Is there anything more foundational to the character-building essentials of reclaiming our God-given legacy of traditional Western and American values than Bible-based education?
Today’s generation can hardly imagine what it was like in the local schools across our nation in the past. Before the dawning of the “age of Aquarius” in the 1960s nobody would have imagined the subsequent plundering of public education by secular atheists. American society once considered it normal to focus on the development of the inner man and personal integrity. Morality in culture was highly esteemed. So was an intense pursuit of Scriptural wisdom. The school teachers and communities of Early American school houses deliberately prioritized those concepts. At their hearts, American communities believed that the education of their children was built on the premise that virtue is absolutely essential to freedom.
The ridiculous problems that every common-sense American sees corrupting our society’s institutions today realizes the source. Even if President Abe Lincoln didn’t really originate the idea, who can doubt the fact that “The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow?”
Well-known nationally syndicated columnist, Victor Davis Hanson, pointed out that elite American universities have become strongholds of progressive, godless fanatics shaping future journalists, educators, lawyers, and bureaucrats under the banner of the State’s official religion of secularism.(Hillsdale College’s 2025 Commencement Address on May 11th – noted by David Lane in the American Renewal Project newsletter, Who Will Rebuild the Ancient Ruins? 7/29/25)
It’s profoundly obvious that what has come to be known as modern progressivism continues to bully the thoughts of our generation, not because of broad public popularity. It’s because of institutional life-supports – things like federal funding, corporate sponsorships, and elite cultural gatekeepers, funded by extremely wealthy sources not only from America but foreign lands as well. Strip away those artificial supports, such as NPR, PBS, and commercially subsidized media platforms, and we may find a nation far less divided, and far less progressive than the cultural establishment claims.
Dr. Everett Piper wrote on how Higher education in the U.S. has lost its moral boundaries. He said:
“It may be a surprise to the elites in the media, but American higher education, from its inception in the 1600s until the end of the 19th century, operated within the context of a Christian ethos. The guiding philosophy was to propagate knowledge and to prepare upright leadership within a Christian society.” (in an article for the American Renewal Project – October 11, 2023)
He (Piper) described the formal educational institutions as the “ACADEMY”… saying:
“The academy’s mission at that time was to promote moral development and civic responsibility. Theoretically and ideally, higher education was considered critical in maintaining our country’s moral order.”
Did you get that? The mission of ‘higher education’ in previous generations was all about preserving MORAL ORDER in society. Imagine that! Higher education having anything to do with preserving moral order in society… Dr Piper continued, saying:
“Seven of the eight Ivy League institutions were founded in like manner. Dartmouth’s purpose was to ‘Christianize’ the American Indian tribes, and its motto, even to this day, is Vox clamantis in deserto: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness’. The University of Pennsylvania’s motto was Leges Sine Moribus Vanae: ‘Laws without morals are useless’.”
There’s no doubt that the lofty goals of America’s Founders included Christian community, Biblical teaching, and moral education. We all know where that came from. Proverbs 1:7 is worth repeating often in today’s ‘Christian communities.’
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Five centuries before Solomon wrote those words, what did Moses tell God’s people … you know… the younger generation who survived the Exodus out of Egypt plus 40 years of camping out in the desert, just before their 7-year mission to displace the irredeemably wicked Canaanites?
To quote Deuteronomy 6:2, Moses told the Israelites vital instructions needed for their very survival… “that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and (so) that your days may be prolonged.”
And do you remember the transgenerational assignment to parents that comes next, in Deut. 6:5-9?
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.”
We grew up memorizing certain important things “by heart,” right? That’s what it means to keep God’s words “in your heart.”
“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
As young parents we meditated on this passage a lot… and we thought of some pretty good ways to apply the next part…
“You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
The Amplified Bible puts it this way: “And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand (forearm), and they shall be used as bands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead.”
This is the Word of the Living God he’s talking about. His laws… His precepts… His principles… His wise insights… His directions for the everyday life… in whatever purposes for which you use your hands and your head. It’s not hard to see the implications of that, is it? And then, Moses writes…
“You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Even as a young adult believer, even before I was married, I discovered the refreshing strength of posting Scripture verses on the bathroom mirror and the walls of the house. Posting the promises of God is an especially encouraging practice when going through difficult times. I’ve found that it’s especially meaningful when I wrote the verse out on a paper by hand, or typed it out neatly. With today’s computer printers, we can make our ‘sign posts’ even a bit more visually engaging. But even in seeing the Ten Commandments – and reading them – it’s a great reminder of what will keep us from the sin-filled distractions of a dark and confusing world.
We humans don’t inherit spiritual wisdom. It’s not coded into our DNA. It must be acquired from people who value spiritual wisdom, right?
Do you think that’s why Proverbs 9:10 tells us that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom?” The first chapter of Proverbs declares in verse seven that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools (however) despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7
Proverbs chapter 8 is the one place in the Bible where a whole chapter is devoted to the personification of divine wisdom, while throughout the book of Proverbs we see frequent exhortations like Proverbs 4:5, where we’re encouraged to “Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding…” because she – wisdom – will guard you and watch over you and bring honor to you.
