Home » Zola TV » Video Archives » ZLM Video

Caption transcript for Faith of our Fathers: “What is Faith” (1/8)

• 00:03 male announcer:
• 00:09 Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots." The Word of God has given us examples of faith that have
• 00:12 shaped virtually every aspect of the believer's life today.
• 00:17 Where would we be without the examples of Noah, Abraham and
• 00:22 Isaac, David, and ultimately, that of Yeshua Jesus?
• 00:28 Faith is woven into the fabric of America as well.
• 00:32 From the pilgrims to John Adams to Patrick Henry and George
• 00:36 Washington, God's providential hand remained highly esteemed
• 00:41 and honored above all.
• 00:44 Faith unshakeable, faith unstoppable,
• 00:48 "Faith of Our Fathers."
• 00:53 David Hart: We are so glad you've joined us today.
• 00:54 I'm David Hart.
• 00:56 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 00:57 Dr. Jeffrey Seif: I am Jeffrey Seif, and we are
• 00:59 interested in looking at the faith of our fathers, correct?
• 01:03 Kirsten: Biblical and historical with our country.
• 01:07 Everyone's walked through a lot of trials, haven't they?
• 01:09 Both sets of fathers.
• 01:10 Dr. Seif: I think it's important to go back and look
• 01:12 at the origins, I think people are losing sight of that today.
• 01:15 David: That's right, we begin today with Dr. Seif's
• 01:17 teaching on faith of our biblical fathers.
• 01:20 Let's go there right now.
• 01:25 Dr. Seif: The Hebrews refer to it as "the Akedah."
• 01:29 It's a story in Bereshit, Genesis, chapter 22 that records
• 01:34 the story of the binding of Isaac, as you might recall, once
• 01:38 upon a time, Avraham, Abraham, tied him up and then was going
• 01:42 to plunge a dagger into his breast.
• 01:46 Faith, we're told it was a test of faith.
• 01:49 He passed it, and we're good to go.
• 01:51 Well, here we're looking at the story of faith, all right,
• 01:54 the faith of our fathers.
• 01:56 And it's a reasonably good time to alight upon the fact that
• 01:59 faith can prompt people to do things that are rather,
• 02:03 how can I put it, interesting.
• 02:07 On the front end, I want to look at what
• 02:09 faith is in the first place.
• 02:10 And if you'll permit me offering something of a corrective, some
• 02:14 people speak of the Jewish faith or the Catholic faith or the
• 02:18 Lutheran faith, or the Pentecostal faith,
• 02:20 the Islamic faith.
• 02:22 The problem I have with that is I differentiate
• 02:25 faith from theology.
• 02:27 Actually, theological constructs come from a Latin dictum,
• 02:32 "fides quaerens intellectum," which translates as "faith
• 02:36 in search of understanding," that is to say, someone has
• 02:40 something resonating within them, and then they go into
• 02:43 the biblical story to try and ascertain it and figure it out
• 02:46 and they come up with theology.
• 02:48 Today, when we think of faith, we think of
• 02:50 theological constructions.
• 02:52 So, when I look in the biblical text, faith, when I think of
• 02:54 Abraham, I think of someone that has a vision of a future.
• 02:58 It's not reduced or translated into dogma, into doctrine.
• 03:03 So, it is today when we think of faith, we think
• 03:06 of philosophical systems.
• 03:07 I think that's problematic personally, not that I have
• 03:10 anything against theology, per se.
• 03:12 But faith is something different.
• 03:15 Faith is something that lives more in the breast
• 03:17 than lives in the head.
• 03:18 It's not to say there's no residency there, but faith
• 03:22 sometimes prompts people to do things that don't
• 03:24 make sense in the head.
• 03:26 In fact, we look at it early in the game in the book Bereshit,
• 03:30 in Genesis, where it makes no sense at one level.
• 03:32 Avraham, Abraham, is such an older man and his wife
• 03:35 isn't much younger.
