© 2026 Don Pinson (To download, right-click on the gray play bar and select “Save Audio As”)

Pastor Jonas Clark stood on Lexington Green on the steps of his church building on April 19th, 1775, watching 600 British troops file onto the grassy area.  He had taught his people for twenty years the Biblical principles of why and how to defend civil liberty.  He did this because he knew the Bible taught that civil government was God’s institution just like the home and the church were God’s institutions.  He stood there that day and watched nine of his men die on that field.  They died because they stood and took the first volley.  They had learned from their Pastor that only defensive war is just.  For God to fight with them, they must not fire the first shot.  They didn’t.  God honored their sacrifice; the British, though a vastly superior force, were routed that day by the Colonial forces.  A “shot was heard round the world” about how you defend civil liberty God’s way!

Samuel Davies, a Pastor in Virginia, was Patrick Henry’s inspiration for powerful public speaking.  Laying “line upon line” the great Pastor’s reasoning both stirred and gave courage to the young boy.  Later, this boy would become the statesman who would fire the American citizens to rise up and refuse to give up their liberty to teach the Gospel of Christ in this land.  His stirring words, which used to be the stuff of speeches in our country, went like this: