Guest Host, Alex McFarland, is joined by Scott Powell, Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

1. 0:01Darkness is not an affirmative force.
2. 0:03It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
3. 0:07This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
4. 0:12It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:17Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
6. 0:20And the philosophies of this world.
7. 0:22God has called you and me to be his ambassador.
8. 0:26Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:28Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:31and now the Hamilton Corner.
11. 0:35Welcome to the program Alex McFarland today,
12. 0:38sitting in for Abe Hamilton III.
13. 0:40Very honored to do that.
14. 0:43I was very honored last night.
15. 0:44We had on Gary Habermas, the world expert on the resurrection.
16. 0:49And that was a really good show.
17. 0:51And I would encourage you, if you can,
18. 0:54if you didn't hear last night's show, go to afr.net.
19. 0:58and the Hamilton shows are archived,
20. 1:02just like all of our programs,
21. 1:04like exploring the word that I have the privilege
22. 1:07of doing every afternoon with Bert Harper.
23. 1:10And if you've listened to much of my content,
24. 1:13you know, I love the Lord, but I love America.
25. 1:17I care about this nation, and it's been my joy.
26. 1:21For the last decade, I've taught political science.
27. 1:24I tell people I teach to support my preaching habit, but I love this nation's history because
28. 1:36I believe it's a providential history.
29. 1:39I think America founded on biblical principles.
30. 1:43Our Constitution really was framed and written in light of what we would call the Judeo-Christian
31. 1:50moral code, moral absolutes.
32. 1:53That's why whenever you go to the capital and all over Washington you see etchings and
33. 2:01renderings of Moses holding the decalogue, the Ten Commandments, right off of the Rotunda
34. 2:07of the capital.
35. 2:09You'll see in the chambers of there's one auditorium there and the doors, these large
36. 2:15doors are like the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
37. 2:19So clearly, although you really don't hear it in the modern media, you certainly don't
38. 2:23hear it in the secular classroom, but our country was founded, yes, on biblical principles.
39. 2:29And I think it's just vitally important that we pass that on to succeeding generations.
40. 2:35And somebody that God is using to understand, to help people know about the history of our
41. 2:40country is Scott Powell.
42. 2:43And Scott and I had a wonderful conversation earlier this afternoon about some of America's
43. 2:49providential history, the hand of God in our nation.
44. 2:53And there's a lot to talk about past,
45. 2:56and I think really present about this.
46. 2:59He's written a book Rediscovering America.
47. 3:02It's Scott Powell, and he's with us now.
48. 3:05Scott, welcome to the American Family Radio Network.
49. 3:09Well, it's a pleasure to be with you.
50. 3:11Well, it's a pleasure to have you.
51. 3:13You know, as you and I were talking pre-show,
52. 3:17I kind of realized that you and I have a number of mutual friends in ministry.
53. 3:22You're down there at Coral Ridge, Prez in Florida.
54. 3:27And anyway, you and I know a lot of the same people like David Barton and I think about Dr.
55. 3:35Jerry Newcomb that worked with D. James Kennedy.
56. 3:38But for those that may not be aware of America's Christian foundation, I want to talk about
57. 3:46that and I want to hear about your journey as well. Tell us, tell us about yourself Scott
58. 3:52and how the Lord brought you to where you are in your life and ministry.
59. 3:58Well, I was raised in a nominally Christian family. We would go to church, but I was raised
60. 4:05in Massachusetts, I thought Boston. And I really didn't have a personal relationship with the
61. 4:12but I knew he was there.
62. 4:15But my older brother brought me to accept
63. 4:18Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior when I was 19.
64. 4:23And that's when I was in college.
65. 4:25And when I went back to college, I carried on
66. 4:31with the friends that I had, which were largely non-believers.
67. 4:35And I can't say that my faith grew at all.
68. 4:39It sort of was on the shelf.
69. 4:42And I was exposed to a lot of different ideas,
70. 4:45transcendental meditation, and Eastern wisdom,
71. 4:52not so much the Eastern religions,
72. 4:54as the great wisdom that came out of the East.
73. 4:57And so I, over the course of years,
74. 5:00I dropped out of college.
75. 5:02I spent a year on a sailboat, sailing down the East Coast.
76. 5:05And when I came back, I worked and saved.
77. 5:07And then I began a journey to India.
78. 5:10and went across the Middle East,
79. 5:14I went across Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India,
80. 5:18and into Nepal.
81. 5:20But I spent the most time in India,
82. 5:22and I spent time on a Hindu Ashram for about a month,
83. 5:25and a Buddhist Ashram.
84. 5:27And I left that experience fully recognizing
85. 5:32that these other religions didn't even hold a candle
86. 5:38to what's in the Holy Scriptures.
87. 5:40They don't even come close.
88. 5:43So that was an interesting way to come back to the faith.
89. 5:49I had to go out and see what else was there.
90. 5:51And then, fully realized that we're so blessed
91. 5:56that have Jesus Christ as our lone savior.
92. 5:59I ended up actually working in a nonprofit in business,
93. 6:04a Christian nonprofit.