• 03:37 And he is concerned that he doesn't have a future because
• 03:42 he doesn't have a son.
• 03:44 But he goes out for a walk, goes out, takes a look at
• 03:46 the evening sky, and we're told that he looks
• 03:49 up at the stars in chapter 15.
• 03:53 He hears the voice before that in verse 5, that "your
• 03:57 descendants will be akin to the multitude."
• 04:02 He said, "So shall your seed be."
• 04:04 Subsequent to which, in verse 6 we're told that Avraham believed
• 04:08 God, and he reckoned it to him in effect as righteousness,
• 04:13 that is, faith prompts him to orient himself in a way
• 04:18 that doesn't make sense at one level.
• 04:20 There is this question about the future, but somehow God is gonna
• 04:25 bring the future about.
• 04:27 Faith is interesting, you know, you get past
• 04:29 the 15th chapter here into the 22nd
• 04:31 as I noted earlier, where then our hero Abraham
• 04:35 is beckoned to stick a knife in the breast
• 04:38 of this promised child who eventually came.
• 04:41 It's rather odd, isn't it?
• 04:44 In Hebrews chapter 11, the author therein gives voice to
• 04:47 the fact, in verse 17, that there's a testing
• 04:50 involved with faith.
• 04:53 Well, what is faith exactly?
• 04:56 In this series, we want to explore faith.
• 05:00 You've heard me to say at the outset that faith is in effect
• 05:02 an inclination, it prompts, sometimes it defies logic.
• 05:08 It's something other than that.
• 05:09 It's in effect an impulse that prompts people to do things, to
• 05:14 orient in a certain way.
• 05:16 Well, not only did faith prompt biblical characters to do things
• 05:21 that didn't make sense at one level, and the Bible is full of
• 05:25 them, whether it's Abraham to offer up the sacrifice of a son,
• 05:28 whether it's Noah to build a boat before there ever were
• 05:31 rainstorms that came upon the earth, whether it is hearing a
• 05:35 voice from a burning bush, and one solitary man, Moshe Rabbenu,
• 05:39 Moses, being told that he is going to go and bring about a
• 05:42 great deliverance, whether it's King David.
• 05:45 David had faith when you think he jumped into the fray and
• 05:48 there he was against Goliath, this gargantuan
• 05:52 sword, clad with armor.
• 05:54 He had nothing but a slingshot and a few stones.
• 05:58 He only used one of them, and he won the day, now, didn't he?
• 06:01 Faith prompts people to do things that other people are
• 06:04 smart enough not to do.
• 06:05 But, you know, it's people with faith that move the world.
• 06:09 Whether it's in the Bible story or our own American story,
• 06:13 individuals that would jump on these boats and come over
• 06:16 to a new world, that would traverse the seas long before
• 06:19 it became common to do so.
• 06:22 Can you think of the courage?
• 06:24 And when they got to these shores,
• 06:26 they just opened up and thanked God.
• 06:27 It was a religious experience just to get here.
• 06:31 We see that, I know I've taken pilgrims
• 06:33 to Israel, and feel free to come with us,
• 06:35 and they'll clap when they land.
• 06:38 They'll get down and kiss the ground when they get off the
• 06:40 plane when they have opportunity to do so.
• 06:42 I've seen it, I've felt it, I've done it.
• 06:45 You know, just so happy to be there.
• 06:47 Well, that's a few hours on a modern airplane.
• 06:48 If you can just think in antiquity, what a long journey.
• 06:52 What would propel people to do that?
• 06:54 And what was the end of their journey, at one level,
• 06:57 was just the beginning.
• 06:58 More and more came, and then they had to forge out
• 07:01 a world in the New World, and it took faith
• 07:03 to do just that, which is one of the
• 07:05 reasons why when you look at the literature of the founding
• 07:08 fathers, faith text, it's ubiquitous therein.
