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Did you know that one of the great rallying cries of the American Revolution was no king, but King Jesus? Those patriots weren't just rejecting the King of England. They were declaring the ultimate authority of Jesus Christ. Well, greetings and welcome to Christ in Prophecy Radio. From the headquarters of Lamb and Lion Ministries just north of Dallas, Texas, I'm Tim Moore, director and senior evangelist for Lamb and Lion Ministries. And I'm joined today, as always, by our Internet evangelist, Tim Dr. Nathan Jones. Happy Independence Day.
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Well, thanks, Tim. On July 4th, 1776, a band of colonists declared their independence from the most powerful empire on earth. And they staked their future on the self evident truth that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. A quarter of a millennium later, we pause to reflect on what God has done in America and where he is leading us next.
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This year, Americans are celebrating a truly historic milestone, the 250th birthday of the United States of America. As we look back on America's founding, we're struck by the fact that many of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence were men of deep faith who understood that human government is accountable to a higher authority.
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So whether you're gathering with family around a barbecue or watching fireworks light up the sky, we want you to know that the greatest celebration is still ahead of us. The same God who providentially guided the birth of this nation has promised his son will return to reign as King of Kings. And folks, if you'd like to learn more about the return of King Jesus, then go ahead and sign up for our free Lamplighter magazine. You can do so by going to our website@christinprophecy.org we also have an archive of Lamplighter magazines stretching back probably now 25 years. So go to our website@christinprophecy.org and download your free Lamplighter magazine today. And if this ministry has been a blessing to you, then please click that donate button. Okay, we'll be back in just a moment.
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Want to know what the Bible has to say about advancing technology, wars in Israel, natural disasters, rapid changes in society, and the end times? To get a trustworthy biblical perspective, keep listening to our radio program, watch Christ in Prophecy TV and read the Lamplighter magazine. It's all available online@christinprophecy.org welcome back to
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Christ in Prophecy Radio with Tim Moore, myself and Nathan Jones. Nathan, obviously we are celebrating America's 250th birthday. They call that the semi quincentennial, which means half of 500 years. That's a mouthful of Latin. But really, we are blessed to be at 250 years since the nation's founding. In other words, since the Declaration of independence there on July 4, 1776. And many people may not realize that the group of men who gathered there to sign or to draft the Declaration, they were much younger and much more passionate about their faith and about standing as patriots here in America than most folks realize. Yes, Thomas Jefferson put final pen to paper. But there was a committee of five that included Jefferson, only aged 33. John Adams, the future second president of the United States at age 40. Benjamin Franklin, the old man of the group at age 70. Also Roger Sherman, who was very involved even in the Constitutional Convention. He. He was age 55 at the time. And the youngest among them was Robert Livingstone, who was only 29 years old during the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Independence. And they sometimes are dismissed as deists. And yet they all had a faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and specifically the Savior, Jesus Christ.
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Yeah, we can look back to the founding generation and find that they had a remarkable faith that shaped this nation. Well, let's first start with the indispensable man himself, George Washington. Now, George Washington was what's called the greatest character of the age. And he really did. He was very much protected by the hands of fate. Like, for instance, at the Battle of Monongahala. He had two horses shot out from under him, four bullet holes in his coat and hat, and yet he had survived. God had a purpose for him. He was keeping him from being killed. He freed the colonies from the British rule and just led a ragtag army of barely farmers with scarce supplies to victory over the greatest empire of the time. He held himself with dignity and reverence, and he was known for his honesty and integrity. Matter of fact, one of my favorite stories, Tim, is when he was leading the army, he started hearing that the troops were swearing. And so he wrote this. He said, the general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in the American army, is growing into fashion. He hopes that the officers will, by example as well as influence and endeavor to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of blessing of heaven on our arms if we continue to insult it by our impiety and folly.
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Yes, General Washington was a man of deep faith. It is said that whenever the Continental Congress met, he was the one that kneeled every time they prayed. And so he is one also that did not cling to power, even after serving two terms as the American president. It was none other than King George iii. Yes, the very king that we had sent the Declaration of Independence to, who called Washington the greatest character of the age because he relinquished power. And yet here is what Washington testified in his own words regarding the founding of our nation. He said, the man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards who. The great author of the universe, whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested on our behalf. Over and over again, Washington touted God's role in helping protect and preserve this young nation and actually provide our independence. And when he says the divine author of the universe, he's not just referring to any generic God. He clearly meant the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of course, Jesus Christ as our savior.