94. 6:06I ended up being the national director of business.
95. 6:09And then I went back to finish my college education.
96. 6:12I went back when I was 28 to get my VA,
97. 6:15and I took it very seriously because I was paying for it.
98. 6:17I couldn't go back to mom and dad and say, hey,
99. 6:19will you fund my college education at age 28?
100. 6:22You know, Scott, that was a lot like me.
101. 6:24I mean, I went to an undergrad program when I was 19
102. 6:28and was on a good day, a C student.
103. 6:33And then when I went to graduate school
104. 6:35and seminary at age 25, and I was paying for it.
105. 6:40You know, suddenly I was making A's,
106. 6:43the, well, I'd given my life to the Lord,
107. 6:45but when you're paying your own tuition,
108. 6:47I think you take it a bit more seriously, don't you?
109. 6:50Yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
110. 6:52So I had a wonderful experience there
111. 6:55at University of Chicago,
112. 6:56a pretty unique, large institution
113. 6:59in that it bases its curriculum on the great books.
114. 7:02It has a deep appreciation of Western civilization
115. 7:05doesn't leave out the Christian part of Western civil being, just part of a teaching there.
116. 7:10I think they were just proud of it. It's the fact of life, you know, that we, in order to understand
117. 7:16people's actions, you have to understand their beliefs. It's beliefs that derive action, right?
118. 7:24So if you leave out the belief side of the equation and you just talk about what they did,
119. 7:28like most historians do, it's the who, what, when, and where, I thought, well,
120. 7:34something really missing in all this, and ultimately that led me to write this
121. 7:40book Rediscovering America, which answers the why. Why did things happen the way
122. 7:45that they did? And I tell the story of America by going back to pre-America,
123. 7:51I go back to the first, one of the first chapters is the chapter on Columbus and who
124. 7:58he was and why his life is so significant to us.
125. 8:04And he was a remarkable Christian.
126. 8:06But he was a seed-faring guy.
127. 8:08He wanted to live on boats.
128. 8:09That was his dream.
129. 8:10He was on, you know, it was in the Eastern Mediterranean, a ship when he came up against
130. 8:15the blockade put up by the Muslims.
131. 8:19was there that he said, well, because the world is round, and we can't get to the east by traveling
132. 8:28over land, maybe we should go the other way. And so he had a vision for finding a passage
133. 8:35to the Far East, to the Spice Islands, to India, to where those desirable things for Europe existed,
134. 8:45that he was going to find it by sailing west.
135. 8:49And of course, we know that he didn't make it because he ran into the continents of North
136. 8:55America and South America.
137. 8:57I started to say yes.
138. 8:59A landmass called North America got in the way, didn't it?
139. 9:04It's it.
140. 9:05But, you know, what drove him, and I think it's been the whole session on Columbus, but what
141. 9:09drove him also, not just find the passage, because remember, he's an explorer.
142. 9:14a seafarer. So that was part of his personality, but he was a Christian evangelist as a second
143. 9:20part of his personality. And he was like so excited to go to a new part of the world where
144. 9:26they had never heard the news of the Savior before. He looked, you know, that was his passion.
145. 9:32And he wrote about, we know a lot about Columbus because he really kept luminous log books and
146. 9:37diaries. So we have really the very reliable information about this man. He was a remarkable
147. 9:44man. But his crew, when he took off from Europe, who was sponsored by the Spanish, so the entire
148. 9:52crew were Spaniards, Hidalgo Spaniards. And they could be really rough when they were in a group.
149. 10:01And the trip across the Atlantic took longer than they had anticipated, and they were muting
150. 10:07on Columbus. So, Columbus didn't know what to do except turn to God. And he prayed out,
151. 10:12he cried out to the Lord, what should I do? What should I do? And God answered his prayer
152. 10:17right then and there and said, ask for three days, significant three days. Ask the crew to
153. 10:26give you, you know, to give you grace for three days. And I'll take care of it. And in the morning
154. 10:33of the third day, there was a lookout on the Pinto and he cried out land hose. So they had
155. 10:40made landfall so Columbus's life was spared. And he explored what was then, he landed on
156. 10:48the Bahama Island and he basically didn't get on to the mainland of it. He never even saw
157. 10:52the mainland of America. Here are all these activists wanting to destroy Columbus. When
158. 10:57Columbus never even saw what became continental in the United States. He spent all this time
159. 11:02in the Caribbean and in South America. And he met up with very primitive people. I mean,
160. 11:08the reason that the Caribbean is named the way it is, and it's named after the Carib tribe.
