I've never heard this line before in the Bible, but in this time of revival, I pray that more people come to realize it's true.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I've got a couple of random things I want to share. First of all, I'm reading this book called Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers. Daniel Driesbach, D -R -E -I -S -B -A -C -H. I'm only on page 35, but it is awesome. 

I have so many things underlined here. It's ridiculous. Let me just quote this right here. This is all about how the Bible was used in schools and how it was the most important book in colonial America. It says here, some colonial laws even required households to possess a copy of the Bible. A Connecticut colonial law instructed the selectmen from time to time to make diligent inquiry of all households, how they are furnished with Bibles. 

And if upon such inquiry, any householder be found without one Bible at least, then the selectmen shall warn the said householder forthwith to procure one Bible at least for the use and benefit of their families respectively. Such laws were about promoting moral instruction and literacy among the youth, In addition to nurturing the spiritual improvement of citizens. Isn't that amazing? It was a law that you had to own a Bible in colonial America. And we're told that America is not a Christian country. The biggest, one of the biggest lies we've ever been told is that we are not a Christian nation. 

We're never one. And our founders weren't Christian and all this total absolute abject lie. We need to get back to our founding. We talked on the SiriusXM show today with Frank Turek, Dr. Frank Turek. He wrote a book that someone gave to me, a friend of mine gave to me about 14 years ago. It's called, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist. 

And it was the most pivotal book that I ever read towards me becoming a Christian. There are tons of people, tons of influences, tons of other things, but book, this is the one. And Frank Turek also was Charlie Kirk's mentor. He was standing right next to Charlie when he was assassinated. We talked to him today and I'll get the audio and we can put it here in the podcast version as well. 

Just want to mention that. Two books to buy, Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, and Reading the Bible with the Founding Fathers, Daniel Driesbach. All right, here's the other random thing I wanted to share today. Someone sent me this note, Dave. He said, hey Slater, truly appreciate the way you have navigated our political discourse with frequent references to the great thinkers, including the greatest thinker of all, Jesus Christ. I would like to humbly suggest a song that you could weave into your broadcast or podcast. 

Here we are, Dave. So people will further understand the gravity of the situation facing us, not just today, but in eternity. The song is by Johnny Cash, The Man Comes Around. It certainly helped wake me up years ago. Spread the word, Dave. I've never heard this song before. 

And unfortunately, we can't play it here. It's called Johnny Cash. The man comes around. You should listen to it. It's classic cash and has a line here that really struck me and stood out to me. And I got to listen to it a few more times to see what else stands out. 

But this one in particular, this song is about the second coming of Jesus. He was 70 years old when he recorded it. Here's the stanza. Here are the trumpets. Here are the pipers. One hundred million angels singing. 

Multitudes are marching to the big kettle drum. Voices calling, voices crying. Some are born and some are dying. It's Alpha and Omega's kingdom come and the whirlwind is in the thorn tree. The virgins are all trimming their wicks. The whirlwind is in the thorn tree. 

Here's the line. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. That line stood out to me because I understood the other biblical references in that stanza, but where did he get that? hard for thee to kick against the pricks. So that one, I had to give that one a search. And sure enough, it's in the Bible. 

Here's the story. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. I like want to make a bumper sticker about this. I love this line. So it's an old Greek proverb. So here's the, you got an old, uh, ox goad, this long stick. 

It was this eight foot long stick with a metal point at the end. And you would poke the ox with it to guide them. And let's get going. And it would also have a flat end on it so that you could use it to push the dirt off the plow if needed. The ox goad is mentioned a couple of times in the Bible. First Judges 3 .31, Shamgar killed 600 Philistines using only an ox goad. 

So it could be a weapon too. Ecclesiastes 12 .11, the words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. So good things, like a nail firmly hit into what it needs to go. They are given by one shepherd, meaning the words of God pricks the heart of the sinner. Like the sharp end of the goad would prick the ox. And the good shepherd uses the word of God to prick our conscience and drive us to repentance and drive us to Jesus. 

It's what a good shepherd does. It's what all preachers should be doing as well. I will know that we are in a true revival when preachers start preaching on sin. and hell and how you are going there unless you get right with God today. Now some people don't like the ox goad. Frank Turk said today that one of the major reasons why people don't want to become Christian is because it means they'll have to change their life. 

And it was Milton in Paradise Lost. It's describing how Satan fell. It's a beautiful made up story, but it's a beautiful story, poem. And Satan said, it's better to reign in hell than it is to serve in heaven. People really believe that. They'd rather have their life be awful, but at least they're in charge of it. 

