Biblical Citizenship Course Review – Week 2

By Nancy Murray

Week two, Tending the Garden. ¹  

This chapter was an eyeopener for me. I was not aware of how much our Founding Fathers relied on the Bible as they created the Constitution.

“The Book of Genesis, is known as the seed-plot of the Bible because every single major teaching goes back to the Book of Genesis.”

We learned that the first form of Government is self-government, one of the three institutions of Government in Scripture. The other two are Family and Church. Each of these three institutions overlap (like the infamous Venn diagram).  

When you have Family and Government overlap, we build strong families with strong policies.

When Family and Church overlap, we build strong Christians.

When Church and Government overlap, they cooperate to build and educate strong Citizens.

When all are working together the outcome is strong Families and strong Citizens.

Daniel Webster is quoted as saying “Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good Citizens.”

The seven mountains of cultural engagement include: business, family, media, entertainment, government, religion, and education. The people have shirked their responsibility to uphold the seven mountains of our culture in the way that God set us up to do. Now is the time to reclaim these seven mountains!

In 5600 years of recorded history, the average length of a national constitution is 17 years. We are approaching 250 years for the US Constitution. Our Founding Fathers did something right that is envied throughout the world, they based the Constitution on Christian values and one higher power.

The most quoted source in roughly 15,000 writings of the Founding Fathers is the Bible at 34%. The next highest source is Montesquieu at 8.3%. This is according to a study by the University of Houston.

The Founding Fathers believed strongly in the Castle Doctrine, a man’s home is his castle and should be defended. As quoted by James Otis, “One of the most essential rights is the freedom of one’s house – a Man’s house is his castle…” 

The 4^th Amendment, protection against unreasonable search and seizure, was written to protect the people’s right to be secure in their homes. An argument could be made that IRS audits are illegal without the proper warrant.

The history of slavery in the U.S. is being manipulated by the “1619 Project”.  Approximately 20 slaves were sold in Jamestown in 1619 from the British and were then hired and paid as servants. They would work for seven years, then given their freedom and land ownership.

The Wallbuilder video listed several early black patriots and their contributions to include participating in the Paul Revere’s midnight ride, fighting in the American Revolution, or working as spies in the American Revolution. Woodrow Wilson removed the contributions of these black patriots from American History books. 

It was clear that America was never a leader in the global slave trade. Of the 12.7 million slaves taken from African Nations, only 2.5% went to the United States. In 1807, the U.S. was the first nation to abolish the slave trade, and 4^th to ban all slavery. Many northern states banned slavery before 1807.

Today, slavery still exists. Of the 193 member nations of the U.N., 94 have not banned slavery. There still remains 40 million slaves today!

¹ Green, R. (2021). In Biblical Citizenship in Modern America (pp. 11-16). essay, Patriot Academy.