161. 11:14And the Carib tribe were made up of savages and cannibals. And they would go from island to island
162. 11:21in the men and would be killed and eaten. And the women would be enslaved. That's what the
163. 11:27the keratophile did. So Columbus is dealing with these variables and of course the traditions
164. 11:33of the Incas and the Aztecs and the Mayas were all child sacrifice cultures. These were
165. 11:39brutal cultures. So the fact that Columbus is criticized for being tough, well it wasn't
166. 11:47him so much as his Hidalgo crew that were establishing the colonies that gave Columbus
167. 11:53of bad name. But in any case, Columbus was a remarkable man. And shortly after that, Columbus
168. 12:03was not a church-going Catholic, but of course he had to have been a Catholic because that's
169. 12:07all that existed in Christianity at that time. But shortly after Columbus, we had the Protestant
170. 12:12Reformation, 1517 is the date everyone uses. And the Reformation was all about purifying Christianity
171. 12:21and bringing Christianity back to the scriptural truth, to the simplicity, to the priesthood of
172. 12:28all believers. I mean, for a Protestant to witness what goes on in the choice of a pope is almost
173. 12:36what is that all about? Because we don't need a hierarchy to have a relationship with God.
174. 12:44Each one of us is blessed by God to be his son or his daughter.
175. 12:51And so truly is Protestantism is truly the priesthood
176. 12:58of all believers, very powerful.
177. 13:00And that's what drove the early settlers to come to America.
178. 13:04You know, there was a group of people in England
179. 13:06called the Separatists and they didn't agree
180. 13:09with the Church of England, which was not only a Protestant
181. 13:12church, but it had a lot of the travings of the Catholic tradition still within it. The
182. 13:17separatists didn't like that. They believed that the scripture was the be-all-and-end-all
183. 13:23of the Christian life, and they wanted to practice it as such. They had to flee, and they
184. 13:29were persecuted, and several of the founders of the leaders of the pilgrims were put in prison
185. 13:36in Great Britain before they could ultimately get to Holland, where they lived for about a
186. 13:41decade and they learned of the colony in Jamestown getting established. The British colony of Jamestown
187. 13:47was the first successful and it really wasn't truly successful but it was a colony that was able to
188. 13:55survive because of being replenished with provisions from abroad.
189. 14:00And there were no women.
190. 14:01Scott, let me jump in here for a second. I think it's important what you're saying is so important
191. 14:07because to understand America you have to understand the Protestant Reformation and
192. 14:13really to understand the Reformation you have to understand the backdrop of
193. 14:17Catholicism in the Middle Ages and well as we've got a break before we pull away
194. 14:22by the way folks were talking with Scott Powell author of Rediscovering America
195. 14:27what's your website and we'll get back and have more content and questions but
196. 14:30Scott your website please well you can get to the book website
197. 14:36Rediscovering America.net I think is the website. You can find all my more recent work by just googling Scott Powell Discovery Institute.
198. 14:49Okay, forgive me. We've got to pull away for a break. Alex McFarland here on the American Family Radio Network.
199. 14:55Stay tuned after this brief break. More about America's history.
200. 14:58A discipleship minute with Joseph Parker. Proverbs 15, verse 1.
201. 15:07A soft word turns away rap, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
202. 15:13Proverbs 16, verse 24,
203. 15:15Gracious words are like a honeycomb.
204. 15:19Sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
205. 15:22Words are powerful.
206. 15:24Our words can do things far beyond what we seem to realize.
207. 15:28Words can make someone's day and words can ruin someone's day.
208. 15:33Words can give people hope and words can help people
209. 15:36Beo, hopeless.
210. 15:39As the scripture says in Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21,
211. 15:43death and life are in the power of the tongue.
212. 15:45Those who love it will eat its fruits.
213. 15:48We are wise to pray the prayer found in Psalm 141 verse three.
214. 15:53Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth.
215. 15:56Keep watch over the door of my lips.
216. 16:06Shiting light into the darkness,
217. 16:08this is the Hamilton Quarter, an American family radio.
218. 16:12Welcome back to the program, Alex MacFarlane here talking with author Scott Powell, one
219. 16:17of my favorite subjects, the godly history of our nation.
220. 16:22When I was in graduate school, I was working at a Christian bookstore and I had been a believer
221. 16:26like five years.
222. 16:28And I didn't really know anything about American history other than what I had learned in school.
223. 16:34I went to public school and I'll never forget I was at the word Christian bookstore unpacking
224. 16:40the special orders. On Friday's shipment would come in and when people special ordered certain
225. 16:46books, you know, well, there was a book by Peter Marshall called The Light and the Glory.
226. 16:53And the subtitles said, did God have a special plan for America? Well, I had never thought
227. 16:58of that. I mean, it was like, oh my goodness. So this was a customer's book they had special
228. 17:04ordered and I was just ever so gently trying to peek inside this book. I didn't want to
229. 17:08bended or, you know, crease the pages. And then I ordered a copy for myself. And then, of course,
230. 17:15later I would discover the works of like David Barton and Bill Federer and many others. But yes,
231. 17:21folks, I would encourage you to drink from this rich fountain of historical knowledge that God
232. 17:30had a plan for America and Scott Powell, I really think the blessing, the formation, the freedom of
233. 17:38America was so that this nation could be a significant part of Christ's great commission. But I want
234. 17:46you to elaborate before the break we were talking about how really the birthing of America was kind
235. 17:52of an outflow of the Protestant Reformation, wasn't it?