At least they're in control. At least I'm the boss of it. even though it's awful by every objective measurement imaginable. But at least I'm the one in charge, rather than be a slave to Jesus. Most people make that choice. So you got Jesus talking to Saul here. 

This is the third mention of goad, sort of. Doesn't use the word, but when an ox is pricked, he doesn't like it. So he'll often kick back at the goad. And this is the translation in the King James Version. Only the King James Version has this exact translation. So here it is. 

So Saul's on the road to Damascus. He's ready to go kill more Christians. Suddenly there shined around him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecuteth. 

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Quoting Johnny Cash. No, no, the other way around, Johnny Cash. Quoting Jesus. Amazing line. It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 

What does that mean? If you're an ox and you're going the wrong way. and the farmer pokes you with the sharp end of an ox goat and you get mad and you kick him back, your foot only gets pierced even more and harder than before. You only suffer even more. If you reject God, you will only suffer even more now in this life and for eternity. Jesus told Paul, it is hard for you. 

to kick against the pricks, the sharp end of the goad. Knock it off. Stop your rebellion against God. Stop your rebellion against me. It is foolish for you. It is as foolish for you to do this as it is for an ox to kick the sharp end of the goad. 

Just let Jesus steer your life. He knows he is the way and he knows the right way. Solomon said stern discipline awaits him who leaves the path. It's Proverbs 15, 10. You're going to get the goad. Proverbs 13, 15 says the way of the unfaithful is hard. 

Jesus said it is hard for you, Paul, to kick against the pricks. 

So stop. 

Just surrender. Surrender. Stop making life so much harder for yourself. Again, Milton, in Paradise Lost, Satan said it's better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. No, no, no. It is way better to be a slave to Jesus. 

Because Jesus said, my yoke, you know what ox used to used to wear, you put two ox next to each other, you put a yoke, wood on top of them to keep them together. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Stop. kicking against pricks. Slater Radio on Twitter and Instagram, mikeslater . 

locals . com is the website where we have commercial, no commercials, commercial free, and the transcript up on the website, mikeslater .

The Charlie Kirk memorial was spectacular. I pray this is the spark of a revival in America. But there's one key aspect of a revival I haven't seen yet. Tucker Carlson touched on it, we'll break it down a bit more here.

Okay, politics by faith. Thanks for being here. Just got off of the show, Sirius XM show, and preparing for tomorrow's show. Was on the Jesse Kelly show. I think we're gonna put that segment here. Just so overwhelmed with how amazing the Charlie Kirk Memorial was the other day. 

Just wanted to stop in here and say a couple words. So excited. My producer sent me a text just a bit ago. He said, we're gonna do a special next week on the TV about something else. And I texted him, I was like, oh, you know, what are we doing this week? And he said, revival. 

I just changed it. He said, love it. He said, I feel so blessed to be a part of this timeline in history. I'm not sure what exactly is happening, but it's happening. I love it. I feel the same way. 

It's so exciting to be talking about was three things that we're going to analyze on, on the show. We'll do it here too. Uh, first the great awakening of 1730. So we've got to study Jonathan Edwards, John Whitefield, and this other guy, Gilbert's tenant. So Jonathan Edwards is more like the main theologian and intellectual of the Great Awakening. Again, 1730, so this is what inspired our founding fathers. 

This is what our founding fathers were born into and grew out of. So Jonathan Edwards was like the big theologian guy. And then Whitefield was a British guy, but he came over to America 13 times. He did seven revival tours across America. His American partner was Gilbert Tennant. He was out of Philadelphia and Whitefield loved Tennant. 

He called him a son of thunder. He heard him give a sermon once and he said he had never before heard such a searching sermon. Searching means convicting. Never before have I heard a sermon so convicting. The sermon is called the Nottingham sermon or the danger of an unconverted ministry. Oh baby. 

It was about spiritually dead ministers. Oh, you better believe we're going to get into that one. Ministers, pastors, preachers who never preached the gospel. I saw the gospel preached more this week, more on Sunday night at this Charlie Kirk Memorial than many churches have ever given ever in its existence. What an amazing time to be alive. So we got to learn about the great awakening. 

And what were they preaching exactly? One famous line from George Whitefield, man is nothing. He hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven. till God worketh in him. We got to talk about muscular Christianity. What was the muscular Christianity movement of the 1880s? 

That's where the YMCA came from. Moody, Teddy Roosevelt. What was muscular Christianity? That was in response to weak effeminate preachers as well. A weak church, one that focused too much on the lamb, not enough on the lion. Weak, pathetic Jesus. 