• 07:12 Prayer and praise, petitioning the divine, looking for heaven's
• 07:17 help for earth's dilemmas.
• 07:19 And God only knows they had plenty of them then as they were
• 07:22 pressing against the uncertainties that are entailed
• 07:26 in forging out a new world in a new part of the world, you know?
• 07:30 But we have these intrepid, bold explorers who did it.
• 07:34 Well, when I think of the faith of our fathers, I'm
• 07:36 reminded of those inclinations.
• 07:39 But particularly, I want to remind you of the fact that
• 07:42 their faith was informed by Judeo-Christian values and
• 07:46 virtues and formed specifically in biblical literature.
• 07:51 And we want to look at that story.
• 07:53 I've mentioned some already here at the outset, whether it's
• 07:56 David, whether it's Moses, whether it's Abraham, and
• 07:59 there's plenty of others as well, individuals who,
• 08:02 through faith, according to Hebrews 11, they overcame all
• 08:06 kinds of adversity.
• 08:08 Well, those who came to the New World had
• 08:11 that faith in their mind's eye.
• 08:13 And they went forth and did great exploits.
• 08:16 And I hope, as you look at this series, you not only learn a
• 08:19 little bit about the Bible and a little bit about America, but I
• 08:23 hope you find something in it that can help you as you're busy
• 08:27 pressing up against the uncertainties of your own
• 08:29 existence and wanting to see God move on your behalf,
• 08:34 as you and me and as we walk in the footsteps
• 08:38 of the faith of our fathers.
• 08:43 announcer: Our resources this week: the book "America's Godly
• 08:45 Heritage" by David Barton.
• 08:48 This book details what the founding fathers intended
• 08:50 for America and what can be done to return
• 08:53 to its original guiding philosophy.
• 08:55 Or Zola Levitt's booklet, "Israel, My Promised,"
• 08:59 an intensely personal and heartfelt look at Israel,
• 09:02 one of the most misunderstood lands in history.
• 09:06 Contact us by calling 1-800-WONDERS
• 09:08 or visit us at levitt.com.
• 09:13 announcer: Join us right now for additional content
• 09:15 that is only available on our social media sites,
• 09:18 Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
• 09:21 Visit our website levitt.com for the current and past programs,
• 09:25 the television schedule, tour information, and our free
• 09:28 monthly newsletter, which is full of insightful articles
• 09:31 and news commentary.
• 09:33 View it online, or we can ship it directly
• 09:35 to your mailbox every month.
• 09:37 Also on our website is the online store.
• 09:40 There you can order this week's resource, or you can always give
• 09:43 us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
• 09:47 Your donations to "Our Jewish Roots" help us to support these
• 09:50 organizations as they bless Israel.
• 09:53 Please remember we depend on tax-deductible donations
• 09:57 from viewers like you.
• 09:59 announcer: For many, a trip to the Holy Land is
• 10:02 the dream of a lifetime.
• 10:05 The Bible truly comes alive as you see the sights where
• 10:09 so many biblical events happened.
• 10:12 Come on a Zola Tour to see Israel and Petra.
• 10:17 See the land of the Bible for yourself.
• 10:22 Contact us to reserve your dream of a lifetime.
• 10:30 David: When you return home from a trip to Israel with us,
• 10:33 we like to say that your Bible and sermons literally are in
• 10:37 living color, they come to life, so we would
• 10:39 love for you to join us.
• 10:40 We go both in the fall and the spring.
• 10:42 You can find all the information on levitt.com.
• 10:44 Kirsten: And last time we were in Israel, remember,
• 10:47 we were out touring all day.
• 10:49 We came back to our hotel room, turned the TV on
• 10:52 kind of just for fun and to relax, there was this
• 10:55 program, "Our Jewish Roots."
• 10:56 All three of us, Jeff, in living color in Jerusalem
• 11:01 on the TV, isn't that exciting?
