Um, and the townsmen actually get the british to stop doing what they're doing and help put out the fire Yeah, and they do but they can't really see what's going on They just see smoke raising from town and so they decide we got to go back down. They're burning They might be burning our town And so they have to cross this bridge. Well, the contingent is still searching the farm fruitlessly And the guy the commands the commander of the troops on the bridge is not very good. He does a very poor job um, he Uh, sees them approaching there in two columns. They're very peaceful Um, and he orders his men to retreat over on the outside of the bridge and to form up in this very complex Um formation that would allow them to mass their fire. It's called street fire Um, and he gave the order to start ripping up the planks on the bridge so they couldn't cross Well, that struck a nerve because there's this long debate. Do the do the bridges belong to the township? Or do they belong to the king? Right and of course the all the militias had stopped tearing up our bridge We're just trying to get over there to put out the fire and that angered them And so they began running still In peaceful, you know, they had their weapons down and they're not marching up there to shoot Well, the british commander gave the order to fire and it was it was definitely Top to bottom. This was not some kind of ragged fire. This was not an you know, one individual This was an officer and the person of the king In ordering the men to fire. They fired They didn't hit anybody Uh, at that point the americans who had been drilling and training and they had the right weapons and they had all the right stuff They immediately formed into their ranks fired and took out a bunch of the british and made them made them run They broke and ran in front so the first conflict. That's why it's the shot fired heard around the world They had never been done Peasants do not form up and do a better job than the british regulars These this is the best army in the world and they totally screwed up the whole thing And the the peasants who are these hardcore puritans their command is stand fast Don't shoot first, but if they shoot at you kill them all Kill them all. I like that. That was their perspective exactly show the black flag and that's what they did these guys and it's their The peasants this is what was called the train band or the trained band It goes back to the 1500s when the puritans gathered and organized every township into Um with the authority to train men for war This is where the whole idea of an army comes from in england the army is made up of the individuals Now you can go back to robin hood you can go back to this balance that you had between the english nobility who were normans Right after 1066 and the sachsons who were Bowman And so the idea of robin hood been split and arrow they could actually do that kind of thing But it wasn't with these little bows that you could pull back and hold These bows were as tall as luke And they were guys Our size and smaller who were running these bows They were so hard to pull back that an english bowman That when when they know when they find the skeleton of a bowman because his right shoulder is deformed From pulling that string back And you pulled it back and let it go You did not know people did not have the strength to sit there with it like this You're talking 170 to 200 pounds of force that it took to pull that bowback and it's a four-yard It's a four-foot arrow And they're massive. Wow. This is why at the battle of cressy and an ashen core Which is the famous speech of henry the fifth or the fourth excuse me Um the christ saint christman's day speech the band of brothers speech Yeah, um that is at ashen core where there's the they've they've invaded Normandy because he has a right to the crown and they get beat and there's 5 000 of them there are 25 000 french chevalier bearing down them on these huge french farm horses, right? They're they're they're riding their battle horses and they're armored and the english bowman wipe them out Because at 200 yards they can pull back these 200 pound bows And shoot an arrow that will go pass through a knight Front back in armor. Oh, yeah, and they've done it before and they could shoot up and by the time it was falling You know, it's reached terminal velocity got a huge iron head on it Yeah, there was no, you know that that famous meme of the guy with the arrow in his visor They didn't have to do that they get hit him anywhere Anywhere there wasn't shield there wasn't armor for it that the at this point they could they could shoot things heavy enough to go through Everything so these descendants of the Puritans who have been through their their great great great grandfathers Basically fought alongside robin hood you've got them all the way through the english civil war all the way to now They are determined number one that they will not give up their freedom number two They will not fire on the king and let's fire it upon and when they get fired upon that's it. They are total bad asses and so Eventually gonna smoke yeah, yeah, they we will not shoot first, but you shoot at us and you will not survive I don't start fights. I finish finish them and that's what happened. That's so I should be on the american flag Fights we finish them and so though I wouldn't work today as a motto because no Sometimes we start fights that we don't finish unfortunately and so the british after reform They have to flee back to boston and now everybody knows the british fired first so 20,000 This is a column of 400 men 20,000 Americans come out of the woodwork and shoot at them on the way back And they would have they probably would have killed them all If they hadn't been a relief force sent out of about a thousand men to to regard them as they went back And so it was it was a huge embarrassment They bottled them up in boston They corked them up in there. They wouldn't let them out They went up to fort ticonderoga and dragged the cannons down and placed them over the over and forced the british to leave And this is the beginning of the war and so this is what impels eventually