Week 10 Countdown - How much more than 250 years?

Friends,

Remember that I have a series of articles called "Countdown" that are intended to rejuvenate our sense of American exceptionalism.  The first article is on the web here:

Week 1 - A New Birth of Freedom
Friday, September 12, 2025
https://texasascendant.blogspot.com/2025/09/week-1-new-birth-of-freedom.html

This week we examine our roots.  How did our civilization develop to give us our Constitution?.  Why does our nation have more freedoms than many Western nations?  How much longer can we survive after we make it to the 250 year anniversary of the 4th of July, 1776?  There is a documentary series by Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?, that is very insightful.

I recommend you watch 3 episodes of the 10 episode series.  You can buy the entire series.  I purchased all 10 episodes on Amazon Prime and have watched all ten.  For your next assignment I recommend you watch three specific episodes.   On Amazon Prime you can purchase individual episodes for $2 each.  You can also purchase a DVD of the entire series.  I purchased the entire series and watched all 10 episodes.  The three episodes I recommend I have watch twice and taken notes.

Here is the Amazon Prime link:  https://www.amazon.com/How-Should-We-Then-Live/dp/B002JIIFYY/

I recommend you watch 3 episodes out of the 10 available and take some notes as you watch them.  The episodes are 30 minutes each.  The reason I am recommending them is so you can appreciate our culture, our English heritage of freedom.  The English used to have the most freedom of the European countries.  The 3 episodes I recommend explain why our American Revolution was so much more successful than the French Revolution.

I recommend you first watch Episode 5, The Revolutionary Age.  Here Dr. Schaeffer points out that in England in 1644 Samuel Rutherford wrote "Lex, Rex, the Law and the Prince."  Rutherford said that the Bible is the basis of the law.  The Protestant Reformation from 1517 was 259 years before our 4th of July.  "Lex,Rex" was written 32 years before our American Revolution.

From Episode 5, The Revolutionary Age, we learn that the Protestant Revolution led to the English Bloodless Revolution of 1688, also known as the Glorious Revolution.   The French Revolution pushed Christianity out.  The French Revolution was based on the atheistic Enlightenment, while the Bloodless Revolution of 1688 and the American Revolution of 1776 are based on the Protestant Reformation.  By being based on God's laws, the American Revolution was far more successful than the French Revolution.

This means we must cling to Christianity to maintain our government.

From Episode 5 we learn that the Bible gave us a foundation for our laws.  We  learn that Christianity gave us freedom without chaos.  Humanism, which drove the French Revolution, had no absolute values, which led to arbitrary power.

Next I recommend watching Episode 6, The Scientific Age.  The Christian basis of Science was that God created an orderly universe so scientists could discover the order created by God.  Then scientists began to lose faith in God.  Without Christianity elites tend towards an authoritarian state.  Today we do not have in America a despotic authoritarian state like Hitler or Stalin  had.  We have a manipulative authoritarian state.  We are controlled by manipulation and propaganda.  People are conditioned to accept being treated like a machine.  We are trained to accept manipulation.  These are insights from Episode 6.

This means that as free citizens we must be aware of manipulation and avoid being manipulated.

Finally, watch Episode 10, Final Choices.  We learn that without Christianity a single individual or group will step forward as an elite to give arbitrary absolutes to our society.  The wave of LGBQ nonsense that swept the nation under President Biden is an example of this.  Daniel Bell in "The Coming of the Post Industrial Society" said that government must be ruled by the Elites because society is too complex for regular people.  The elites will rule us by manipulation

Dr. Schaeffer warned us in this series, in 1977, that Genetic Engineering would get out of hand.  Today, wealthy people can have embryos tested by DNA for traits and they can select which embryos will live based on projected IQ levels. This is actually happening right now.

Dr. Schaeffer emphasizes that freedom without Christianity leads to chaos.

These three videos show us the influences that led to our successful form of government, and he warns us how our society can go astray.

For our nation to live free past our 250 year anniversary, it helps to know how we got here and what pressures and influences can damage our prospects for a long and prosperous future.

One thing Dr. Schaeffer says over and over is that God cares about us, that God has spoken to us, and that God listens to us.

I hope these 3 episodes help you see why the American Revolution was successful while the French Revolution was a violent blood bath.

For us to go forward successfully we must understand how we got here and what has made us successful.  I hope these episodes will help you see why America is an exceptional country.  

Robert Canright