Out came muscular Christianity. Let's talk more about that. And then a Proverbs 31 woman. What is that? The greatest rebuke possible. to the woke left feminist, which has controlled way too much of our culture for way too long. 

The greatest rebuke is the Proverbs 31 woman, and they won't know what's coming. They have no clue what's coming for them. What a time to be alive. So excited. On Revival, and we're going to talk more about this on the special later in the week. But Revival for me is not just people saying the name Jesus, although J . 

D. Vann said he's said the name, the word Jesus, the name Jesus more in these last two weeks than he has probably his entire life in public. That's That's great. It's not just that. It's not just going to church. 

It's not just opening the Bible. All that's good. Revival to me is the mass repentance of sin and not of our nation's sin, but of each individual person's sin and not that person's sin, but our sin and my sin. It's my sin. Romans has a whole list of sins in it. Romans one. 

People tend to focus on the homosexuality part of it, but there's a lot. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. That is our nation in a nutshell. 

And that's Romans one verse. And anyone who hears that thinks, oh man, that, that, that's, I wish Nancy heard that. Susie needs to hear that. Oh, if only Susie were listening to this podcast. I'm going to send this to Susie and that way Susie will know how bad she is. And Paul knew that's how everyone's going to interpret it about someone else. 

So the very next section Romans two is I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about you. You need to repent. You need to be saved. You are the problem. And that's Luke 18, nine. 

Luke 18 is the tax collector. When we all start acting like the tax collector. Then and only then will I know we're in a revival. And this is what our founding fathers spoke of. They talked about fasting and prayer and humiliation, humbling themselves. We'll talk more about that. 

later in the week, and a lot more than just now. Tucker Carlson was the only one who I believe spoke to that. I may have missed some others, but Tucker Carlson spoke to this point. It's incredibly important. 

I want to play the whole thing here. 

Ladies and gentlemen, Tucker Carlson. Emotional, made me emotional to see that. Susie Wiles had tears in her eyes, which you don't, you don't often see in politics, but it's real. This is the most unbelievable thing I think I've ever seen. And I don't Whatever happens next in America, I hope it's in this direction, because God is here, and you can feel it. And Charlie would have loved this, not just because he loved large groups of people, but because, ultimately, he was a Christian evangelist. 

And it actually reminds me of my favorite story ever. So it's about 2 ,000 years ago in Jerusalem, and Jesus shows up, and he starts talking about the people in power, and he starts doing the worst thing that you can do, which is telling the truth about people, and they hate it. 

And they just go bonkers. 

They hate it. And they become obsessed with making him stop. This guy's got to stop talking. We've got to shut this guy up. And I can just sort of picture the scene in a lamp -lit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about, what do we do about this guy telling the truth about us? We must make him stop talking. 

And there's always one guy with a bright idea, and I can just hear him say, I've got an idea. Why don't we just kill him? That'll shut him up. That'll fix the problem. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. 

Everything is inverted, and the Beatitudes tell it, I think, the most crisply. Everything is sort of the opposite of what you think it's going to be. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. That is true, and you can feel it here. The thing about Charlie's message, I've thought a lot about it, and I'm trying not to be emotional because in addition to everything else, He was a wonderful man and a decent man and one of those rare people you meet who you just groove with in conversation and have these very intense conversations that you don't stop thinking about, which is my experience with him. But the main thing about Charlie and his message, he was bringing the gospel to the country. 

He was doing the thing that the people in charge hate most, which is calling for them to repent. So how is Charlie's message different? And Charlie was a political person who was deeply interested in coalition building and in getting the right people in office, because he knew that vast improvements are possible politically. But he also knew that politics is not the final answer. It can't answer the deepest questions, actually. That the only real solution is Jesus. 

And the reason, it's really simple. Politics, at its core, is a process of critiquing other people and getting them to change. Christianity, the gospel message, the message of Jesus, begins with repentance. Christianity calls upon you to change. Core prayer given to us by Jesus, the Lord's prayer, demands that we forgive other people, but preceding that, is a request for our forgiveness. 

In other words, forgive us our sins, meditate on what we've done wrong, how we've fallen short, and then it becomes possible to forgive other people. That is a call to change our hearts from Jesus. And that is the only way forward in this country. That is the only solution to where we all know we're going. And Charlie knew where we were going without that. And that is not a call for being politically passive. 