236. 17:59That is absolutely true. Without the Reformation, America would not have been established the
237. 18:05way that it was. So it's very important. And when we move on from talking about the early
238. 18:14colonies and we had it worth Jamestown, which was not really a success for Cai, that
239. 18:18the limit colony and the Puritans that followed were the really successful colonies.
240. 18:25The pilgrims, as we talk about them, were actually the separatists who were persecuted in Great Britain.
241. 18:33They fled to Holland, lived there for 10 or 11 years, and then they heard about Jamestown.
242. 18:37They said they had a calling to come to the New World.
243. 18:40They didn't know anything about the New World.
244. 18:42They just knew that they weren't really happy in Holland,
245. 18:46and their kids were growing up in this secular Dutch Comper.
246. 18:50They wanted to go where they could raise their kids,
247. 18:54be God-fearing people, and they chose the new world.
248. 18:57They got sponsorship from England,
249. 19:02and so it was that they set out.
250. 19:05They got a late start because they had two ships,
251. 19:08the Speedwell and the Mayflower.
252. 19:11Mayflower was only 92 feet long,
253. 19:14and they put 102 people on that ship.
254. 19:19Very crowded.
255. 19:19That's pretty crowded, isn't it?
256. 19:22Oh, it's awfully, it's terrible.
257. 19:23I mean, you can't imagine the conditions
258. 19:25because it was a rough journey.
259. 19:27They didn't get off until September.
260. 19:29They're crossing the Atlantic and hurricane season
261. 19:32and their ship got battered
262. 19:36and they actually, the main beam in the ship cracked
263. 19:39and probably would have given way had they not,
264. 19:42one of the people brought with him a housejack,
265. 19:47because they said, well, we're gonna have to build houses,
266. 19:49though we need a housejack.
267. 19:51So they jacked up the beam and kept it in place,
268. 19:54and they were blown off course,
269. 19:56they never got to the territory that was assigned to them
270. 19:59by the Virginia Company,
271. 20:01which was at the mouth of the Hudson River,
272. 20:03sort of Northern New Jersey,
273. 20:06and they ended up off Cape Cod.
274. 20:09And it was there that they also had difficulty
275. 20:14with their keeping their group together.
276. 20:16Because only about half of the passengers on the Mayflower
277. 20:23were pilgrims or separatists.
278. 20:27The Christians.
279. 20:29The others were a mixture of crafts people
280. 20:33and the crew on the ship.
281. 20:35And so there was this division, but they
282. 20:37recognized because they were not going to the protected area assigned to them. They were going into wilderness.
283. 20:42They had no idea what they would encounter, but they had to make landfall. They had no choice but find a good place.
284. 20:51But to keep together, it was the Christian leaders of the Pilgrims that said, well, we've got to create a compact between all of us.
285. 21:01And so the Mayflower Compact was written on the upper deck of the Mayflower, and every man
286. 21:13on that ship signed that compact, which committed themselves to looking out for the back of their
287. 21:20comrades to a democratic process where everyone would be treated equally and would have an
288. 21:27equal say that there would be, you know, governance would be by the majority. The majority would
289. 21:34rule that everybody had an equal voice. So this compact was only on one page. It wasn't
290. 21:40very long. But many people say that this is really the beginning, this was the seed of
291. 21:44the Constitution and indeed I think it was. But what happened with the pilgrims was absolutely
292. 21:51incredible. God led them to this fertile area in Plymouth, which was across the bay. They made
293. 21:59landfall in Cape Cod and they had to keep going another 18 miles to get to Plymouth. And you don't
294. 22:07easily get into Plymouth. It's sort of a shallow, shoaly area, but anyway, they were able to get to
295. 22:14Plymouth. And what they were looking for was fertile land and a stream of water. They needed
296. 22:21They knew they knew they needed fresh water and that's what they had in plump.
297. 22:25The Indian tribe who had inhabited that land before the pilgrims had died of a plague, some
298. 22:33kind of illness, sort of, it just took them all out.
299. 22:41And so the land was there, you know, available.
300. 22:45Pilgrims said this and
301. 22:48Unfortunately, there were Indian tribes around and they did they did encounter Indians and they were rather friendly and it was Squanto and
302. 22:56Samuset who were particularly generally and Squanto as it turns out had been captured and taken to Spain
303. 23:04years before and
304. 23:07He was to be you know
305. 23:09He was imprisoned. He was gonna be sold. I guess in slave
306. 23:13but a Catholic father saw his predicament and sprung him from jail. He went to England,
307. 23:21Squanto did, and learned the English language and was positioning himself to return to his tribe.
308. 23:28And Squanto was from that tribe that had been annihilated in Plymouth. Anyway, so Squanto learned
309. 23:35English. He found passage through the New World. He wasn't dropped off in Plymouth. He dropped off,
310. 23:41I think in the north shore of Massachusetts, anybody found his way down to Plymouth and
311. 23:48Longville, he was the key interlocutor between the pilgrims, the English-speaking pilgrims,
312. 23:54and you know, and the great Sakam,
313. 23:57Masssoyad, who was the chief of all the tribes of that area. And the first thing that they did was
314. 24:03they made it a 50-year peace treaty with the Indians and they had a meager first harvest,
315. 24:10but they were determined to celebrate in that first winter they arrived in
316. 24:17in Plymouth in December of you know 1620 and the wind always half the half the
317. 24:29pilgrims died it's right whole families three whole families were lost but they
318. 24:34They kept their faith, they persisted, and they went about learning how to plant.