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I remember as a teen going to Washington's crossing the Delaware, which was the turning point of the war, and seeing paintings of him, majestic in the boat, you know, looking across ahead at the Hessian side of the river. But I also remember, like you said, the pictures and portraits of him kneeling down and praying. He just had a faith that established himself, and the Lord protected him. He also protected Abraham Lincoln, who was the preserver of that union under God. Folks, you know him as a backwoodsman. He was a young lawyer. He lost election after election, but he did rise to prominence, especially from the Lincoln Douglas Debates of 1858. And when you read his speeches, you'll see they were filled with reverence for God. They were woven in scripture. And he was unwavering in his faith and his conviction that the Union must stand. He had a famous house divided speech which drew directly from scripture, like Matthew 12 and Mark 3. He said, A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.
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You know, Nathan Lincoln is credited with holding the nation together through the Civil War almost by strength of his will and his belief in divine providence. And yes, he did say at one point that we may have to exact as much blood through armed conflict as has been drawn by the slave master's whip. And so he understood that there was a moral dimension even to the war itself, but that God was sovereign. He was one time asked whether the the Lord was on the side of the north or the South. And his response was, I don't think the Lord takes sides. The most important thing is that we are on his side. And so I know People have dismissed Lincoln's faith as an actual confessional Christian, an evangelical Christian. People in those days did not use those terms, but he did have a deep and abiding faith, not only in God, but in the word of God and in the power that it has over the affairs of men. And you know, Nathan, even a foreigner that came to visit the United States early in the 1800s who later became the Minister of Foreign affairs in France, his name was Alexis de Tocqueville, and he wrote a book in 1835 called Democracy in America. And he writes, upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. The Americans combined the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds that, that it is impossible to make them conceive of the one without the other. And again, this is not some generic religion. It is specifically Christianity. And even this foreign man who witnessed the horrors of the French Revolution understood that America had been blessed and was prospering because of their united faith in Christ, their Christianity and their love of liberty.
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Well, Washington and Lincoln remind us that the best leaders are those who recognize a power and authority higher than their own. And, and true freedom is found only in Jesus Christ. Well, coming up, we're going to take a look at current events in a segment what we call what's really Going on. Stay with us.
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There's a simple key to understanding Bible prophecy, and it's found in Revelation 19:10, which says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Everything God has revealed in the Bible points to Jesus from the beginning to the end times. Indeed, all of human history is his story and the future is his as well, because Jesus is returning soon. Find out more when you go to christinprophecy.org well, Nathan, let's talk about what's
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really going on when we analyze current times and current events. Obviously, we've used this fancy word, semi quincentennial to describe America's 250th birthday. And we know that we are more divided today than than at any time since the Civil War. Obviously, our founders understood that without virtue, liberty would not endure. And yet here we are today, where virtue seems far removed from most of our public discourse. And certainly liberty seems to be on the wane, at least ordered. Liberty.
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Yeah. The United States seems to be two nations under one roof, two competing ideologies. One is the ideology that wants to continue with its Judeo Christian heritage, and the other one seems to want to break from God and embrace humanistic Philosophies, including socialism. Tim, I don't believe these two warring philosophies can live under one roof. So the question is, do you think America, after 250 years, can still stand, or are we facing possibly another civil war?
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Well, I think if not an active and hostile civil war, we're definitely seeing a division. And you're exactly right. It was Lincoln who said, a House divided against itself cannot stand. And we are so divided today. Left, the right, the parties, the Republicans, the Democrats, the. They can't even see eye to eye on almost anything. And we have people who are advocating openly for violence. There's a podcaster out there on the far left called Hassan pike who is calling for the actual murder and dismemberment of people who would consider themselves even conservative. And so the hatred and the animosity is so great. We haven't seen anything like this since the Civil War. I think it goes back to what we said earlier, to cite John Adams, our second president. He said, our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. And when he said moral and religious, he wasn't talking about religious in the sense of, well, Buddhist or Hindu or something else. No, he meant a moral and Christian people, a people who are agreed that the tenets of Christianity are the guiding principles upon which this nation can thrive. And today, many in our public spheres can't even agree upon those things. As a matter of fact, Nathan, I doubt that the folks in Congress today would endorse something written to reflect the Declaration of Independence because it talks about God. And many of them are given over to the lie that our government has to separate church and state. We should not separate a recognition of nature's God and the laws that he has handed down to which we are actually dependent.
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It's interesting, Tim, that when we divorce liberty from morality, what we really end up is slavery. We don't get the security that God ordained government is meant to give us. And then we get a breakdown of the system. We've looked at so many different great empires over the history, some that have lasted even a thousand years, but they always, inevitably fall apart. And the question then is why? Why do they fall apart? Well, I think the Bible gives us the answer, is that as long as humans are flawed and sinful, then government is flawed and sinful. How long does the Lord make it last, though? Depends on how much their sins build up to like a cup. When it overflows, then God's wrath overflows and that usually ends up being the dissolution or destruction or even making impotent these great empires.
