Transcription
Now, I do think there is something more here. This was built as a rededication of the country to God. And I I want to note two things. First, you can't rededicate something to God that was never dedicated to God in the first place. At the 1787 constitutional convention, there was a few delegates who wanted to bring in clergy and have prayers at the convention and so on. And that motion was never taken up.
What does the Bible have to say about the separation of church and state? Is it biblical? What about the constitution? What about the various views that are out there? At the recent meeting at the National Mall, Rededicate 250, there was a lot of conversation happenings and great discussions about church and state union. This effort to rededicate America as a nation under God, brought serious concern to the minds of many, including ourselves. Dr. Ben Carson, a 7th Day Adventist. I have some interesting insight about separation of church and state, and I've also shared some ideas regarding that. We're going to take a second to examine that as well. All right, friends. Let's get to it.
How do you love Jesus? Oh, yeah.
"For now, I have chosen and sanctified this house. My name may be there forever, and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually."
"All of our leaders need to get on our knees and prostrate ourselves before the Supreme Lord."
"And on this day of rededicate 250, let us follow George Washington's example. Let us pray for our nation on bended knee."
It was obvious to the founders that our faith was the ground upon which America stands. It was our very foundation as a people. This is who we are. It is who we have always been. America is still a young nation measured against the record of history. And from the beginning, we have carried the belief that our country represents something new in the world. Lord, on July 4th, 1776, you gave 56 patriots the courage and the conviction to sign their names to the Declaration of Independence.
"We see ourselves as the controllers competing with each other over who is number one. There's only one number one."
Let's take a listen to this video from Dr. Ben Carson at the Rededicate 250. Ben Carson gave a speech, and we're going to talk a little bit about the separation of church and state: his perspective, what history has says, and again, what does that have to do with the scripture? Because being part of that event, having met some of the people and listened to some of their speech, I came to the conclusion: majority of them believe that separation of church and state is obsolete, and this whole notion is purely Marxist, atheist; it is heathenism to even believe that. I do have a few more videos that I'm going to share with you when he's done with that one. And I have a video from from the lawyer Jonathan Zurkl. It's also on my channel. I'm going to give you a link at the end where you can watch the entire thing. All right, let's begin with this video right about now. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage Dr. Ben Carson.
Thank you. Thank you. Well, it's wonderful to be here on a day like this. You know, 250 years ago, America was born in a Declaration of Independence that began with the revolutionary acknowledgment that our rights come from God and not from government. And it ended with an appeal to divine providence for protection. The Lord heard that call, and there has been no nation since that time that has been so blessed. We're so blessed to be here. You know, my wife and I have been to 68 countries, and I can tell you there is no place like America, and we need to make sure it stays that way. But remember our improbable rebellion against the most powerful military force on earth or the forging of our constitution. Look at our prosperity, our technological innovation, our culture of freedom, our triumphs over slavery, totalitarianism, segregation, hunger, and disease, even over the surirly bonds of earth. We, the only nation defined by a dream. Nobody else has a dream. Think about that. I know because I've lived it. Think about a country where my mother, born in poverty to a very large rural family, bounced around from house to house, never had a home, achieved less than a third grade education, got married at age 13, discovered that her husband was a bigamist. That a child born into that situation can become a renowned neurosurgeon. Think about it: a cabinet secretary, a co-founder of a national scholarship program, author of New York Times bestsellers, a founder of a nonprofit think tank, due tank, etc. That can only happen in America. And that's why we have to keep that. And it has to be a very special place. A place that is a land of freedom and opportunity. Where we split the atom, rocketed to the moon, and put all human knowledge in the palm of our hands. America is not only a land of opportunities. It's a land of the impossible.