• 11:02 Dr. Seif: It is, and you never know where it goes,
• 11:05 but you know this, if you put a dollar and send it
• 11:07 our ways, you know where it goes.
• 11:09 It goes to telling the good news through the eyes
• 11:12 of the Jews all over the world.
• 11:16 When I think of the faith of our fathers, I'm reminded of the
• 11:18 fact so many people are losing sight of it.
• 11:21 It's less a political issue for me than it is a spiritual issue.
• 11:25 Let me thank you in advance for helping us tell the story.
• 11:31 You never know where it goes, but we know this:
• 11:34 it goes all over the world.
• 11:38 Kirsten: We love to tell the story of the faith of our
• 11:41 founding biblical fathers, but also the fathers that walked
• 11:44 before us to found the foundation of this country.
• 11:48 Unfortunately, many right now in our history in time right now
• 11:54 are trying to rewrite those foundations.
• 11:56 They're trying to rewrite our story.
• 11:59 Our program, "Our Jewish Roots," is known for our wonderful,
• 12:02 dramatic reenactments.
• 12:04 Let's step back in time now to Colonial America and consider
• 12:07 the faith of our founding fathers.
• 12:11 announcer: In the formative days of our nation, there
• 12:13 were some who thought it important to remain loyal
• 12:15 to the British king.
• 12:17 Others rejected the monarchy, favoring liberty.
• 12:21 Among them, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington,
• 12:25 Ben Franklin, patriots all.
• 12:29 They would boldly proclaim that the truths of liberty
• 12:32 were self-evident and endowed by their Creator.
• 12:37 Meanwhile, there were still others in Philadelphia, unknown
• 12:40 figures in history, who considered the godly direction
• 12:44 of the founding fathers vitally important.
• 12:47 ♪♪♪
• 12:54 Clergyman: So clear, and yet profound.
• 12:59 Unless this house is built on solid ground,
• 13:02 it will surely fail.
• 13:05 But will we recall these precepts?
• 13:10 We must.
• 13:13 ♪♪♪
• 13:17 Lord, please, please continue to guide my hand, that I might
• 13:22 clearly transcribe these extraordinary words of wisdom
• 13:26 and virtue, and guide my steps this day to those
• 13:30 who need to hear them.
• 13:36 [door opening and closing]
• 13:38 [footsteps]
• 13:46 Betsy Ross: Good day, sir. Thank you for coming.
• 13:49 Clergyman: Good day, Betsy. It's my pleasure.
• 13:52 It seems you've been given a godly task.
• 13:55 Betsy: Must be, sir.
• 13:56 I feel so unworthy.
• 13:58 I'm good with needle and thread, and I cut well with scissors,
• 14:01 but this is all so new to me.
• 14:04 Clergyman: I believe Mr. Payne has said it well.
• 14:07 These are the times that try men's souls.
• 14:10 It's new to all of us, giving birth to a new nation.
• 14:13 It's not just you.
• 14:16 We're all feeling dependent on God's providential hand as we
• 14:21 consider the blessings and the consequences that await us.
• 14:25 Betsy: When the congressional committee called upon me, I knew
• 14:28 this would be a noble effort.
• 14:30 I've gathered the cloth that I believe would be suitable.
• 14:34 The white will offset the red nicely, I believe.
• 14:36 It speaks so well of purity.
• 14:40 Clergyman: Is this your design?
• 14:42 Betsy: No, sir, it was actually given to me by the committee.
• 14:45 It is actually much like the Continental flag, but the 13
• 14:48 colonies will be represented by white stars
• 14:51 against a field of blue.
• 14:55 Clergyman: Betsy, I've assembled some quotations that I've
• 15:00 personally transcribed in my own hand, a collection
• 15:04 of thoughts and prayers from those who shared a
• 15:07 godly spirit in this undertaking.
• 15:10 Betsy: Thank you, sir.
