David Barton
on the Declaration
Yesterday (3/08) we went to hear David Barton speak on the history of the Declaration and those who signed it. What a dynamic presentation! In fact, the MC, afterwards, commented that he wondered if David ever took a breath! Barton is a man convinced about and passionate for the subject of which he speaks.
It's difficult, sometimes, to go to these mini seminars and remember everything that is said - and with David A LOT was said. James Rose has encouraged me to seek the Lord in these situations for the ONE THING that the Holy Spirit wants me to take away for His purpose. That sounds an awful lot like the Leading Idea, don't you think?
In light of that, there is that one thing that God directed me to grab hold of, but it is two-fold. First there are a number of subjects that are often brought up regarding the signers. These issues are now pointed in the right direction for me in a way I've not had before. All of these issues can be studied in further depth, until I have a good handle on them. To illustrate, Ben Gilmore once spoke of a man who questioned Verna Hall regarding the founding of this nation. Her answer floored him. She began, without hesitation, to list item after item, historically and unequivocally establishing an accurate presentation of America's founding on biblical principle. If it's inspiring to hear Ben's story in the third person, it's even more inspiring to have it happen to me. David Barton is an accomplished historian who not only helped me to understand how little I know, but how much I CAN know by digging into the source documents, which, by the way, are not that difficult to find. So this is the first fold of what the Holy Spirit laid on my heart.
Secondly, this year my students and I studied the beginnings of the influence that Locke, Sydney, Montesquieu and Blackstone had on the education of the Founders. Through Barton, God has laid the foundation for next year's project in the study of two aspects of the Declaration. 1. The signers themselves are worthy of study as individuals through whom God worked, and 2. During the 150 years of local authority among the Colonists, there was a base of preachers who taught biblical principles of civil government from the pulpit and these are a 2nd pillar in laying the seed of local self-government in America (the first being the above-mentioned philosophers).
One point that Barton made was regarding a book, The Godless Constitution. In this book, the authors declare that most of the signers of the Declaration were deists and definitely enemies of Christ. There are, however, no sources listed for their documentation (go ahead, look at the back of the book). Barton pointed out that in the rewriting of our history, several things have happened. One is that the signers themselves have been neglected in favor of focusing on the two least Christian men in the group, Jefferson and Franklin. This stunted study is used to indicate the pagan nature of the whole group. By way of illustration, if you are making pasta at home and you have your dough ready, you begin pushing the dough through the press and out come flat noodles, 16 of them to be exact. When they are the length you desire, you cut them off to prepare for the next batch, and you take all but one and throw them into the trash. Excuse me? Your meal will be inadequate and unsatisfying! This is what has happened in our education system as our history has been rewritten...you know what they say: if you say it enough times, people will begin to accept it as fact.
The second thing that has happened is that our history has been rewritten by pushing it all down an economic path. History has many themes, not just one, but they have taken all of history and stuffed it down this one for posterity. Religion and morality, for example, have been entirely left out, to the point that most of us don't even know that these two pillars held up the roof over the Declaration and Constitution.
David spoke on many other things, but I'll address just one more. The question was asked about the Free Masons. This is a common theme that I have heard in refuting the Christian viewpoints of the Founders. Based on the ideology of the Free Masons, one cannot be both a Christian and a Mason. Barton obviously had done his homework on this and, in fact, has a booklet for sale at his website (see below). I was impressed with his knowledge of the subject. Am I going to tell you his answer? No! But hopefully I've whetted your appetite to dig.
