February 24, 2017 Show with Kevin P. Swanson on “Freedom: The Exciting Story of the Development of Western Liberties over 2,000 Years”

Iron Sharpens Iron Opening and the Meaning of “Iron Sharpens Iron”

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors, Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another. Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions. Now here's our host, Chris Arnson.

Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania and Lake City, Florida and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth listening via live streaming. This is Chris Arnson, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Friday on this 24th day of February 2017.

Kevin Swanson and the History of Western Liberties

I'm delighted to have back on Iron Sharpens Iron for the first hour, Pastor Kevin Swanson. He is director of Generations, a ministry he founded to strengthen homeschool families around the country. He's host of the daily radio program Generations Radio, the world's largest homeschooling and biblical worldview program that reaches families across the U .S. and in over 100 countries.

He's also the executive director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado. He's the author of Apostate, Upgrade, 10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child, the family Bible study guide series and others.

He's also a teaching elder at Reformation Church, which is a congregation in the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination in Elizabeth, Colorado, and we are going to be addressing with him for the first hour his book Freedom, the exciting story of the development of Western liberties over 2 ,000 years, including the Battle for the Magna Carta, the Scottish War for Independence, the Dutch War for Independence, the Battle for Religious Liberties in the 17th century, and America's War for Independence and the Bill of Rights.

If you'd like to join us on the air with a question, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. Our second hour is going to feature my old friend Mike Gaydosh, the founder and director of Solid Ground Christian Books, and we are going to be addressing books that he has in print, both from the past and present.

Today we're going to be primarily focusing on his books that deal with preaching and the importance of preaching in the pastoral ministry. But first of all, for our first hour, I'd like to welcome you back to.

Iron Sharpens Iron, Kevin Swanson. Great to be back with you on air. Great, and I'd like to.

Welcome back in the studio my co-host, Reverend Buzz Taylor. It's good to be here as usual. And first of all, Pastor Swanson, this book that we are addressing today, Freedom, what was the.

Catalyst behind you writing this book? Well, I see freedom restored. So you think that those.

Conservative-leaning people, which would include many Christians who voted for Donald Trump, do you think that their relaxed atmosphere and having an abundance of confidence in his presidency, do you think that's really a lot of exaggerated hopes, perhaps?

At this point, Chris,.

It seems to me that there's not a lot of hope. He has maintained Christian companies will not...

Yes, well, I think that Christians should really be boldly speaking out because they may be naive to this. They may be thinking because of certain things that he has done, like in regard to the unisex bathrooms and the public school systems and so on, they may think that he is completely on our side, but that maybe have been just a bone that he threw.

And he does owe his presidency to the Christian vote. So Christians should be speaking out much more boldly and loudly and clearly. Well, this book that you have addressed, you wrote it with the catalyst, as you said, of the fact that we have been and still are and will continue to be likely losing our religious liberties one after another.

But you have harkened back to the past in this book to address some significant eras in history that dealt with people fighting for freedom. And you start with, in a list here, at least in your publicity, you start with the battle for the Magna Carta.

Explain.

Liberties in the Western world on the part of Christians, and I think as Christians, we need to know that heritage. We already have a listener in Suffolk County, Long Island,.

New York, Christopher, who says, what do you make of the argument of some Christians who would tell us that we are sojourners in a foreign land here on this planet and we should not be overly concerned with oppressive governments because this is not our home.

Our home is yet in the future. And they have even said that the Founding Fathers who waged war against the British in the War of Independence were in sin because they were seeking to overthrow the authorities that had been ordained over them.

Well, I think God calls us. We will never impress to be a discourager. Find liberty according to some. Many don't. But nevertheless, we need to encourage the judges of the earth in their day.

I find it interesting the way you're discussing this is many people today, especially having come through the government schools, haven't even learned our American heritage correctly. And even when I came through, I would have figured that the Bill of Rights, all that was due to the genius of our Founding Fathers.

And now you're saying, no, it goes back 800 years. Could you please explain that?