• 15:13 Clergyman: Some of these noble men have passed away for
• 15:18 many years now, though their Christian legacy lives on.
• 15:24 Some are members of Christ's Church, as are you, though all
• 15:28 of them are men of great integrity whose faith, I
• 15:31 believe, must be woven into the fabric of our formative nation.
• 15:39 ♪♪♪
• 15:44 Dr. Seif: The founding fathers were prolific writers.
• 15:46 Many of the original documents still exist.
• 15:49 Historian and author David Barton has collected tens of
• 15:52 thousands of these writings in order to present America's
• 15:56 forgotten history and heroes with an emphasis on our moral,
• 16:00 religious, and constitutional heritage.
• 16:03 I had the opportunity to speak with David about the
• 16:06 faith of our fathers.
• 16:08 Dr. Seif: I have long been interested in the Jewish origins
• 16:12 of the Christian faith and have lamented that people have
• 16:15 forgotten about that.
• 16:16 But of course, that was 2,000 years ago.
• 16:18 You, David, have long been interested in the Christian
• 16:21 origins of America and have lamented that people
• 16:24 forgot about that, yes?
• 16:26 David Barton: And it's only been 200 years since the
• 16:28 American founding, per se.
• 16:29 It's actually been 400 years since the principles were
• 16:31 embedded, but even at that, going back 200 to 400 years,
• 16:35 that's like being a teenager in Israel,
• 16:37 you know, that that's a really young time for them.
• 16:39 And yet, there's so much in the American founding that points
• 16:42 back to, really, the Jewish heritage in history.
• 16:45 Our founding fathers extensively quoted Old Testament passages.
• 16:50 They even modeled the American Republic after the Hebrew
• 16:52 Republic, so there's a lot of camaraderie there.
• 16:55 Dr. Seif: So, you're a guy that's really dug
• 16:56 into principal sources.
• 16:58 You've been interested in that as an individual.
• 17:01 I'm interested in the first two centuries of the Christian era.
• 17:04 You're interested in 200 years back and digging
• 17:06 around that world.
• 17:08 But out of that inquiry of your own has developed
• 17:12 a ministry, WallBuilders, correct?
• 17:14 What's that all about?
• 17:15 David: WallBuilders is a name taken from the Bible book of
• 17:18 Nehemiah, and it talks about how the people rebuilt things that
• 17:21 have been torn down in their nation.
• 17:23 Old Testament history, if you didn't have a wall around your
• 17:26 city, if you were unwalled, you had no protection, you had no
• 17:29 strength, you had no significant name.
• 17:32 And so, we see in the book of Nehemiah that after walls have
• 17:35 been torn down by the Babylonians, 70 years later,
• 17:38 Nehemiah comes back and said, "Let's rebuild so that we'll no
• 17:40 longer be a reproach."
• 17:42 And in our case, we look at what we don't know about American
• 17:45 heritage, what we don't know about the American Constitution,
• 17:48 American faith, and we said, "That needs to be rebuilt."
• 17:51 So, our mantra is that we present America's forgotten
• 17:55 history and heroes with an emphasis on our moral,
• 17:58 religious, and constitutional heritage.
• 18:00 Dr. Seif: Hey, I'm all for that.
• 18:01 Nehemiah, Nehemiah in Hebrew, means "God comforts."
• 18:05 A lot of people have been discomforted by that--this
• 18:10 revisionist approach to history that wants to ferret
• 18:12 out biblical references and orientation.
• 18:16 David: What's more important than anything else is knowing
• 18:18 truth, and when you know truth, as in the Bible, you get the
• 18:21 good, the bad, and the ugly.
• 18:22 When we study David, there's the good part, there's the bad part.
• 18:25 He's not a very good father.
• 18:27 And there's the ugly part where he murders Uriah and
• 18:29 sleeps with Bathsheba.
• 18:30 And American history is the same.
• 18:32 As long as you have people, it's good, bad, ugly, but we actually
• 18:34 own primary source documents that show all of that.