Of course not. I stood on many stages with Charlie calling for various people to be elected, particularly Donald Trump, and I'm proud of that. It's only an acknowledgment that what Charlie was really saying is that change begins, the only change that matters when we repent of our sins. We, me, a recognition that the real problem is me and how fallen I am. And that was the reason that Charlie was fearless at all times, truly fearless to his last moment. He was unafraid. 

He was not defensive, and there was no hate in his heart. I know that because I've got a little hate compartment in my heart, and I would often express that to Charlie about various people, and he would always say, always say, that's a sad person, that's a broken person, that's a person who needs help, that's a person who needs Jesus. He said that in private because he meant it. So I guess I would just say this gathering and God's presence, God's very obvious presence in this room, the presence of Jesus is a reminder of what we've known for 2 ,000 years. which is any attempt to extinguish the light causes it to burn brighter every single time. So as we as we proceed into whatever comes next, and clearly something's coming next. 

Remember this moment. Remember being in a room with the Holy Spirit humming like a tuning fork. This is the way right here. 

This is the way and that is what Charlie Kirk was saying underneath it all. It is my sin that I need to repent of every single day. Let me quote this from Charles Spurgeon. He said, remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance. He can no more repent perfectly than he can live perfectly. However pure our tears, there will always be some dirt in them. 

There will be something to be repented of, even in our best repentance. But listen, to repent is to change your mind about sin. And Christ, and all the great things of God, there is sorrow implied in this. But the main point is the turning of the heart from sin to Christ. If there be this turning, you have the essence of true repentance. Once I see, not like I'm the true arbiter of what a revival is, no, but when I see this massive repentance movement, when I see people turning away from and speaking boldly against adultery and gambling and putting foreign objects in their bodies, whatever, say a full hatred, a turning away from and boldly proclaiming against speaking against and the wickedness and evils of these things. 

And not this like half -hearted, like, well, it wasn't good for me anymore, so I decided to turn away. " It's like, no, that's evil. We've totally given up on a discernment of Christians to determine what is and declare what is good and evil. So we're like, oh, well, you know... adultery wasn't right for me. And I would think, no, it is wrong. 

Stop it. And then here are the good things that we need to do instead as Christians. What an amazing moment this is. What an amazing opportunity. Praise God. Let's keep it going. 

Slater or Mike Slater at dotlocals . com.  Mikeslater . locals . com, Slater Radio. And the transcript and commercial free is on the website, mikeslater . locals . com. And then Slater Radio on Twitter and Instagram.

I KNOW how to save this country. We need to go back to what our founders relied on to build this country.

Welcome to politics by faith. Thank you for being here. We had a wonderful caller today who made the point that the left is all about inequality, inequality about everything, right? All about the oppressed and the oppressors and all that. The caller made the point that the truth is we're all born on the exact same level playing field, a total depraved sinner in need of salvation from Jesus Christ. The left, the devil, has intentionally distracted us for a long time with all these other playing fields that don't matter. 

The only playing field that matters is the one that we're all the exact same on, no matter how much money you're born on or what your skin color is or whatever. And this salvation is available to everyone, no matter how little money you have or what your skin color is. If you took the piece of someone who's in all the oppressed groups, but is saved, it's so much greater than someone who maybe is in all the oppressor privileged groups who's not saved and will spend eternity in hell. But we start equal. I pray so many people are saved from the assassination of the Christian martyr Charlie Kirk, because that's what martyrdom is. And Sunday at this memorial service, it's going to be a wonderful moment. 

Please pray for all the speakers. I'm praying especially for his pastor. He has a chance to preach the gospel like maybe most people have never heard before. Fightforcharlie . com for more information, but it's one o 'clock Eastern on Sunday. I want to share here the segment we did in the third hour of the radio show today on SiriusXM Patreon about how we're a Christian nation and about how Christianity is the foundation of everything good. 

And when we got away from the foundation, of course the house crumbled. So if we want to build the house back, we need to go back to the foundation and the foundation isn't the constitution. It's before that. The constitution was built on top of the foundation, right? We need to go even deeper than the constitution. Where'd the constitution come from? 

Keep digging. Whenever there's a, let's say a church shooting or something, the left focuses on the gun, the object, because they're materialists. Many conservatives focus on the brain because they want to get to the root. It's a noble effort. I like to focus on the soul. That's the root of everything. 

Similarly here, where a lot of commentators focus on the policy. And then for a while now, we've had good conservatives focus on culture to save our country, right? People thought that policy would save our country. And then people are like, Oh, we need culture actually is what saves our country. I believe we can go even deeper. I believe we need to focus on the Bible. 