Well, you know, you don't get the Bill of Rights out of nothing. You trace it back, I think, to know that heritage.

What was the year of the Magna Carta?

What's that?

What was the year of the Magna Carta?

It was 1215, exactly. 800 years ago in 2015.

Okay. So what can we learn now heading into the Scottish War for Independence? What can we, in the 21st century, learn from that?

Well, I think what you see all the way through the 1300s, 1400s, 1500s, with these, rather binding himself with natural instincts, so much of the Inquisitions, and the same thing you see with the Spanish Empire, and then on to citizen history, like the Scottish in 1300 under Robert Abel to fight back with our nation.

So it was not, and that's why they went to war. A nation where about the tyranny, she was the nation national governments in the present day. And I think much, much higher rate, a degree Fahrenheit period of 90 to 100 years.

We have Ronald in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, who says, I heard you mention William Wallace. How accurate was the movie Braveheart, in your opinion, to that historical figure?

Braveheart, the movie was not accurate at all. Actually, it turns out that William Wallace was most of the bishop. Inevitably, the Pope would not as many times as he refers to John Knox,.

Yes, and it's such a tragedy that many people have slandered and maligned Calvin himself as being.

A tyrant. Yeah, it's funny that they do so, you know, and they do so in the Cervetus case. But, you know, he fought fairly hard against the city council. But Calvin's main concern, as well as Samuel Rutherford and Lex Rex, these guys were really the minds behind in the modern world.

After about you get into the 19th century, absolutely humanistic, and then you develop the apps to do as much as we can hand that off effectively to the princes, not willingly, but you have the absolute right of kings.

And then after the French, and now it's the Democrats.

Well, by the way, Christopher and Ronald in Suffolk County, Long Island, you have both won a free copy of the book we are discussing today, Freedom by Kevin Swanson. So please give us your full mailing addresses so you can get those shipped to you as soon as possible.

Tell us something about the Dutch War for Independence, not something you hear a lot about amongst.

American Christians. Well, I think every Christian in the world needs to hear something about the Dutch persecuted torch. One of the things I do in the book is just talk about these great heroes were men.

In the silent, he gave up everything. He gave up his four brothers. He gave up his died during the conflict, Netherlands, both religious liberty. I was even kind to the cold not to pursue a man of so just to be and if you're a Christian out there, you absolutely need to do the research or read my book on the history of the Dutch battle legacy left by William.

That's William, the s i l e n t, the silent. Yeah. How did he get that name? Do you know?

Well, it's a fantastic story. He was he was almost like an Esther or Joseph. He wound up in the king's court or a Moses. He wound up in the king's court as a young man. He was a great man of battle. But he had such a love boy began to see the Netherlands.

William heard it and said that William was silent. And he burned in his heart at that point that he would, if God so.

We have Susan and Newville, Pennsylvania, who says, Do you have any idea how it was that a country like the Netherlands so rich in the reformed faith, and so dedicated to the three forms of unity could possibly devolve into the atheistic agnostic and leftist country that it is today, where the church is only a molecule of a remnant there.

Maybe Netherlands may be.

The most apostate nation of apostasy. Apparently nobody told the mighty deeds of God. And now.

Here in the Ivy League schools in the United States, it seems and correct me if I'm wrong, that the Puritan heritage of these schools seem to crumble when Unitarian and universalism, uh, you know, Unitarianism and universalism crept into these institutions into the people that were on the faculty.

And that seemed to be the death knell for the schools. Is there something.

Similar that took place in Holland? I think that's the story. I'm adding a story everywhere. Sir, we talk about a post and autonomous knowledge based on human reason, sacred knowledge.

We have a question from Slovenia that I will ask you before we go to the break, and then you could answer it when we return from the break. Joe in Slovenia says, please ask Kevin Swanson to address the issue about why our forefathers, who were far more knowledgeable in the Bible, and were willing to initiate the Boston Tea Party over a mere three pence per pound tax on tea, while we are taxed as astronomical rates and sit by saying nothing.