• 18:38 We have about 120,000 documents from before 1812, which is back
• 18:42 in that American founding period.
• 18:44 And so from that, we're able to say, hey, here's what truth is.
• 18:47 Modern narratives today are often, often very misguided,
• 18:51 some are deliberate, some are just out of innocent
• 18:53 ignorance, they don't know better.
• 18:55 But that's where going back to the actual--said,
• 18:57 "No, here's what actually happened.
• 18:59 Here's the description. Here's the document.
• 19:00 Here's what they actually wrote."
• 19:02 Truth is the most important thing.
• 19:03 Dr. Seif: There we go, and truth in Hebrew, emet,
• 19:06 it's the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet,
• 19:08 the middle, and the last.
• 19:10 It's the sum of everything that's real and
• 19:11 true and authentic.
• 19:13 And to your point about primary source documents, it's an
• 19:17 academic term, to go back to the original sources.
• 19:20 How many do you have again that go back to that era?
• 19:22 David: More than 120,000 from before 1812.
• 19:25 Dr. Seif: So, it's not just conjecture, you dig into
• 19:27 those sources, you bring forth, and you've written books.
• 19:30 Take a moment--I know you brought some books that you
• 19:32 didn't write, but--and we'll get into all of that.
• 19:35 But tell me about what you've done so people that want to,
• 19:39 you know, get into what you've brought forth from
• 19:43 those documents can learn.
• 19:44 David: I kind of feel like I'm a vicarious American for
• 19:47 most Americans because I went through the same education
• 19:50 system most of us went through, had the same
• 19:52 knowledge, really the same lack of historical knowledge
• 19:55 about original documents.
• 19:56 And so, over the course of the years we've been
• 19:58 doing this, turned out more than about 40 books,
• 20:02 but they deal with different topics.
• 20:04 Right now with the culture we have, which is so much
• 20:06 canceling and destructive.
• 20:07 And we had just finished a book we started three years ago, but
• 20:11 it turned to be perfect for right now as we see so many
• 20:13 folks being rejected because we don't know who they are, but we
• 20:16 think there's something bad.
• 20:18 We've covered their narrative and their stories.
• 20:20 So, whether it be on what the courts do, whether it be on what
• 20:23 the church is supposed to do, or what pastors used to do and
• 20:26 should do today, or whether it's just on the truth about American
• 20:29 founding heroes, we have a lot of materials on that.
• 20:32 Dr. Seif: And the website's available, and it's up
• 20:35 on the screen.
• 20:37 And I'm just so thrilled to commend you to the world, not
• 20:40 that you need me to do it.
• 20:42 In fact, I heard a clip from Ted Cruz saying that you can say
• 20:46 more in 30 seconds than most people can say in 30 minutes.
• 20:49 He was singing your praises that your energies, your
• 20:54 inquiry into the primary sources, has gotten the
• 20:57 attention of people all over the country, yes?
• 20:59 David: Well, it's interesting that primary sources is what so
• 21:02 much policy was supposed to be built on.
• 21:05 When you go to--we've been involved in a number
• 21:07 of cases, the US Supreme Court.
• 21:09 When you go to the court, you're saying, here's what
• 21:10 the original tone of the Constitution is, here's
• 21:12 what you're supposed to uphold.
• 21:14 But if they don't know that or if they have bad history,
• 21:16 they'll reach bad conclusions, bad decisions.
• 21:19 So, good history leads to good policy.
• 21:22 And so, we're involved with legislators all over the nation,
• 21:25 both the state and federal governors as well, state and
• 21:27 boards of education, writing history and government
• 21:29 standards, et cetera.
• 21:30 So, original sources help establish truth and that's
• 21:34 what most honest people want is truth.
• 21:36 Agenda-driven, that's not their issue, but
• 21:38 for honest people it is.