And I know that's true. because it's what the founders did build this country. Here's part of our show from this morning. 

Two of Charlie's goals. He said, you know, he wanted to bring people back to Christ and bring people back to church and back to biblical values. And he wanted to keep the mega coalition together and expand it and expand it. And the question is how you do that. And the answer is you focus on the first and the second is a by -product. Okay. 

The answer is that as Matt says, you have to unite around something and yeah, we can unite. in the short term around the fact that there are a bunch of people who hate our guts and want to murder us, which of course is true. But long -term unity, big movement change, which is what Charlie was really trying to drive and why he wants to talk to people who disagree, is about building around those core values. 

And so the long -term vision, yeah, we'll have our petty squabbles, and yeah, some of those squabbles will be more than petty, but the long -term vision has to be built around those original biblical conservative values that charlie stood for things like the bible things like free markets things like family all those things i think charlie stood for you gotta build the coalition around values we can't build it around the man but we can build it around the values that he left behind that he spent his entire life fighting for we couldn't be someone wrote this on twitter uh... by the way the unity is the gospel that's what Even Ben Shapiro was talking about the biblical values. I saw someone on Twitter, they said, as a Dawkins era atheist, I underestimated Christianity's role as a civilizational operating system. I took its moral foundations for granted, assuming that they were so self -evident that all humans would reach them once basic needs were met. At the very least, think of, at the very least, think of Christianity as a civilizational operating system. Someone posted a meme of Homer Simpson, uh, climbing Mount Everest and he's just in his sleeping bag. He's laying down in his sleeping bag on a sled and there's some Sherpas pulling them up the, up the mountain. 

And someone wrote the meme on Homer Simpson, secular Western ethics, like your dark Dawkins era, atheist, secular Western ethics. Don't murder something that basic don't murder. And then, but that, that ethic system is being pulled up by these sherpas on a rope by 2 ,000 years of Christian morality and then Homer Simpson wakes up and he says wow look how far I climbed and I'm not even tired yeah that 2 ,000 years of Christian reality did a lot of work you know that many classical music composers wrote glory be to God on the top of their manuscripts on the top of their music manuscripts like the handwritten notes of every piece of every note of every instrument in the orchestra. They would write Glory be to God. I heard that from Charlie Kirk. 

I heard Charlie Kirk said that the other day. I didn't know that. 

I looked it up. 

It's true. I went down a whole rabbit hole on it. So one of my favorite composers is Bach. This is a song. It's called Jesus Joy of Man's Desiring. You've heard this before. 

Jesus Joy of Man's Desiring. Bach at the top of his manuscripts would write SDG, Soli Deo Gloria. solely, alone, deo, God, gloria, the glory, to God alone, the glory. Before he started a piece of music, he would write at the top, J . J. , Jesu, Jova, Jesus, help me. 

When he would start, he would write, Jesus, help me. When he ended his pieces, he would write, I . N . J. , in nomine Jesu, in the name of Jesus. masterpieces were a prayer. They were a prayer. Jesus helped me. Then he wrote his music, and he wrote, in the name of Jesus and to the glory of God alone. He said, Bach said, music's only purpose should be for the glory of God and the recreation of the human spirit. And I pronounce recreation wrong because I've made this point on purpose, because we make this point a lot that there's a difference between leisure and recreation. Leisure is more like laziness. Recreation literally means recreation. You recreate. And Bach is saying that music purpose is to recreate the human spirit. How come we've never heard anything about Beethoven's faith? Everyone's heard about Beethoven, but no one's ever heard about Beethoven's faith. Beethoven was a contemporary of our founding father. He was born in 1770. It wasn't that long ago. But he wrote in 1801 that God is nearer to me. than others in my art, so I will walk fearlessly with him." Beethoven 

Beethoven said, don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets. For it and knowledge can rise men to the divine. This ties into what we talked about earlier with Michelangelo. And this is what Paul said. So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Beethoven did. 

Haydn, never was I so devout as when I composed the creation. Haydn said, I knelt down each day to pray to God to give me strength for my work. When I was working on The Creation, I felt so impregnated with divine certainty that before sitting down to the piano, I would quietly and confidently pray to God to grant me the talent that was needed to praise him worthily. Haydn didn't pray to God to give him the talent that was needed for him to make a great piece of music so he could make a lot of money and fame. It was to give me the talent necessary to make a piece of music that can glorify you appropriately. Mozart said, God is ever before my eyes. 