Thank you for your work. And obviously, Joe in Slovenia is revealing that he is an American in Slovenia through his discussion of our forefathers. But we will get your answer on that when we return from the break.

If anybody else would like to join us on the air, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com. C-H-R-I-S-A-R-N-Z-E-N at gmail .com. And please give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

And by the way, Susan in Newville, Pennsylvania, you have won a free copy of the book Freedom by Kevin Swanson as well. So thank you for your question. We'll be right back, God willing, after these messages, so don't go away.

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That's nasbible .com. Welcome back, this is Chris Arnzen, if you just tuned us in. Our guest today for the first hour with a half hour to go is Kevin Swanson. We are discussing his book, Freedom. If you'd like to join us on the air, I would do so immediately because we only have less than a half hour left.

If you'd like to have your questions asked and answered, chrisarnzen at gmail .com, chrisarnzen at gmail .com. Before the break, I ask you a question by our listener in Slovenia, Joe, who wants to know why our forefathers, who were far more knowledgeable in the Bible and were willing to initiate the Boston Tea Party over a mere three pence per pound tax on tea, while we are taxed at astronomical rates and sit by and say.

Nothing. ...materialism and a security in the state that has pretty much enveloped the entire nation. It's hard to find people with the sort of, if you love wealth more than we do, ask not your counsel near your arms.

May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. There's a guy where freedom is running in the bloodstream. We don't see that much anymore, and I think it's because we live in a materialistic age where people just want that personal peace and affluence that Francis Schaeffer would talk about.

That becomes the highest value, and when that becomes the highest value, nobody's going to put, and it is important to that, but if you define freedom in the ultimate sense, it is ultimately freedom from sin.

Jesus said, if the son will set you free, you will be free indeed. So the free indeedness that Jesus gives us is a freedom from sin. So we got to remember that as Christians, primarily by the, eventually people start to begin to be more self-governed and they don't need tyrant by the gospel and by the preaching.

Either you'll be governed by God, or by God, you'll be governed. Either you'll be governed by God's laws and sort of sovereignty, you're going to wind up being, you know, the breakdown of morality, and yes, you're going to have a rise in tyranny.

So in a sense, why we take a different tact than libertarians. Libertarians don't define liberty as liberty from sin. We must, we must do that. Otherwise, the inevitable, they think that man can live, but that's just not possible.

Wouldn't you agree not to take the discussion.

Too far afield of what we are intending to discuss? Don't you think though that there are Christian and constitutionalist libertarians who are fully aware of the necessity for us to bow our allegiance to Christ and their libertarian aspect is exclusively in regard to their desire to see a.

Very small government? Yeah, that we got to define freedom. How do you define from. God's law. And interpreting law autonomously are going to wind up from generation to generation. By the way,.

Our friend in Slovenia, Joe, has one follow-up question. He says, are there connections between public education and the woeful lack of awareness regarding our loss of liberties today as compared to what our forefathers enjoyed at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century?

If so, why are they, how is public education affecting our knowledge in inalienable human.

Rights? Assumption of guys like John Jacques Rousseau and the state, and that's one reason why I'm so much then they will hopefully do just that kind of freedom into modern society is to hopefully get parents to desire the freedom to how they're going to educate their children and what they're going to feed them.

Thank you, Joe, for providing us with an American address.

To send your free copy of Freedom, and we will have that shipped out to your daughter in Georgia on your behalf in the near future, God willing. Thank you very much for the excellent questions. We have Pastor Sterling Vanderwerker of Shepherds Fellowship in Greensboro, North Carolina, who says, is your guest familiar with the Magdenberg Confession, that's M-A-G-D-E-N-B-E-R-G Confession, and its influence on federalism and the power of the local sheriff for the good and.

Safety of God's people? I believe I have some reference to it in my book. I talk about interposition a great deal because the idea of interposition was never a predicate of the United States. I encourage people, please don't count on the President of the United States.

It's never happened, as far as I know, in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. And Pastor.

Sterling also recommends to you a booklet by Pastor Matt Trujillo in Wisconsin that provides an English translation and a good exposition on how that confession establishes the biblical.