Some skeptics today say we can't do this for another 250 years. They say our policies are out of the date and our systems are breaking down. But they're wrong because it wasn't our policies. And it wasn't our systems that made America great. It was our people giving humble hearts to God and helping hands to each other. It was the American people that traveled the world to fight and die for the freedom of others. American people, through ingenuity, compassion, and shared determination, have unleashed untold prosperity that has benefited every corner of the world. There is no problem that the American people will not tackle. And that is all because of the Almighty. The same God that answered the founding father's appeal for divine providence, guided our nation through untold adversity, and continues to guide her today. He helped us serve our nation by loving our neighbors, not cancelling our neighbors if we disagree with them, by being good husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, citizens, friends. We do all that by loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our spirit, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
And there are forces that are trying to get us to think that we're enemies based on race, age, income, gender, religion, political affiliation. But that doesn't make us enemies. Just because we have a disagreement, it tells you that your brain is alive because if two people agree about everything, one of them isn't necessary. So, I think we can do better. But to rededicate America to that mission this year, it's important that we honor and celebrate our nation's heroes. It's even more important that we emulate them. The lesson of the last 250 years is that in America, we don't wait for miracles. We get to work and let God work them through us. We need to discuss and learn from our history: the good, the bad, and the ugly. But the fortunate thing is, there's a heck of a lot more good than there is bad and ugly. And as we rededicate America, let's boldly proclaim our values and make sure that we're not afraid of anything. Why have so many innovations and inventions come from our country? Because we were bold. Because we've been courageous. Be not afraid. What does God's word say? It says, "He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a strong mind." Common sense. That's what God has given us. And we need to remember we are not enemies. Don't let anybody convince you that we are because our strength comes from unity. And we must be courageous because you cannot be the land of the free if you're not the home of the brave. God bless you all. Thank you.
All right. Powerful speech. Okay. Now, I'm going validate a number of things. There is no place like America. He's right. And I know that's very difficult for some people to accept, but it is. But when you live in this country long enough, you can have your likes and dislike, and you can see certain things that you will say, "Why do we do certain things the way that we do in this country?" That is a problem. And I will certainly agree with you. But once you travel outside of this country and live in other nations beside the United States, you begin to actually have a much clearer picture and an appreciation for the values of this country. I tell people I am not an American basher. I don't make a living bashing this country. This is a great place to live. For those of you who know, I'm from Haiti. And have you seen the news lately of what's going on in Haiti? We're talking about communism, Marxism, and then some. That's what's going on. It is pure chaos. Okay? So, let's just put it that way. Now, there's still some good places there. Let's be fair. There's always some good places that the media will not highlight. There's some decent places where there's safety you can still go with your family and be at peace. But what's happening in the inner city is it will drive you crazy. They can't fix that.
Now, having been in this country, live in this country, have my family in this country, there's something to love and appreciate. And I think this is why I'm among those who are very concerned about the direction things are heading. It is because there's so much to love and appreciate in America. That's why we raise a voice of protest when we seeing decisions and policies being drafted, steps are being taken that are going to lead this beautiful country down a very dark valley. Now, for those of you who, you know, I've talked to some individuals and they they do nothing but bashing America. I'll tell you, even Ellen White understood this. There's a chapter in great controversy called "The Pilgrim Fathers." Go take a read about what the spirit of prophecy says about America. She speaks very positively about this country. Although there were some issues from the very beginning. We know some of the pilgrim fathers were extreme. They went too far. Of course, that's almost unavoidable, right? It is always that way. But she also highlights the beauty and the freedom, just the principles of America. There is none like it. Now I can certainly agree with Dr. Ben Carson. But the one thing we got to talk about quickly is the idea of church and state and then rededication. Do Dr. Ben Carson, and again, I am not here to bash nor attack the man. I would love to have him on on AMC one of these days, and I have a really good conversation to better understand his heart. Um, but in that speech he wasn't really saying much about that, but there's a video out there with him and Tucker Carlson where he was talking about the church and state separation and how that's not in the constitution. Let's take a listen to that, and then we're going to share some of my thought and some scriptures as well. All right, take a listen.
"said, "We're going to have the Ten Commandments in the schools." And uh the governor of Oklahoma and the legislature said, "We're going to teach Bible and the Ten Commandments." Oh, no, no, you can't do that. This is horrible. Uh separation of church and state. You know, the Constitution says nothing about separation of church and state, by the way. Uh that's been distorted uh tremendously. But I like to ask these people exactly why don't you want the Ten Commandments to be taught? What is wrong with 'Thou shalt not kill'? What's wrong with 'Thou shalt not steal'? Thou shall not commit adultery. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not envy. Honor your parents. What's wrong with those things? And of course they never have a good answer for what's wrong with them because there is nothing that's wrong with them. And uh you know these are basic principles of civilization, and you can go to the deepest darkest jungle of Borneo, and if you find a thief, what does he do? He waits until nighttime when nobody can see him, and he goes and steal. Why did he do that? Because he knows it's wrong. There is such a thing as right and wrong, and there's nothing wrong with us teaching that to our children."