319. 24:42The Indians were helpful in learning and teaching them about how to plant it, how to fish and
320. 24:47hunt and so forth.
321. 24:48And so they were going to celebrate their first Thanksgiving, which they did, but it
322. 24:52was a very meager harvest because the pilgrims were following the rules set out by the Virginia
323. 24:59Company, and that was that they were to own all land collectively together.
324. 25:03there would be no private land ownership.
325. 25:06So they went through two seasons of near harvest
326. 25:09because socialism in farming or in manufacturing
327. 25:12and anything else doesn't work very well.
328. 25:14And so it was, I think William Bradford
329. 25:21who after that second failed harvest season
330. 25:25and he saw what went on, that there were lazy people
331. 25:27that never showed up at the farm, to do their farming.
332. 25:32and he said, no, we're going to break up all the land into private plots and the pilgrims
333. 25:37thrive thereafter.
334. 25:38They had to surplus the food.
335. 25:40Scott, let me ask you this.
336. 25:43What do you think is the biggest misconception about America that even Christian people don't
337. 25:52know what is it that many modern citizens, they just don't know about our country that
338. 25:59you wish they would know?
339. 26:01Well, they don't know that the ideas that enabled America to be this amazing success
340. 26:08story.
341. 26:09When you figure from the period of the Constitution, when the country was formalized, we were formalized,
342. 26:17we were made into a 13 independent states became a nation, the United States, with a
343. 26:26Constitution.
344. 26:27That was the beginning of the country.
345. 26:29Within 120 years of that date, America was the leading economic and military power in
346. 26:36the world after World War I.
347. 26:39That's remarkable.
348. 26:40That's like a stock car going from zero to 60 in two minutes.
349. 26:45The speed at which America, prosper, and flourish was remarkable.
350. 26:51And why?
351. 26:53Because of the Christian foundation.
352. 26:56because people were empowered, they were free to be creative, to pursue their dreams without
353. 27:02government interference.
354. 27:06I mean, the 1700s and the late 1700s, the 1800s, an amazing time, and it was punctuated
355. 27:17by the devastation of the Civil War.
356. 27:19still by, you know, 1915, 16, you know, after World War I, we were preeminent. We were the leading
357. 27:30world power. But, you know, the Civil War was absolutely devastating. You know, we lost 620 to 640,000
358. 27:40people, mostly men. And that number exceeds all the other wars put together in terms of American
359. 27:48deaths. Scott, let me ask you this, based on your research, in the revolutionary period in
360. 27:56colonial America, and even, you know, let's say up until 1900, did ministers in the churches
361. 28:05preach about patriotism and were the parishioners taught about the overlap of God and citizenship?
362. 28:16Because nowadays it's like not that way. I mean I do and I've pastored and spoken in like
363. 28:222000 American churches, but I know like in the last several presidential elections, I have
364. 28:29tried to rally pastors across America to urge their people to vote. And it's hard to get senior
365. 28:40pastors to be on record, you know, talking about elections and how to vote and why we
366. 28:47should vote.
367. 28:48Now, some do, but it seems like nowadays senior pastors just don't have the willingness to
368. 28:55get in the pulpit and talk about politics and citizenship.
369. 29:00But do you believe like in colonial America, pastors were more willing to do that?
370. 29:07were they were willing to do that, but the earliest militia in the Boston area, Lexington
371. 29:15and Concord, the famous first battle of the Revolutionary War, if you will, that preceded
372. 29:22Bunker Hill.
373. 29:23Who were the leaders of that militia?
374. 29:29They were the pastors and the church going males came, the whole militia came out of the
375. 29:36in and around Boston.
376. 29:39So these folks, you could tell by their actions
377. 29:46that they were patriots for the cause of freedom.
378. 29:53Of course, then this is pre-declaration of independence.
379. 29:59This was, like seeing the concrete took place,
380. 30:03I think a year, year and a half before the declaration.
381. 30:06And the war in defense really started in 1775 in Boston.
382. 30:15But you had passionate people coming out of the church
383. 30:19that were willing to fight and die for freedom.
384. 30:21A lot of them.
385. 30:23Do you assume that the pastors, though America
386. 30:26wasn't formed then, but they were patriots
387. 30:31for the causal freedom?
388. 30:32And I think, you know, prior to the, you know,
389. 30:37prior to the Revolutionary War, of course,
390. 30:40there was this amazing phenomenon
391. 30:43known as the Great Awakening that took place in America.
392. 30:46And that was absolutely remarkable.
393. 30:49Let me frame it by saying here are these colonists
394. 30:52that here are these colonies that are shaping at the bit
395. 30:56with British oppression.
396. 30:58You know, the British took money out of the colonies
397. 31:01and didn't get put anything back.