• 21:39 Dr. Seif: You know, people want to tear down statues
• 21:41 today, I get that, but, you know, they're gonna have to
• 21:44 tear down buildings, because so many of our principal
• 21:46 buildings, in law and what have you, are just--
• 21:49 they have biblical motifs all over them.
• 21:51 They're gonna get rid of that if you don't like it?
• 21:52 David: They do, and that's one of the things most people
• 21:54 don't understand about America, even as there's so much that we
• 21:57 complain about today, is we are a unique nation.
• 22:01 Over the course of the world-- and today, there's more than 190
• 22:05 nations at the United Nations.
• 22:07 And you look at those nations, over the course of the last
• 22:10 several thousand years, the average length of a constitution
• 22:13 in the history of the world is 17 years.
• 22:15 That's what most nations average.
• 22:17 We're well over two centuries and going strong.
• 22:19 Most nations average a violent revolution every generation.
• 22:23 We had one in 1776.
• 22:25 So, we're very unique, we're very different.
• 22:27 And the question becomes, why?
• 22:29 And interestingly enough, even in the modern era, political
• 22:34 science professors at the University of Houston who
• 22:36 actually did this book, this report, they said,
• 22:39 "Where did these founders get the ideas?
• 22:41 Because there's millions of books out there, there's
• 22:44 hundreds of thousands of philosophers, which ones
• 22:47 did they use, because they came up with
• 22:48 something that other nations aren't experiencing."
• 22:51 And so, they collected 15,000 writings for the founding era.
• 22:55 They said, "We think if we can go through and look at those and
• 22:58 see who they quoted, we'll know who is important to them."
• 23:01 And so they did and they found 3,154 direct quotes
• 23:05 in those early writings.
• 23:07 And they tracked--it took them ten years, but they tracked
• 23:09 every one back to its original source.
• 23:11 And what they found was the single most cited individual in
• 23:15 the American founding was this guy.
• 23:18 He's a French philosopher, Baron Charles Montesquieu.
• 23:21 He did "The Spirit of the Laws" in 1750.
• 23:23 Founding fathers relied heavily on him.
• 23:26 The second most cited individual in the American founding was a
• 23:30 guy named William Blackstone, he has "Commentaries
• 23:33 on the Laws of England," and we used that.
• 23:36 Thomas Jefferson said we--that American attorneys read this
• 23:39 like Muslims read the Quran.
• 23:40 So, this was a big, big deal to them.
• 23:43 The third most significant source was John Locke,
• 23:45 his "Two Treatises of Government."
• 23:47 In less than 400 pages, he cites the Bible
• 23:49 references over 1,500 times.
• 23:50 But quoted 4 times more often than any of these
• 23:53 works, 12 times more often than this, was the Bible.
• 23:56 The Bible was the single most cited
• 23:58 source in the American founding.
• 24:00 Thirty-two percent of all quotes came out of the Bible.
• 24:03 That is the foundation for America.
• 24:06 Dr. Seif: Perfect, and speaking of the faith
• 24:07 of our fathers, there it is right there.
• 24:10 More to come. Thank you, David.
• 24:12 David: My pleasure.
• 24:16 David Hart: David Barton will be with us this whole series.
• 24:18 Pretty incredible, all of the artifacts that he
• 24:21 brings to this table through the series.
• 24:22 Dr. Seif: David, I was shocked, you know, I knew
• 24:24 he had a lot of stuff, I didn't know he had
• 24:25 all that and that he brought it.
• 24:27 It was like, "Wow" on steroids. I was impressed.
• 24:31 Kirsten: Well, you can't disprove the proof of a physical
• 24:34 document and that's what he's loaded with.
• 24:36 His whole ministry has proof after proof after proof.
• 24:39 You can't rewrite something that's right in front of you.
• 24:41 Dr. Seif: Yes, the long arm of the pen reaches beyond the
• 24:44 grave, and you get a window into what those founders were all
• 24:47 about when they were living and breathing by the testimony they
• 24:50 left in their own writings.