I realize his omnipotence, and I fear his anger. I fear his anger. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. But I also recognize his love, his compassion, and his tenderness towards his creatures. That was Mozart. You never hear about that. 

Never in my whole life have I ever heard about the classical composers and their dedication to the Christian faith. I'll end with Brahms. These guys weren't that long ago. Brahms was born in 1833. Brahms said, you see, the powers from which all truly great composers like Mozart, Schubert, Bach, and Beethoven drew their inspiration is the same power that enabled Jesus to do his miracles. I know several young composers who are atheists. 

I've read their scores, and I assure you that they are doomed to speedy oblivion because they are utterly lacking in inspiration. Their works are purely cerebral. But the great Nazarene, Jesus, knew that law also. And he proclaimed it in John 15, four, the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. So atheists will never, excuse me, atheists. No, excuse me. 

No atheist has ever been or ever will be a great composer said Brahms said, no, no atheist has ever been or ever will be a great composer. This is why we're told we've been told that classical music is stupid or boring. It's the same reason that we were told that our founding fathers were deists and that America is not a great nation. Because if people knew the truth, it would lead to revival. It's all about keeping people in the dark. It's about keeping people in the dark. 

It's about keeping, and if there's anyone who's on the fence of feeling like Christianity is silly or whatever, it's like, oh yeah, no, like scientists. you're a dumb idiot. If you think creation, it's like what every single cultural force is to convince you to stay in the dark and to convince Christians that you're isolated. And September 10th ended that it ended it. And Charlie Kirk, if I may on classical music, he said, we do not listen to classical music enough in the West. Go back to the music that built our civilization. 

I would flip it. I would flip it. I'd say it's the principles of the West that built classical music, but either way, it's the demise of the West. that has resulted in the slop music that we have today. That's catchy, but that's it. If you told me a couple of weeks ago, let alone a couple of years ago, that the vice president of the United States. 

Okay. So you want to come at me like, ah, Slater, enough with the Christian stuff. Okay. I'm just telling you what time it is. 

Okay. That's all. 

I'm just telling you what time it is. 

If you told me that the vice president of the United States would be reciting the Nicene Creed while hosting one of the top podcasts in the world from the white house. Don't think I would have believed you. Now, the most important truth Charlie told is this, that long ago a man begotten, not made, came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate and suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day. Charlie believed, as I do, that all the truth he told flowed from that fundamental principle. I'm just telling. 

I'm telling you what time it is. I'm just telling you. what country this is today. Earlier in the week we played a six -minute clip. It's my favorite Charlie Kirk clip. Six -minute clip where he talks about how we're obviously a Christian nation. We're obviously founded as a Christian nation. 

Twelve of the thirteen colonies had in their state constitutions a declaration of faith. If you wanted to hold a win an elected office or hold a appointed office. You needed to declare that Jesus Christ was Lord and you had to declare that the Holy Scriptures were written by God. That was 12 of the 13 colony constitutions. To serve in any elected office, you had to declare that Jesus was Lord. And now people want to come in and be like, I don't think we were a Christian nation. 

We're a bunch of deists. Stupidest, stupidest lie ever told. I want to play one part of this. 

Actually, I want to play two parts. But two parts, it's six minutes. I'm going to play the whole six minutes again. Uh, it's on my Twitter. It's like a radio, but let me just play these two. They say that God was only mentioned four times in the declaration of independence. 

Well, that's a big deal. Okay. Laws of nature and nature's God. The last paragraph of the declaration reads as a prayer. It says, we appeal to the Supreme judge of the universe. Who's the judge of the universe. 

Jesus Christ, as it says in revelation that Jesus will judge the earth on his throne. So in the declaration, they were praying to Christ, our Lord. as a prayer very specifically. Thirdly, as I said on stage yesterday, Deuteronomy was by far the most quoted book, religious or non -religious, in the time of the founding when they were putting together the Constitution. More than John Locke, more than Montesquieu, more than Blackstone. So the Book of Deuteronomy, which talked about laws, customs, traditions. 

It was Moses' farewell address as he's about to say goodbye. Say, hey, good luck in Canaan, guys. Here's how you should set up your form of government. But Finally, and most importantly, let's look at actually what the founders said. John Adams famously said, 

the Constitution was only written for a moral and religious people. It was wholly inadequate for the people of any other. The body politic of America was so Christian and was so Protestant that our form and structure of government was built for the people that believed in Christ our Lord. 

One of the reasons we're living through a constitutional crisis is that we no longer have a Christian nation, but we have a Christian form of government, and they're incompatible. 