398. 31:03They were charging taxes, stamp taxes, and B taxes.
399. 31:09And the Americans, they had a hand-grained to change all that.
400. 31:15And so it was that a great awakening took place.
401. 31:19It was led primarily by George Whitfield,
402. 31:22who was an itinerant pastor who traveled around
403. 31:25to all 13 colonies between 1730 and 1750,
404. 31:32he visited all 13 colonies seven times each.
405. 31:36It's believed that,
406. 31:38it's believed that, you know,
407. 31:42well over a million people heard George Whitfield.
408. 31:45And the population of America
409. 31:47at that time is going to be about a little over 2 million.
410. 31:50So half the people heard George Whitfield
411. 31:53craft more than once.
412. 31:55And then there was Jonathan Edwards in New England
413. 31:57who really was a powerful preacher.
414. 32:00And so this, but this great awakening,
415. 32:03what it did was it nipped these disparate
416. 32:06separate colonies together in a common cause,
417. 32:09a cause called freedom.
418. 32:12We want to live freely and we want to worship as we please.
419. 32:18And so there was, you know, there was a complaints
420. 32:21against the Anglican Church, which was essentially the Church of the Inglot who brought to America
421. 32:28to be taken to Virginia.
422. 32:30Hey, we've got a take a break, Scott Powell is our guest.
423. 32:34If you have a question, maybe you've got a question about American history or about the
424. 32:38Christian residue that I believe needs to be encouraged and restored.
425. 32:44The number is triple eight five eight nine eighty eight forty triple eight five eight
426. 32:49nine eighty eight forty more Alex McFarland on the Hamilton Corner with Scott Powell.
427. 32:54Stay tuned.
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439. 33:51Next time on Focus on the Family with Jim Daley.
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441. 34:06The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Minute Common Terrets are available at eFR.net.
442. 34:12Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
443. 34:17Welcome back to the program, Alex McFarland here.
444. 34:19Very honored to be sitting in tonight for Abe Hamilton on the Hamilton Corner.
445. 34:24And hey, let me share a couple of things with you before we resume our conversation with
446. 34:28Scott Powell.
447. 34:29Bert Harper and I, we do a show every afternoon, three to four central, four to five eastern.
448. 34:36It's called Exploring the Word.
449. 34:38And it's heard nationally on the American Family Radio Network.
450. 34:41And we would be very honored if you would check out Exploring the Word.
451. 34:46We teach the Bible.
452. 34:48That's what we've done for 15 years.
453. 34:50We give God the glory.
454. 34:51We're in the book of Romans right now.
455. 34:53And then we take your Bible questions.
456. 34:55Two days ago on the program on live radio, a lady prayed to accept Christ on the radio.
457. 35:02And we've gotten testimonies over the years of many, many people who've come to Christ
458. 35:08or come back to Christ through the Bible study.
459. 35:12We give God the glory.
460. 35:13But also, let me mention our Summer Speaker Series.
461. 35:16It's called Conversations That Matter.
462. 35:19For those that are watching on video, I've got the brochure up right now.
463. 35:23And we're bringing in speakers to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
464. 35:29And I'll tell you why I'm mentioning that here in just a moment.
465. 35:32But we've got, coming up on June 15, just one of the greatest authors, Gary Chapman.
466. 35:37He wrote a book called The Five Love Languages.
467. 35:40And I say Dr. Chapman is kind of America's relationship doctor because I think God has
468. 35:47used Gary Chapman in the five love languages to probably save more marriages.
469. 35:53But you can hear him in person on Sunday night, June 15.
470. 35:56I'll be there and I would encourage you to check out my website if you would, AlexMcFarlane.com
471. 36:03slash conversations.
472. 36:05We've got Charlie Kirk coming and many others.
473. 36:08It's going to be great.
474. 36:10Gary Chapman, June 15, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, AlexMcFarland.com slash conversations.
475. 36:17Well, we're talking with author Scott Powell and Scott, in the previous segment you mentioned
476. 36:23the great evangelist George Whitfield, you know, probably 10 miles from where I'm sitting right
477. 36:32now, George Whitfield preached.
478. 36:35There's a historical marker because, you know, here in the Mid-Atlantic region where we live,
479. 36:40Oh my goodness, the land is just steeped with Christian history.
480. 36:46The Westlies came through here, Francis Asbury.
481. 36:50I know a place in rural North Carolina where Francis Asbury started a log college and they
482. 36:58said that the farmers would come from the fields and Asbury would teach them to preach the gospel.
483. 37:05But Whitfield had an open-air meeting on what is now highway 17.
484. 37:12They called it King's Highway.
485. 37:14And it was a wagon route.
486. 37:15And from time immemorial, people rode horses and wagons up and down this area.
487. 37:22Well George Whitfield, a Presbyterian evangelist, had a big open-air meeting and a lot of people
488. 37:28came to Christ.
489. 37:30Well, he said, well, you need to start a church.
490. 37:33And he realized that a lot of the people here in the North Carolina, South Carolina region
491. 37:39were followers of the Westlies.
492. 37:42So he started a Methodist church and it exists to this day.
