A Bold Defense of Our Liberty

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Dan mentioned something, and I want you all to hear about, and I want Dan to explain it to us. He mentioned the

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Black Robe Regiment, and that's something that we know about and we want you to know about, and you ought to know about it because it's how you got the place that you're staying today.

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And the rights that are hanging on by a thread now, those good rights in America, those biblically -based rights were given to us by these very courageous men who wore these black robes.

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So Brother Dan, can you tell us about the Black Robe Regiment? Oh, I'd be happy to. You know, there were pastors, really from much earlier than when the black robe shows up in the mid -1700s, even before that, who understood the proper order of sovereignty.

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And they understood that God is sovereign over men and over governments and over everything else, and that our rights ultimately come from God.

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And so they're inherent in the people, and then the people can choose to form governments to help protect those rights.

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Today, we kind of have it upside down, and we see, or many people believe, that the government grants us certain rights and certain liberties.

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But our founders saw it the exact opposite way. And then the framers come along in the mid -1700s, and they began to codify this.

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And so you have these pastors who understand that rights come from God, and that anything short of honoring

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God will lead to disaster, culturally, socially, you name it. So these guys were preaching these principles, not necessarily being political, because they didn't see things as secular and sacred.

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They saw everything to the Christian as sacred. Right. I mean, everything comes from God. He's the source of all good things.

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And they believe that government was God's idea, that our rights come from Him. So they're preaching these things from their pulpits, while Great Britain is kind of tightening its stranglehold around the throats of the colonies.

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And they keep petitioning the king and parliament, and as you know, history shows us that they just kept turning up the heat instead, until finally, of course, the colonies believed that they only had one recourse, and that was declare their independence to protect their rights and liberties.

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And for many of them, it was the gospel. And so these preachers were preaching things that today would be considered completely radical and, quote, you know, violating the principle of separation of church and state, even though they would laugh at something like that today and scratch their heads and say, what in the world is that?

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But of course, we've been fed the myth and the lie and the line of bull, and so we all believe it's written somewhere in scripture or somewhere in the founding documents, and it isn't.

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So these guys freely mix these things because they believe that good government was from God and all these principles, you name it, whether,

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Jeff, like you were talking about the right to defend oneself or the right to property or the right to free expression, they would preach about these things even before the

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Declaration of Independence had been pinned. But once, of course, that happens in 1776, you know, pretty much the line is drawn.

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They mostly believe that they were all signing their death warrants when Ben Franklin says that we either hang together or we'll hang separately.

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We laugh at that today. We think it's kind of a joke. He wasn't joking. They literally thought that they were going to be hunted down by the

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British and executed, if not imprisoned. And so these preachers began to become very engaged and very active, and so they started leading the men of their congregations and their communities off to fight at particular battles, and some of these men became part of the regular army.

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Guys like Peter Muhlenberg became part of General Washington's staff and was promoted all the way up to major general.

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All of these guys were putting, as the old saying goes, their money where their mouths were because they knew if they didn't defend liberty, the gospel would be driven underground.

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They knew that. And so in my book that I've written where I talk about these guys, I have quotes from some of their letters back home, and these pastors are telling their families that if this effort fails, no doubt we're going to be executed.

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I mean, they knew what was at cost here. They knew, or excuse me, what was at stake, and they were willing to pay the cost.

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So the British, knowing what was going on, that the preachers were the ones fanning the flames, I mean, for instance, to give you an example of how they were fanning the flames,

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John Witherspoon, who was the famous Presbyterian, but he was also the president of Princeton, but he was a part of the delegation that wrote the

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Declaration of Independence. Everybody's getting weak -kneed about actually voting to declare their independence, and he gets up and gives this impassioned speech, and the delegates all there say, okay, you're right, man.

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And so they vote to declare their independence, and then, you know, consequently they signed the Declaration of Independence.

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So these guys were really leading out, and the British so hated them that they called them the

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Black Regiment. Now today I call them the Black Robed Regiment, so people will understand that we're not talking about some kind of racist deal.

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We're talking about guys that wore black robes, because all of the denominations, it didn't matter whether you were Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, all the preachers wore black robes in those days.

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So the British called them the Black Regiment, referring to the black robes, and they considered them really kind of public enemy number one.

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And so, you know, I go around doing this presentation, kind of like a one -man Broadway production and costume, and I become some of these characters, and I bring this history to light.

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And I think, Jeff, it was you who was saying that had it not been for these guys, I'm convinced there would probably not been a war of independence, and we wouldn't know the liberties that we know today.

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I mean, it's just that simple. Absolutely. I've even heard, Dan, I've heard that in England they were referring to, at some point they were referring to the war as the

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Presbyterian Revolt. Oh yeah, the Presbyterian Rebellion. In fact, King George called it that.

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That's right. That's right. Isn't that amazing now, friends? Think about it now. How did this country begin?

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It wasn't in any way a Christian nation, right? No, the Christian world was in the atmosphere. It was just understood. You had, well,

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I think it was like nine out of 13 of the colonies had state churches, and you know, that did cause some problems here and there. But the point is, and we're not saying there was a utopia or perfection, but it was the

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Christian worldview that developed all of these rights and these points of contact with justice in the world and righteousness.

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It was the Christian church specifically that fought for these rights. Well, it was. Yeah, and that's very different,

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Dan, than we have today. I mean, oftentimes, you've experienced this. Oftentimes as a pastor, when you approach these issues as a pastor today, you have resistance from other pastors who are saying, no, no, no, we just need to preach the gospel and get people to heaven one day.

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You don't need to be concerned with all this little stuff down here. Yeah, and isn't that convenient for them now that our liberties have been won by generations that preceded us, that paid the price in, you know, tears, sweat, and blood in their lives?

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Right. So it's really convenient in this modern era. Well, you know, we're just going to focus on the gospel. And of course, what they do, and I would imagine you guys agree with this, the gospel to them is just limited to a person being born again and then dying and going to heaven.

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But the gospel has to do with sanctifying us while we're here and making us a reflection of heaven on earth.

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Yes. And they're not teaching that to people. And so the folks are really,

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I mean, it's not an excuse, but they're uninformed. They do not know this history. In fact, you were talking about calling it the

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Presbyterian Rebellion. The son of the British Prime Minister, Horace Walpole, told

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Parliament that America had eloped with a Presbyterian parson. I mean, that's how strongly they believe this.

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And the deal is when the recruiters for the Continental Army would come into a town or a village in the colonies, rather than try to recruit soldiers, they'd go get a black robe preacher because he was far more effective at recruiting soldiers than the army recruiters were.

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I love it. So, yeah, we just, we've lost this history. And it was the pulpit. And of course,

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Alec de Tocqueville later on, when he comes to try to figure out the genius of America, he says,

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I couldn't understand it. I couldn't figure it out until I saw the pulpits of flame with the fire of righteousness.