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

The Bible says, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1)

Ladies and Gentlemen: The following document is the reason you and I, in America, are free:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world…”

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

The Bible says, “Remember those who led you…” (Hebrews 13:7) Yet, in America we’ve forgotten what those who founded this nation were like. We no longer know how they thought or what they did. Someone has truthfully described us as having “national amnesia”.

The great danger in a nation forgetting its past is that they will lose the foundational ideas that made that nation great. We’re missing out on the inspiration provided by the stories of our ancestors who did amazing things to birth, grow, and protect America. Worse still, we’re missing the interventions by God Himself so that we no longer credit Him with America’s existence. Thus we lose the very Strength Who has brought the good to us which we now enjoy.

A renowned minister, A.W. Foljambe, spoke great wisdom when he said in 1876:

“The more thoroughly a nation deals with its history, the more decidedly will it recognize and own an over-ruling Providence [in it], and the more religious a nation [it will] become; while the more superficially it deals with its history, seeing only secondary causes and human agencies, the more irreligious will it be.”

One of the greatest ways to rediscover our past is simply to read the statements of our Founding Fathers. They wrote a great deal in journals and documents just so the following generations could know the foundational ideas on which they birthed and built this nation into the greatest in world history. They didn’t claim that they came up with these ideas. They constantly acknowledged the Bible to be the source of this wisdom.

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

Today we hear much about what is called the “Separation of Church and State”.  By that phrase is meant that the Bible, nor Christian ideas, have any right to influence government.  Groups such as the ACLU, who promote this idea, say that the First Amendment to the Constitution forbids Biblical ideas from influencing government.  But an honest study of the men who wrote the First Amendment will reveal just the opposite.

America’s Founders came from a long line of people who looked to God as the Source and Strength of their lives.  Prayer to them was as natural as breathing, and an absolute necessity in times of national crisis.  When the first major step toward war occurred, which was the blockading of Boston harbor, the first Continental Congress was then in session.  This gathering marked the first time the thirteen colonies had come together to discuss how to deal with the King of England’s tyranny over the American colonies.  Their very first act was to invite a minister to start their sessions with prayer and the reading of the Bible.

On September 7, 1774, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, describing the effects of the prayer.  He wrote:

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

It had been a long struggle. For over twenty years the American Colonies had appealed to their king, asking him to recognize his departure from English law. The Americans, because of their Biblical foundation, understood that government servants (including the king) had to do what they did according to the law of God. King George III showed no respect for what the Bible had to say about government, and thus ignored every request to come back into the order of God.

Finally on June 7th, 1776, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution on the floor of the Continental Congress stating:

“RESOLVED, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown; and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”

(The Declaration of Independence, Rod Gragg, Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, 2005; p.35)

A committee was appointed, which included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Ben Franklin, to write a Declaration of Independence which would, upon the approval of the Congress be sent to the King of England. The Congress then recessed for three weeks to give the committee time to write the Declaration.

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

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this…”?  Do you know what document contains these words that I just read?  It could just be that your life—and the life of your children—depends on it!

John Jay was one of America’s Founders who would become the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.  His great wisdom guided us in those early years as our Constitution was being tested.  His understanding of liberty and how it passed to the next generation is so powerful—and pertinent to our present day.  He wisely stated:

“…But let it be remembered that whatever marks of wisdom…may be in your constitution, yet like the…forms of our first parents before their Maker breathed into them the breath of life, it is yet to be animated…From the people it must receive its spirit…”

“Vice, ignorance, and [lack] of vigilance will be the only enemies able to destroy it…Every member of the State ought diligently to read and to study the constitution…By knowing their rights, they will sooner perceive when [those rights] are violated, and be the better prepared to defend [them]…

“Hence it becomes the common duty…to unite in [subduing][those unrestrained by morality]…and thereby diffusing the blessings of peace.”

What was John Jay’s standard for morality?  On April 15, 1818, he wrote:

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

It is such an amazing story! Patrick, a young, former slave in Ireland, was called by God in the 400s to go share the Gospel of Christ with those same Irish people who had enslaved him just a few years before! Yet, without fear, he boldly entered again into that realm and became the agent of liberty to those who had once been his agents of slavery.

He developed this boldness because Christ had revealed Himself to him in such a living way. Patrick’s faith in Jesus was no cold orthodoxy; his was a living relationship with the living, resurrected Son of God! In Patrick’s life, Jesus was Lord! We get a glimpse of the intimacy between him and his Lord when he writes of hearing His voice. With great humility he simply states that God said to him:

“He who gave His life for you, He it is who speaks within you.”

(Great Christian Classics, Kevin Swanson ed. (Generations With Vision, 2010), p. 140)

His knowledge of Christ was deeper than most of us today. He understood that Jesus dwelt inside him. He knew Christ, not only as the Lord of heaven—which He certainly is—but as the present, resident, Lord inside Patrick. One time he actually saw the Holy Spirit praying within him. He wrote,