• 24:52 Kirsten: And we talk about that of the founding fathers,
• 24:55 that testament.
• 24:56 Every tour that we take to Israel, we go to Yad Vashem.
• 24:59 It's--I don't even want to say it's one of our favorite
• 25:01 places, but it's a heart place.
• 25:04 David: You have to go.
• 25:06 Kirsten: Right, we have to go there but it's--that's physical
• 25:08 proof that the Holocaust existed and people are trying
• 25:11 to rewrite that history also.
• 25:12 Dr. Seif: That's true, and Jews, we say "never forget"
• 25:14 and we should never forget and we are forgetting the
• 25:16 foundations of America, thus the value,
• 25:19 in my opinion, of a series like this.
• 25:21 Kirsten: Right, and the Jewish people--it's very interesting
• 25:25 and we'll learn more in this series,
• 25:26 you'll learn more in the series, how Hebrew, the Israelites, are
• 25:30 kind of tied into America a lot with the founding fathers.
• 25:33 Dr. Seif: And let's talk about a founding mother, by the
• 25:35 way, or a little bit afterward.
• 25:37 The word in Hebrew for mother is Ima.
• 25:41 There was a woman, Emma Lazarus.
• 25:43 I don't know if you recall that name or if
• 25:46 the expression "the great Colossus" means anything.
• 25:50 That's the Statue of Liberty.
• 25:52 And there was a poetess, Emma Lazarus, who wrote that plaque,
• 25:57 the statement, "Bring me your tired and your poor."
• 26:01 Emma was a Jewish woman who came to the New World to escape the
• 26:05 problems of the old one.
• 26:07 So many Jewish people came to this culture, to this new world,
• 26:12 and left an indelible mark on it.
• 26:14 Case in point, a mother, Ima, Emma Lazarus.
• 26:20 That torch is held high of freedom and it reminds people
• 26:24 coming to this new world.
• 26:26 And we're gonna be reminding you throughout this series of the
• 26:30 Jewish people that had a part in our early Christian heritage.
• 26:36 David: That's good, you just gave us a little Hebrew lesson.
• 26:38 I learned a new Hebrew word this program: "emet,"
• 26:44 which is truth, correct, did I say it right?
• 26:46 Dr. Seif: You said it perfectly, like a native, yes, yes.
• 26:50 Kirsten: We're gonna bring out a lot of truth in this whole
• 26:52 series, truth that people have forgotten, and it's sitting
• 26:56 right in our Constitution.
• 26:58 There's biblical truth.
• 26:59 There's biblical foundation in the lives
• 27:02 of our founding fathers.
• 27:04 Dr. Seif: I've said as a professor--now, here I'm
• 27:06 standing in a-- sitting at a TV set.
• 27:08 I stand behind a podium as a school teacher, seminary
• 27:11 professor, and I tell these students, you know, as a Bible
• 27:14 teacher, you don't need to create new things.
• 27:16 You need to teach what's old, what's been forgotten.
• 27:18 We open up the old book and tell stories in it afresh.
• 27:22 Kirsten: More coming on this series, it's a new series.
• 27:24 This is our first program in "Faith of Our Founding Fathers."
• 27:28 David: Right now we have a song by our founder
• 27:30 Zola Levitt, and also--
• 27:32 Dr. Seif: We have a word from the Scripture:
• 27:33 [speaking in Hebrew].
• 27:35 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:38 ♪ To me your gentle words of hope. ♪
• 27:47 ♪ Mercy and love without end ♪
• 27:53 ♪ help me hear heaven's voice. ♪
• 27:58 ♪ Feel the warmth and embrace. ♪
• 28:06 ♪ O God. ♪
• 28:10 ♪ My comfort and friend. ♪
• 28:16 ♪♪♪
• 28:21 ♪ My comfort and friend. ♪♪