So you cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population. So finally, finally we got the right diagnosis. So on Deuteronomy, uh, he's right. Deuteronomy appears in the writings of our founding fathers appears twice as often as John Locke. Why? Deuteronomy is about Moses, the pilgrims and the Puritans and our founding grandfathers believed that they were on, that they were engaging in a second great Exodus through the wilderness into the promised land. 

And Deuteronomy is also a book about how the Israelites are to set up a new nation, a new nation. The founders were also a bit curious. How should we start a new nation? We both fled a tyrant. We both crossed the Red Sea. We call it the Atlantic Ocean. 

We both met the Philistines and Moabites. We call them the natives. We're reliving the book of Deuteronomy in America. They knew it. There was a sermon that was delivered by a guy in Massachusetts, 1755. His name was Samuel Langdon. 

He was not just a guy. He was the president of Harvard at the time. And he was also on New Hampshire's constitutional ratifying convention. So he was engaged. He said the Jewish government, according to the original constitution, which was divinely established, Deuteronomy, was a perfect republic. The civil polity of Israel is doubtless an excellent general model. 

At least some principle laws and orders of it may be copied to great advantage in more modern establishments. " Roger Sherman, he was a part of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He said, the civil polity of the Hebrews was planned by divine wisdom and is a commendable exemplar of our civil government. Isn't that amazing? Deuteronomy. Our founders also believed that the Bible was a source of what good citizenship means. 

Not only good systems of government, but a good citizen. Are you with me on the Homer Simpson meme? The Sherpa, like carrying him, like, like the atheists just like got Sherpa'd up the top of Mount Everest. And they're like, Oh, that was easy. I'm amazing. God doesn't exist. 

Like, Oh man, you got no clue. Deuteronomy 28. If you fully obey the Lord, this is, this is, so this is what our founding fathers new citizenship entailed. If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all of his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come to you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. 

And then second part of Deuteronomy 28 are all the curses for disobedience. Here's a good one, Exodus 18 21. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe and place such men over the people. That's why John Adams knew that this is only possible with a moral and religious people. Men who feared God. 2 Samuel 23. 

This is the final words of David. I'm not going to read the whole thing. 2 Samuel 23. Go read the final words of David. And then a description of David's mighty men. And our founders knew that. 

They knew it in their bones. And they dedicated themselves to being. And the reason, and I said this earlier about Charlie Kirk, I talked to Charlie Kirk, the Turning Point USA faith director yesterday, and he said, Charlie Kirk was first and foremost a Christian, and that informed his love of country, that informed his love of all these other things that he then stood for. But Christian first, and the reason our founding fathers could speak so passionately about liberty was because they were Christian. They knew Galatians 5 .21, where they said, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free. Liberty. 

They knew liberty because they knew Jesus. I want to do a quick aside, but I don't have time. I'll do the very short of it. Someone sent me a note the other day about three professors at Syracuse University, where I grew up, who sent horrific messages about Charlie Kirk's assassination, celebrating it. These three professors work at the Maxwell School for Citizenship. And here they are celebrating the death of a young man who was engaging in debate in the public square. 

And these are professors at the School of Citizenship. They have no idea what citizenship means. The rot is so... So here's my conclusion of this point. And then I'll get to the real clip of Charlie Kirk I wanted to play. Virtue and morality are necessary for free Republican government. 

Small, small, lowercase r. Okay, so virtue and morality are necessary for a free government. 

Religion is necessary for virtue and morality. Religion, therefore, is necessary for a Republican government. Our founders knew that. We've abandoned it. we wonder why things are off the rails. Here's the clip I wanted to play, Charlie. 

That's just a surface -level belief. So then they'll go to the First Amendment, which has two parts of the First Amendment which get conflated. First of all, separation of church and state is not in the U . S. Constitution. That is a single letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1807 to the Danbury Baptist Convention in Massachusetts, assuring them that the government would not come after the church. 

Okay, which is the opposite of what they would say. 

However, that was then resurrected by the Warren Court and the Burger Court in the 60s, where they said, hey, you know, all of a sudden we're now going to make this as if it's the Constitution. It does say in the Constitution two things, which is the establishment clause and the free expression clause. The establishment clause is that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof. What they were most worried about was a Presbyterian or a Anglican or a Quaker type religion taking over the federal government. Instead, it was that there is not going to be a state run religion or a state run government. Did you know that one of the first acts of Congress was taxpayer funded Bible printing and distribution? 