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It certainly does. You know, we were at one point a nation again that agreed upon the Christian principles upon which we were founded. Just 40 years ago, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, during sort of the morning in America when hope was resurgent, finally, after a long period of morass, said, America needs to remember that we are a nation under God. If we forget that, we will be a nation gone under. And so there was a respect for God in the 80s. But then just a few years later, Nathan, from today's date, 2026, you can think back just 10 to 15 years ago when Barack Obama was our president and he made the statement, America is no longer a Christian nation. Now, he could have been making a statement of fact because so many immigrants have come in who do not believe in Christ as the king and savior that he. But he was also making a statement of what his belief system reflected. And so we have major mayors of big cities in the United States who are no longer even adherent to any faith and definitely not to the Christian faith. They are oppositional. And so certainly we have become that house divided.
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And that's where we get what President George Washington said. He said this. He said, government is not reason, government is not eloquence. It is a force. And like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. When you divorce Christian biblical morality from government, that's what you get. You get this horrible government, a dictatorship where the people in charge rule over the people instead of serving the people.
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Well, not only that, when you divorce yourself from ordered liberty as our founders espoused, and instead go after unfettered license, in other words, casting off all the fetters. There are no constraints or restraints on individual behavior. Then we can't have enough police, enough laws, or a big enough military to force people to behave and to act right. Well, folks, if you want to hear more about what's really going on, we encourage you to for our Lamplighter magazine. You can do so free@christinprophecy.org or you can subscribe to a print edition. We send that out every other month. And it gives you a perspective on what's going on in the world today from Bible prophecy and an emphasis on Christ in prophecy, as our website suggests. Christinprophecy.org we'll be right back to continue our conversation.
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Studying Bible prophecy is an important practice for Christians who want to mature in their faith. At Lamb and Lion, we've compiled the best resources to help you explore and explain Bible prophecy. Our online store is stocked with insightful books and charts from authors such as Dr. David Reagan, Tim Moore, Nathan Jones and more. So why not add a good Christian book to your library today or order one for a friend? Understand Bible prophecy better when you visit christinprophecy.org
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well, welcome back to Christ in Prophecy Radio. I'm Nathan Jones. I'm here with our director Tim Moore. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that our rights come from our Creator, not from a king. But the desire for a king or an earthly leader is as old as human civilization itself. What does the Bible say about this longing and where does it ultimately lead? Let's dig in. What's your thoughts Tim?
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Well obviously even the people of Israel wanted to be like all the other nations. So they clamored for a king. They demanded that Samuel provide them a king. But Samuel warned, according to the Lord's revelation, that a king would bring great woe because he would bring taxation. He would bring demands against their prosperity and their property that would become onerous. And even back in Deuteronomy 17, 14, 20, Moses prophesied that the people again would one day demand a king to be set over them so they could be like all the nations who are around me. And so when God relented and said fine, they want a king because they really rejected me, but I will provide the kind of king that will be right and good for Israel. And he set conditions for his kings that a king must not multiply horses, wives or gold. And the king was commanded to write a copy of the law and read it all his days as the Lord said that he may learn to fear the Lord his God. So the king was to be a conduit of God's blessing to the nation, not a self serving ruler.
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What's interesting about the kings of Israel is that they were like you said, they were meant to point the people to God. All the nations around them pointed people to themselves. To the point where as the Israelites left Egypt, the Egyptian pharaohs were calling themselves gods. We had the Caesars later calling themselves gods. We've seen even some American politicians in hint that maybe worship isn't such a bad thing of them. I mean the human ego knows no bound and like you said that's why God told Samuel they have rejected me from being king over them. People tend to worship government in the extreme senses. That's where we see communism, where the party is to be worshipped and it's supposed to provide what God is supposed to Provide. You know, it's interesting what God told Samuel Tim. He says, if you get a king, this is what they're going to do. They're going to take your sons and your daughters, they're going to take your fields and your servants. And you know what the people's response was? Basically bring it on. They were happy for that. And it wasn't long before Saul did that. He conscripted their sons into battle, his daughters into his harem, he took parts of their fields, he took taxes, he took servants, he put the people into endless wars, and they got what they wanted.
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A
You know, I think it's instructive too that the Lord recognizing the people's demand and really their self centered and selfish demand for a king so that what they could be like all the other nations and he provided a king of their own liking. In other words, the first king that yes, God anointed was a king who looked like a king. That being Saul, he was tall and impressive, but as Scripture records, his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord. And so he strayed grievously. Now let's face it, David later would stray grievously, but Saul's heart was not after the Lord's own. He was seeking his own glory. And so that is contrasted with David, the shepherd boy who became king. And yet, even though he was imperfect, he reflected a heart after God's own. Talking about as you did, the fact that kings would take daughters, fields and servants and would be drawn into horses, wives and gold, you think of Solomon, who wisely asked for wisdom from the Lord but went astray through what? Many wives, many horses, and much gold. Specifically, 666 talents of gold foreshadowing the number of the beast. In other words, the very things that man's eyes covet are the things that lead us astray from the Lord God Almighty.