493. 37:46And I just thought how collegial or ecumenical that was, I mean that in a good way.
494. 37:54Here's a Presbyterian evangelist, leads a bunch of people to Christ, starts a church and because
495. 38:00they leaned Methodist, he made it a Methodist church. And there's a great marker there. But
496. 38:06so much we could say, I love the Christian history of our country because I think it inspires people
497. 38:13today to want to care about the spiritual condition of the country as well. Wouldn't you agree?
498. 38:22I couldn't agree more. I mean, America's primary problem today is that we have driven
499. 38:29God out of our culture to such an extent that we become less civil than any other previous
500. 38:38time in American history. People had far more manners and civility towards one another in
501. 38:44earlier times. Why? Because of Christianity. When you live in the Christian, you have an
502. 38:52orientation and outward orientation to do to others what you would want them to do for you.
503. 38:59You're nice, you're kind, you're generous. And when you take that out of the culture,
504. 39:06that orientation, what's left? It's all about self. It's all about me, me, me, and in the case of
505. 39:15these organizations and politics, it's all about power, power and money, rather than
506. 39:22taken care of people, building communities. So it's we need a spiritual
507. 39:30revival, the likes of which you know we've seen early and earlier times but
508. 39:35because our population is so big and so diverse it could be really quite something
509. 39:40to witness. You know Charlotte I lived there for a number of years my wife and I
510. 39:48were in Charlotte and I got a book from the 20s, so a hundred years ago, but it was a book
511. 39:56about revivals in America.
512. 39:59And what's really interesting that, have you ever heard of what's called the Carolina
513. 40:03Great Awakening?
514. 40:04I think I've heard of it, but I don't know anything about it.
515. 40:10Well, and first of all, before I ask you this, queue up what was the Great Awakening, like
516. 40:16under Jonathan Edwards because this is really important for those that
517. 40:20maybe on Edwards I put with you right I would rank them equal as the two co equal
518. 40:26leaders very different ministry I mean Edwards affected the country because of
519. 40:32the power of his you know his word his preaching his you know he would write out
520. 40:39the entire sermon he would spend all week preparing writing out what he was
521. 40:45going to say. And he was not a flamboyant speaker. He was a man of God who spoke God's word with
522. 40:54firmness, but he had such convicting power that he would, he primarily reached out of his,
523. 41:02was it North Hampton, Massachusetts, that's where he was located. He traveled a little bit
524. 41:08in Hampton, Connecticut. Hey, forgive me. I want to get, we've got a lot of collars all
525. 41:13of a sudden, let's go to Ruben in Texas.
526. 41:18Ruben, thank you for holding welcome
527. 41:20to our conversation with Scott Powell.
528. 41:23How you doing?
529. 41:24Thank you for taking my call.
530. 41:25I'm not sure if this question is for you or for Scott,
531. 41:27but I've always, I've actually,
532. 41:29I was raised up as a Catholic in California
533. 41:31and I came to Christ in 2014.
534. 41:36And ever since I've been a Christian,
535. 41:37I've always been fascinated with,
536. 41:39of course, why there's so many religions
537. 41:40and just trying to know the Lord every day
538. 41:43get closer to him. So as far as American history, it's always been fascinated that America started
539. 41:50as a Christian nation or at least a very big spirituality. And you guys were talking about the
540. 41:55Great Awakening. So I've always found it interesting that even during the Civil War, or actually prior to
541. 42:02that, the North was kind of like, they call the South now the Bible Belt. But in reality back then
542. 42:07and was the North with the blue belt.
543. 42:10So the North was blessed with industry,
544. 42:13with universities, colleges coming up quickly
545. 42:18versus the South.
546. 42:20So did that play a role?
547. 42:22And I just wanted to see your take on it,
548. 42:24where there was a big spiritual stronghold
549. 42:26as far as a Christian spirituality in the North
550. 42:30that blessed the North much greater than the South.
551. 42:33Let me queue this up and I'll throw it to Scott.
552. 42:36And folks, let me urge you to Google an article.
553. 42:41And I can't remember if it was in World Magazine,
554. 42:44but basically it was an article
555. 42:47how Christians started the Ivy League.
556. 42:52Harvard, Princeton, Yale, they're in New Haven, Connecticut.
557. 42:57I mean, the Ivy League schools, Brown, Cornell,
558. 43:01William and Mary, I mean, they were overtly Christian schools.
559. 43:04And one other thing I would mention,
560. 43:06There's a book by a man named Thomas Hegadorn.
561. 43:09He's from Ohio, we've interviewed him.
562. 43:11It's a book called Founding Zealots.
563. 43:15It's kind of a strange title, Founding Zealots.
564. 43:18But it's about how out of churches,
565. 43:21all up and down through the colonies,
566. 43:23churches started schools and promoted literacy.
567. 43:28Why?
568. 43:29So people could read, so people could read the Bible.
569. 43:32But Scott, isn't it fair to say, even though education now is often
570. 43:38done militantly secular, but learning and education originally in America was from the
571. 43:47church, was based on the Bible, and originally was overtly Christian, wasn't it?