Did you know that there are church services held in the Supreme court building as late as the Jackson presidency in the 1820s? I did not know that. I did not know that. So because I'm curious, I looked that up. I wanted to, I wanted to see if that was true. Uh, especially the first part, the taxpayer funded Bible printing. 

Is that true? And I want to, real quick, I'm curious. I'm curious. You're curious. Unlike many, all the haters of Charlie Kirk, who are not curious enough to wonder what the full context is of the clip that they just saw. And they hear it. 

They see a clip of Charlie Kirk and they're not curious enough to be like, well, what, what was he, what was he trying to say? Or what's the context or what did he say a minute before or 10 seconds after I'm curious, I'm curious. I want to know more. They're not curious. They don't care. I am curious. 

I heard Charlie Kirk say that. I was like, oh, I've never heard that about Bible printing. Sure enough. Here's the backstory. In the 1770s, there was a shortage of Bible printing. coming from England. 

So three Presbyterian clergymen in 1777 petitioned the Continental Congress to get more Bibles. So there was a congressional inquiry into it. And they said, we got to import Bibles from other countries or we need to print them here. So in September 11th, 1777, a legislative committee recommended the importation of 20 ,000 Bibles from Holland, Scotland, and other European countries. Top priority from the very first Congress, a top priority. 

We got to get by. 

We got to get 20 ,000 Bibles from the rest of the world. 

We got to bring them in here. 

Top priority from our Congress. You know, the deist who don't really believe in God. Top priority from these founding fathers. And today we're like, ah, whatever. Who cares? Stupid book. 

I don't know. The shortage of Bibles got worse. So there was another congressional inquiry in 1780, and there was a printer in Philadelphia who said, I'll do it. I'll do it. I will produce a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of schools. 

Aitken was his name. 

A -I -T -K -E -N. And he said he went to Congress to ask for permission to print sacred scriptures, quote, under the authority of Congress. He finished it in September 1782. The congressional chaplains commended the great accuracy of his work, and they passed a resolution in Congress. The United States of the United States and Congress assembled highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken as subservient to the interests of religion and being set. What religion? 

Buddhism. and being satisfied from the above report of his care and accuracy in the extension of the work, they, the Congress, recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States. First top priority of our Founding Fathers. I'll end on these points. Benjamin Rush and John Adams were best friends. Benjamin Rush was the doctor of the Founding Fathers, and they wrote a lot of letters back and forth. 

And they wrote a lot about the moral decay of the United States. Benjamin Rush said, by renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects. This is Benjamin Rush in the early 1800s saying, Oh man, people today, they're not grounded in truth. They're swinging all over the place. Any topic of morality, they're just making it up. Exactly what we talked about in the last hour. 

That was Benjamin Rush. He said, it is the only correct map, the Bible is the only correct map of the human heart that has ever been published. The Bible contains a faithful representation of all of its follies, vices, and crimes. All systems of religion, morals, and government not founded upon the Bible must perish. And how consoling the thought. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

John Adams wrote back, the Bible contains the most profound philosophy, the most perfect morality, the most refined policy that has ever been conceived upon earth. It is the most Republican book in the world, and therefore I will still revere it. Without national morality, Christianity, a Republican government cannot be maintained. Do we think we're smarter than these men? Do we think we're wiser? Do you think they thought we could not create a country or maintain a country without it being a Christian country? 

Yet here we are. We think we're better. We think we can, we think we can make a country. We think we can improve a country without the foundation they built it on. And we think we can save it. country without getting back to that foundation? 

David Ramsey was in the Continental Congress. He said, remember that there could be no political happiness without liberty, and there could be no liberty without morality, and there could be no morality without religion. Benjamin Rush, 1786, he said, without religion, there could be no virtue. Without virtue, there could be no liberty, and liberty is the object in life of the Republican governments. In conclusion, people say we have a constitutional crisis. Sure, maybe. 

But the reason we have a constitutional crisis is because we have a Christianity crisis. 

Because the constitution was built for a Christian population. If you've made it this far and you're not a Christian, congratulations, you can do whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Does America need to be 100 % Christian in order to survive? 90 %? 80 %? 

70? How low can we go? How many righteous people need to be left? 10? God, 10 people? How low can we go? 

I think we're testing the limits right now. Why are they so threatened by me coming up there for three hours? Open mic. So let me get this straight. Washington State University gets them for four years. I might get some of them for three hours because they know that I, in three hours, can undo the damage of four years of garbage.  one sentence, one question, one truth claim. And that's why they have to try so hard to not let me speak.