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Folks, every earthly leader is going to fail you. That's why we're not supposed to put our faith and trust in him, but in Jesus alone. Jesus isn't just the ultimate king, but he's also the ultimate prophet who fulfills all the prophecies he's ever made. And he's also our priest, our intercessor between us and the Father. He is the ultimate king. He should have our ultimate devotion.
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You know, I love that fact, Nathan. It points us forward to the time when we don't live in a democracy or a republic, which is what our form of government actually is. But we are looking forward to living under a monarchy. A truly benevolent monarch. The King of England was not. I dare say the King of England today is not. But Jesus Christ, who is coming to reign, is a truly good and benevolent monarch. And so that's exactly what Isaiah foretold in Isaiah chapter 9. He will be wonderful, counselor, mighty God, eternal Father, Prince of peace. There will be no to the increase of his government or of peace. And on the throne of his father David. And over his kingdom, he will establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. And we know that the Lord who is coming soon will be that king who sets up his throne on Mount Zion. So this prophetic trajectory that we see, where the world has always clamored for a great leader will only be fulfilled ultimately in the truly great, great and good leader, Jesus Christ.
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B
Yeah, Isaiah 11:2 really defines that. It says the spirit of the Lord will rest on him. A spirit of what? Wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Now compare that from what the eventual one world ruler, who the Bible calls the Antichrist. He's the opposite of Jesus. He will be lawless, he will be self absorbed. He will plunge the world into war. Billions of people's blood will be on his hands, and yet the world will worship him and even take his mark on their right hand or forehead as a loyalty mark and as rebellion against God. Isn't it strange, Tim, that the world would clamor after a leader who will allow them to chase after their own sins instead of one who saves them from the slavery of sin, which is Jesus Christ?
- [21:29]
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That's always been the case, Nathan. That's why Germany clamored for a Fuhrer, a great leader in the 1930s. That's why other nations, and even today people are clamoring for a great leader, a messiah, to lead them out of oblivion. As a matter of fact, there was a major politician in Europe one time who said, give us a messiah, a savior figure, and whether he be God or be devil, we will follow him. And so Lord Acton's warnings ring true. Lord Acton was a politician who said, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Only Jesus Christ can wield absolute power with absolute righteousness. We know that the Antichrist will seek to have that power and even globalists today who are encouraging it, but he will corrupt absolutely the entire earth under that one world government.
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Philippians two promises at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. Folks, we are looking forward to that day because many aspire to lead. But this yearning is taking some dramatic and tragic turns. So let's keep in mind that while we are waiting for the reign of our heavenly King, that we worship him as the only King. Well, Tim's going to come back in just a moment with a final word of encouragement. Stay with us
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here at Christ in Prophecy. We want everyone to know that Jesus is coming back and he doesn't want his people to be unprepared. So to stay up to date about unfolding events, get a biblical perspective on the signs of the times, and dig deeper into God's prophetic word, check out our free bi weekly Lamplighter magazine. You can easily sign up to have Lamplighter magazine delivered directly to your email inbox when you go to christinprophecy.org sign
- [23:11]
A
up today 250 years ago, a group of men gathered in Philadelphia and declared that a new nation had been born. A nation conceived in liberty and founded on the conviction that our rights come not from a king, but from our Creator. That was a bold declaration, and God in His providence honored it. For two and a half centuries, the United States has been a beacon of freedom and a launching pad for the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And we thank the Lord for His blessings on this land. But no nation endures forever. Empires rise and empires fall. Israel's kings prove that even God's chosen people could not sustain righteous leadership apart from the Lord. And history teaches us that corruption, pride and the rejection of God's word will eventually bring nations to their knees. The founders who cried no king but King Jesus understood something that we must not forget. Our ultimate allegiance does not belong to any flag, any party, or any president. It belongs to the King of Kings. Isaiah prophesied that a child would be born and a son would be given and that the government would rest on his shoulders. His name is Wonderful Counselor Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace and of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. That King is coming soon. First he will come for his church in the Rapture. Then he will return to earth to reign from the throne of David on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. And on that day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So even as we celebrate this historic milestone with gratitude for what God has done, for the grace he has poured out on the land we love, let us fix our eyes on what he is about to do. So keep looking up. Our true King is coming. Godspeed.