Model of the power of the local sheriff. Yeah, another great example of churches and reform.

Thank you, Sterling. You'll be getting a free copy of Freedom as well for submitting your question today. Thank you very much, Pastor, and God bless. And we have Aaron in Indianapolis, Indiana, who says, hi Chris, I've learned more history in these 20 minutes than my entire high school career.

She says, please ask Pastor Kevin whether he might be planning a possible workbook for homeschoolers to accompany his new resource on freedom. Oh, come on, that's got to be a softball.

I just finished it, and it's going to press in about two weeks. So I don't know if somebody is out there planted for me. So yeah, let's get it out there through generations. Great. Well,.

Thank you, Aaron in Indianapolis, Indiana, and thank you for being a plant for our guests. And you're getting a free copy of Freedom as well. So make sure we have your mailing address. Well, we come again, we've already touched on the American Revolution, but since we are close to the end of our discussion today with you, the American Revolution, one of the things that was hinted at by an earlier questioner was the concept that if we are to submit to the governing authorities that God has ordained over us, that the patriots were acting out of order and in sin in the mind of some to rebel against the British.

What is your opinion on that? Because that is something that I know Christians have divided over that very subject. And I know that probably there would be a lot of our brothers and sisters in the UK that might agree that we were incorrect in that, but just what do you think about that?

It's a great question. I think that what we need to ask first and foremost is, are we a nation primarily governed by tyrants to submit to the between the king and the colonies? And what we would argue is a lot of biblical men and women, including Esther, for the freedom of God's people, the teachings of the...

And then we go through Congress and others to God's laws during that war and the acknowledgment of government. He says, well, rise up. And so, you know, we hope that we'll... In the last... We have RJ in White Plains, New York, who says,.

You mentioned the death of Michael Servetus before at the hands of the Genevan authorities in the 16th century, where John Calvin was teaching. I have heard different stories in regard to John Calvin's opposition to the execution of Michael Servetus, the Unitarian.

One is that he merely pled for a more humane execution that did not involve burning to death. The other is that he actually tried to get the government to stop the execution altogether. To your knowledge, what is the truth behind this?

He intervened in order to lessen the punishment for Servetus. I don't think he was not submitting to... And he kept returning after being warned. He kept coming back over and over again. Yeah. And so the magistrates said, well, here's a guy that won't submit to a judge.

Nowadays, then about all they did, that particular... In those days, on that eventually affected our... So, you know, thankful. And that's when we find fault. Here with the matters, you see it with Cromwell, work out the...

And I would put Oliver Cromwell in that. Did Cromwell do everything? No, I don't think so. And he also was involved in the execution.

Of religious liberty going on at that time. Yeah, he was also involved in the execution.

Of Christopher Love, correct? The other Puritan. I think to me that was under Elizabeth, if I'm not mistaken. But I do know that Oliver Cromwell was probably one of the men who was working, pioneering, that met with him three, four...

The reestablishment, eventually religious liberty was returned to England. And the heroes that I think set good trajectories, not to say they're perfect, I would say men like Oliver Cromwell did so, as well as, say, them were fighting off the...

Closing Remarks and Sponsor Appeals

Well, we've got to go now, and I want to make sure that our.

Listeners have your websites, generations .org, that's generations .org, and also reformationchurch .com, reformationchurch .com. I want to thank you so much for being our guest today, again, on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Kevin, and we look forward to having you back very soon and very.

Often. Thank you, Chris, it's been a joy. I appreciate it. Keep up the good work, man.

All right, thank you, brother, and you keep up the good work as well. And we are going to be coming up very soon with our second guest, Michael Gaydosh, the founder of Solid Ground Christian Books. So don't go away, we're going to be right back after these messages from our sponsors.

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Welcome back. This is Chris Arns, and before we introduce our second guest for the day, I want to remind you that Iron Sharpens Iron is in urgent need of new advertisers, sponsors, and benefactors who are willing to donate in order to keep this program on the air.

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