Okay. So now let's talk a little bit about the separation of church and state. We're going to come from the perspective of the constitution in a minute because the lawyer Jonathan Circle is going to share some things. Now let's open our Bible, cuz we we are Christians, and let's ask the question: does the Bible support the idea of separation of church and state? That answer is yes. Okay. Let's first understand what Jesus says. Number one, we ought not to disrespect the government. We ought not to um become rebels. We ought not to become anarchist. Right? This is not a call for it. Cuz when we talk about separation of church and state, we're not talking about separation from, you know, lawabiding principles in our country. It is a different perspective than often time it is discussed. Number one, uh Romans 13:es 1-13. I'm not going to read this; I'm going to give you the text. The text, the Bible, is clear: you need to respect the civil government. But even when you read that, it is good to keep in mind the part that Romans speaks about are the last six commandments. So even with the Ten Commandments, there is a separation, right? The Verse four is relationship to God, but the last six, relationship to mankind. Romans 13 only speaks about some of the last six commandments. It doesn't speak about all of six, but at least it summarizes some of them. Does not touch. It does not touch any of the first four commandments. Very interesting. So even in the Ten Commandments of God, there is a separation of church and state. Love God, love your neighbor. You see, there's a difference between the two. In first Peter chapter 2, where is first Peter? First Peter chapter 2. Look at this. And also there is verse 13. We're not going to read all of this again. Talking about, "Submit yourself to every ordinances ordinance of men as the Lord, for the Lord's sake," and king and supreme, and even counsel to pray for these individuals as well who are in authority. So we need to submit, respect, and understand that political powers have great goods that they serve in a society of multiple types of individuals. This is very needed for order and laws to be maintained for us to live with each other. For as much as lies in us, let us live peaceably with all men. So yes, that's biblical. There's no question about that.
Now, let me give you some texts that we're not going to read all of them. I'm giving you them very quickly. When you hear people say there's no separation of church and state and they are Christians, ask them: does the Bible support separation of church and state? And the answer is yes. Now you can make the argument in the Old Testament there was a theocracy because God was king. Right? And when the king is under God, he rules. That's a different story in ancient Israel. But are we living in a theocracy today in our culture? The answer is no. So be very careful that individual who tells you the Bible has, you know, God as king; therefore, it should be good for us to imply the same principles here in our civil government. Very dangerous mentality. That's not biblical. The text says, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar and unto God the things that are God's." Now there's a difference between what belongs to Caesar, obviously taxes, due, respect, love, right? Obedience. But when it comes to God, he has his own. So there is a clear distinction here between separation of church and state. This is abundantly clear. But some people will still argue against that. And then they will say, "We're going to make the America Christian again." We're going to come back to that. But wait a minute. Does Jesus want us to take a kingdom for him here on earth? Does Jesus want us to Christianize the state on his behalf? Friends, this is what Jesus says. Verse 36, Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world." What part of that don't you understand? This is not to say he doesn't have a say and influence his people in this world. That's not the same point. That's not the same thing at all. But his kingdom is not here, and his kingdom is not America. Respect. Listen, we can love America. Talk about the good things that that exist here. We don't have to become some far-left, you know, Marxist, you know, America bad kind of people. Some people just that's all they do. We don't have to do that. But at the same time, you can tell the truth. Jesus says, "My kingdom is not of this world." And if my kingdom was of this world, then will my servant fight. Why are you fighting? To save the kingdom of God. Why are you fighting? We're trying to make America great again. Well, that kingdom is not his, though. Does that mean we should not conquer, preach, teach, do as much good as possible for Christ's sake? Yes, we should. But does that mean we should go ahead and take the kingdom by force? Legislate our morality because we believe in Christianity? That's not biblical.
"The idea that that there's separation of church and state the way that it's been been manipulated by leaders in our government is absurd. It's absurd. It is a fraud and it is tyranny."
"If you go back to the first amendment, it doesn't say separation of church and state. It says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. But"
"they say separation between church and state. They told me. I said, 'All right, let's forget about that for one time.' We said, 'Really, the separation? I don't know, is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure, but whether there's separation or not, you guys are in the White House where you should be.'"