572. 43:53Absolutely.
573. 43:54That's a very true statement.
574. 43:56people learned to read by reading the Bible or the McDuffie reader. So much of early education
575. 44:05revolved around God's word. And the training that the Founding Fathers went through in the
576. 44:18school, it was called, the school ended up being Princeton Academy, but prior to Princeton,
577. 44:24And it was, I think it was the New Jersey College.
578. 44:30I'll have to look it up and rediscover America.
579. 44:33And it was a college for ministers, wasn't it?
580. 44:36Yes.
581. 44:36Yeah.
582. 44:37John Witherspoon ultimately was the sort of the real
583. 44:41great leader there.
584. 44:44And he trained more of the founding fathers
585. 44:48than anyone else.
586. 44:49I mean, he's sort of the secret founding father
587. 44:52because he had such a huge impact on so many
588. 44:57of our early American leaders.
589. 45:01I wanna try to get some calls in.
590. 45:02Let's go to Chuck in Mississippi.
591. 45:06Chuck, are you there?
592. 45:08I am.
593. 45:10Hey, thank you for holding.
594. 45:11Good evening.
595. 45:12Yes, sir.
596. 45:14I'm a good friend of yours.
597. 45:15You just hadn't met me yet.
598. 45:17Well, amen.
599. 45:18I'd love to meet you in person, Chuck.
600. 45:21Yeah, well, we will either here on the other side.
601. 45:25But I appreciate y'all.
602. 45:26And Scott, wow, this is great.
603. 45:29I've just been enthralled.
604. 45:30I've had to work a little bit in between listening to y'all.
605. 45:33But I had heard that Columbus had petitioned
606. 45:39Ferdinand and Isabella for a long time.
607. 45:41But I had heard that he had read a scripture in Isaiah
608. 45:47talking about the Isles and that he was actually.
609. 45:50That was why he named he was actually I had heard that the cons of our kings of of India would just conquer each other and they saw a
610. 45:58difference in the Spaniards after the gospel had gone into Spain
611. 46:04Is there any truth to to him and I didn't know there was that much information
612. 46:09Also, you said that there was a lot a lot of information that he had written
613. 46:13I had heard that it was mainly his brother-in-law or somebody that had written most of the stuff
614. 46:17Columbus, but did he, I mean, was that a part of the reason that he was going is to, I know
615. 46:27he probably promised gold to Ferdinand and Isabella, but to present the gospel?
616. 46:34Well it was a confluence of things that happened in 1492. You might say that 1492 was not only
617. 46:41year of Columbus, but it was the year that Ferdinand and Isabella drove the last Muslims
618. 46:50out of Europe. The Muslim enclave in South Spain existed for a long time. They wanted
619. 46:57to encroach on Christian Europe. It was Ferdinand and Isabella who decided, no, not only are we
620. 47:08going to drive out the Muslims, but we are going to, we're going to support an evangelist.
621. 47:13So they were very impressed with Columbus, not only for his seafaring discovery skills.
622. 47:19I mean, they, I don't know how much they bought into his ability to find a passage to
623. 47:26the Far East, but they certainly recognized that he would be an evangelist and that they
624. 47:31could spread Christianity that Spain could get a foothold in this new world with Christianity.
625. 47:41And that's to their credit that they sponsored Columbus because they sponsored the right
626. 47:47guy.
627. 47:48He was a very remarkable man.
628. 47:51I mean, think about, you know, a sea, a sea fairer, you know, a salty sea fairer who was
629. 47:57like a child in when he thought about going to the New World that they, people in that
630. 48:02part of the world, never heard the news that there was a savior and that he could bring
631. 48:08that news to them. He could do the greatest thing in the world, bringing the news of the
632. 48:15savior to people who had no exposure to it. That's what would have been a columbent.
633. 48:22Two of the Scriptures, and I know I've taught this, but Isaiah 24, 15, and Isaiah 60, verse
634. 48:309. Both of these were motivated. And Columbus said that he was working to, quote, bear the
635. 48:38light of Christ to unknown heathen coastlands. You know, there's so many, I know we have people
636. 48:44on hold, Jeff and Ray. I'm so sorry we're nearly out of time. But Scott, with the seconds
637. 48:50that remain. Tell us again your book title, the website where people can benefit from your
638. 48:56research and writing.
639. 48:58You have the book, cover looks like this, Rediscovering America, and if you look at it
640. 49:04carefully you'll see that Statue of Liberty is getting a little thin in the middle. Rediscovering
641. 49:09America, it's a question. The light is coming from the right and this image and the darkness
642. 49:15comes from the left side of the Statue of Liberty.
643. 49:19And indeed, that's where we are.
644. 49:21Scott, we're almost out of time.
645. 49:22I'm so sorry, brother.
646. 49:23But I would encourage people to Google Scott Powell Rediscovering America.
647. 49:28Thanks for listening.
648. 49:29Alex McFarland here.
649. 49:30Keep this in prayer.
650. 49:33The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American
651. 49:38Family Association or American Family Radio.