on on july 4th 1776 this is a year and a couple months later The americans in congress assemble their representatives vote and say these states these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states Why because the king has kicked us out? He has abdicated through injustice and what the declaration says a train of events that pursue invariably pursue one end tyranny And so and then they list all the all all the problems with the king But the very fact that the king had sent troops and had actually hired foreign mercenaries the Hessians to subjugate them demonstrated We're no longer English citizens. You don't you don't hire foreign mercenaries and send them in and say you will obey at gunpoint You do that to protect us. You don't do that to subjugate us if you kick us out Well, then we don't owe you allegiance anymore And that's is why they are are and of right ought to be free independent states And so that entire thing not only is it one of the reasons I think it's hard for us as christians today is because we've been We've been inculcated and indoctrinated in this idea that christianity is above all just nice And if if the government says you take pinwheels to the side of your head, then that's what you do so Todd frill. Yeah, talk for a quote. Yeah, and so no, not only is it justifiable It's actually you're obligated sometimes And so I'm not saying you're obligated to to celebrate the 4th of july. I feel like i'm obligated to celebrate the 4th of july That was a long answer to that question Is it a way to obey the 5th commandment? Yes, I would argue that it is Did you love it? Do you see what i'm saying though? Like you you get the whole story and backgrounds and who i told you were thinking and what do you know what they were eating for dinner? You guys laughed more than you want. It was a stinking trout. No, I love it. I love it I certainly didn't get that in public school. I'm just saying well then that's that I think We'll finish on that I think one of the Challenges of modern government education is just sort of bullet pointing facts like just take these brute facts into your head There was a date where this thing was signed. Here's who was there that sort of a thing It's just there's no background world if you understand it. Why were they thinking this way? What led up to this? Was it tradition? Was it not right? Yeah, what were they thinking and what was the nature of the conflict and what was the defense on either side? You don't you don't get any of that. I mean, I went to public school I was you know I grew up a military base as a military brat or air force brat And so they're government schools and that's that's all I got. I got exactly that history is just sort of like here's a date Here's a fact right exactly don't know anything about it. Don't know why I don't know why that's so special But yeah, any more of those dates and facts me or may not be accurate Rather just get altered because if it's just a fact anyway, it's just change a word Yep, and we have generations of this is just a testable because it has no meaning It means nothing you just have to put it in the work and you get nothing Get nothing. Yeah Loves act lounge logger. Thanks for the opportunity brothers. Yeah, absolutely Hope this was an enjoyable experience I know for sure that I'll be going back to listen to it Several times no doubt and I hope you do the same Don't forget everybody. Please be in prayer Just quickly for end abortion now Lots is going on around the country right now. I just have to say it. There are no abortion free states This this fight is really just at in many ways kind of at the genesis In many ways right now across the country ballot measures happening including our state, Arizona That would put the right to kill your child Essentially from conception up to nine months into the state constitution I've said it and i'll keep saying it because I hope that it's going to stick in some way that I think we're about to enter into the bloodiest and most brutal part of this holocaust we've ever seen If these ballot measures are happening across the country We're talking about more freedom to kill than we ever had before in many of these states And so with that please be in prayer because we are working hard We're working hard with some organizations and some Pretty big heavy hitters right now to make sure that we put a stop to these things and So pray for that but also we have Even new states that have popped up with legislators who want to put bills of equal protection in and so we got a lot of work to do And we need your help. So please pray for us and go to end abortion now.com and give financially there Uh, it's it's amazing the things that the lord has asked us to do and he's giving us the opportunity to do Uh, but it's also amazing when you consider what he's asking us to do to look at our size Like, you know, some of the things that we're doing right now that people are like, well, that's in caution But a million bucks to do we're like, well, okay, where do we get that from because we uh, you know, and we don't have it Yeah To do a particular fight against the ballot measure, but it needs to be done So with that, uh, I just want to ask you to just pray Just pray the lord, continue to bless and use us and if your church has not uh signed up yet to go out and get the training Uh, if you haven't got the training yet for going out to save lives at the abortion mills Um, and all the training and free resources joined together with almost thousand churches across The nation around the world who are going out to save lives Uh, just go to end abortion now.com and sign your church up so that we can get you all the training and resources for free So you can go out and save some lives at the mills and, uh, I think we're good there, right? Yeah, we're gonna end it there. Let's end it. All right. So that's uh, luke the bear peace out. I'm jeff the combin and ninja That's Zachary conomer Sign he's the exact exact that's right. Thanks for being exact. All right. Catch you next week right here on apology or radio. Happy fourth [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [BLANK_AUDIO]