"HEAR ME! Says God, 'There should never have been separation between church and state,' saith the Lord. And then all the Ten Commandments must be legislated. But that's kind of where we are today. Now, let's think about this scenario: what if I legislate morality according to the Bible, right? All Ten Commandments saying which God needs to be worshiped, how you cannot worship images, how you cannot take his name in vain, and how you must also keep the Sabbath, right? We we we legislate all four. But that's duty of a man toward his God. But what if that man is not of the same conviction as I am? What should I do with such a man? Are we going to allow him to disrupt the peace of society? Are we going to let him be an example for others, which could even lead to more rebellion? What should we do with such a man? Well, that man needs to be punished according to the law. But what if that punishment continues leading into what the Bible refers to as persecution? But how do you maintain peace and prosperity in a nation who has multiple views and conviction and understanding? How do we not destroy those who disagree with us religiously? How do we love and share and share the gospel with them without the sword of the state, without ticking their heads off? How do we do that? Well, we do it by not uniting the church and state. We do it by the sword of the spirit: conviction, preaching, teaching, evangelism. And if that doesn't work, we leave it in God's hands. This is not to say we are okay with taking the lives of the unborn. This is not to say the last six commandments should not be legislated. That's not the point. But whenever the first four is legislated, you have a union of church and state. That's going to lead to the violations of religious liberty and freedom of conscience. And if you love America, you should never support that. Now, that's one reality. This is what the Bible says. We ought to obey God rather than who? Rather than men. Because some men may believe something that the God of the Bible has laid on your heart that might be different from theirs. Does that mean you're supposed to die because of that? This is why we have to thank before we shout."
Now, you heard the man said there's no religious uh separation of church and state in the constitution. Now, here is the lawyer, Jonathan Zurkel. We're going to bring some firepower in the room. I want you to hear what he says. Okay.
So, I've entitled the separation of church and state, and it's uh, "The Separation of Church and State in 2026." You can see here with this illustration, it's like the government's trying to put up the separation and the churches are trying to take it down. I'd like to start with a text here that kind of sets the tone for all of this, and that's Mark 12:17. And Jesus answering said unto them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they marveled at him. You know, this was actually representing a big change. Um, the separation of church and state. You see, the world had never really experienced that before, and yet Christ here is enunciating it. This is this is really the foundation right here for all of the separation of church and state. Now, what's being talked about today? Where is this all going? Well, I like to, before I even dive into it, I want to get a thought in your head that that will help clarify everything. And that is okay. Am I? I think I am facing it. This is a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists in 1802. And this is the section that that's got everyone up in arms today that's talking about this issue. He's writing to the Danbury Baptists; it is two years after he's been elected president. And the reason why he writes the letter is because the Baptists are concerned about whether they're going to be given liberty or mere tolerance or just the mere favor. And Jefferson writes back. There's another reason too that was going on at the time, and that is Jefferson was, um, he was not continuing a tradition that was, uh, that happened a lot in England, and that was declaring days of, of, um, fasting and prayer. He didn't think that that the that that the state should be doing that. And so because of that, that's what's the background to this letter. And when he's writing to the Danbury Baptist, he says this. He says, "I contemplate with so sovereign reverence the act of the whole American people which declared that our legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Thus building a wall of separation between church and state. That letter there is what everybody's talking about today. It's interesting, just, if you look at it, just what he's saying right there. He's repeating the first amendment and stating what the effect of the first amendment is. Well, so what is going on today? Let's let's get right into it. Oh, actually I forgot I had this slide here. So when you look at this, did Jefferson get that idea? This is the other thing that's really important. Is this Jefferson's idea? No. And we're going to see that it's a lot of people's idea. But where this idea of a wall of separation of churches state really comes from, it really comes from, um, Roger Williams. And Roger Williams, writing in the, like, I don't know, 1630s, he's going to say this. "When the when they the church have opened a gap in the hedge of a wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever broke down the wall itself and made his garden a wilderness as at this day." Cuz, see, he was talking about how there was union of churches stateed his day. And so he's saying that, "Look, when that wall gets broken down, what happens?" The church instead of being the garden of Eden becomes a wilderness. And that therefore, "if he will ever please to restore his garden in paradise again," I think this is a little high. I'm going move this down. "It must of necessity be walled in, peculiar in peculiarly unto himself from the world." And that all that be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the world and added to his church or garden. In other words, you can't have the church and the and the world going together. You end up with nothing but wilderness. But he's saying, "reerect that wall, separate the church and state, and then transplant the people out of the wilderness into the garden." That's where this whole idea comes from. It's it's a it's a theological idea of necessity, right?
So, you tell me, did the founding fathers believe in a separation of church and state? Does the Bible support the idea of a separation of church and state? Is there a serious danger to uniting church and state? Do you believe that Ben Carson is correct or incorrect about his understanding of church and state? You know, my concern is, if he is a sevenist and has been raised in the faith, he should know better. But maybe my criticism isn't fair. I would love to have a conversation. Maybe I'm not understanding his heart and his mind. We're going to reach out to him. We're going to reach out to him to have a conversation, to hear his heart. But friends, if you love America, you should never support the idea of union of church and state. When that happens, it will be the end of religious freedom for everyone who believes what the Bible teaches. All right, friends. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next video. Have a good one. Bye.