“Prize her,” urged Solomon to his sons in Proverbs 4:8, “and she will exalt you. Indeed, if you embrace her, she will honor you.”
Proverbs 8:15 declares that exalting spiritual wisdom, equips “kings to reign and rulers to decree justice.” Now think of this… along with its sister virtues of knowledge, prudence, and discretion, God’s wisdom in the ‘wisdom chapter’ is declared to be the divine source of things like power (v.14), justice (v.15 & 16), riches and honor (v.18), enduring wealth and righteousness (v.18), not to mention the benefits of perceptiveness, good judgment, counsel, and resourcefulness.
Unfortunately, in modern America, divine wisdom is ignored, warped and completely rejected by institutions that are being led by egotistical, arrogant and self-absorbed narcissists. Our entire educational enterprise has, in the light of Scripture, “cast off all sensible restraint.” Not only have moral boundaries been thrown to the wind, common sense, discussion of natural law, and even intellectual sanity have disappeared from what seems like the majority of America’s typical academic classrooms.
The idea that biological boys would be allowed to compete against girls at state track and swimming events was utterly unthinkable a decade or two ago. Now, the federal Washington DC education bureaucrats boast in their liberation to mandate such madness. They publicly demand preference for the sinister elements of cultural Marxism that include poisoning America’s youth with Critical (Race) Theory, hailing homosexual and gender dysphoria, fomenting race division, and even instilling into children, hatred for America and for each other.
If anyone takes a good look at the current condition of most public education in America, they’ll soon discover that the huge influence of the National Education Association (the NEA) is driven by an unbelievably malicious quest. They’re determined to implant unrestrained behaviors, typical of uncivilized pagan peoples, into our future by corrupting the nation’s youth. That decades-long process has been likened to the legendary strategy known as the “Trojan Horse” of ancient Greece. Now days, a “Trojan horse” has come to mean any trick or hoax that deceives a vulnerable unwary target into inviting a seemingly friendly enemy into a securely protected stronghold like your home or community. In computing, a trojan horse (or simply trojan) is a kind of malware that misleads users as to its true intent by disguising itself as a normal program.
It’s not hard for most morally centered adults to see the obvious result. The morally corrupted “spirit” of religious secularism took possession of the now idolatrous institution of “education” and brought with it “seven spirits more vile and wicked than itself” (just like Jesus talked about in Luke 11:26).
Now, when I speak of “secularism” I’m talking about the modern idea of leaving God, Religion, and the Bible completely out of the discussion. There’s no room for the boundaries set by Bible-based Christian morality and standards of ethics in an institution that is governed by a secular mindset and philosophy. Secularists in today’s society assume that they command the high ground. Secularism has, in fact, taken on its own brand of atheistic religion… a religion that is totally committed to the French enlightenment concept of humanism. And you know what that means… Rejecting the Creator in favor of the un-scientific fantasy of naturalistic evolutionism, humans are now taking the place of God in their social affairs. They see society as the realm of human domination rather than any sort of dominion that America’s founding Christian generation recognized as being under the domain of the All-Mighty Creator God of the Bible.
This raises a still deeper question: Where were American Christians when secularism took hold of the culture?
For most of 200 years, since the Declaration of Independence was signed, America’s predominantly Christian population was never labeled as some kind of hodge-podge of private religious beliefs. Their moral sensitivities were distinctively patterned by biblical Christianity. Those Bible-based principles provided the operating system that assured peaceful order for our entire civilization. Can you imagine that our whole society was once deeply-rooted in biblical literacy as well as moral law? That’s what shaped not only our civil laws and institutions, but even our everyday sense of identity in public life. The Founders never envisioned a theocracy. But they did assume a moral consensus, grounded in nothing less than the absolute authority of Holy Scripture. Their unashamedly Biblical worldview gave form to all thirteen colonial charters, and the early common law. It was all undergirded by the biblical command presented in 2 Timothy 2:15: “Study to show thyself approved unto God.”
Yet, as Christian people, and especially pulpits, became less and less involved in the public square in the later 20th century, the State’s secular ideology rushed in to fill the vacuum. Christless idealogues claimed authority over education, welfare, and moral formation. Evangelicals, in particular, emphasized personal salvation while neglecting their commission to disciple the nation to God’s way of living.
In his 2014 work Ekklesia: The Government of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, Pastor Joe Nicola notes: “Any casual observer of Christianity will immediately recognize the disparity between what Jesus said He would build and the modern church. We moved from apostolic leadership to pastoral leadership. We went from developing an army of leaders to merely feeding flocks of sheep.”
Nicola challenges the modern metrics of success for churches – things like attendance, assets, and influence. He asks a simple but convicting question for local churches: “Is my city or region looking more like the Kingdom of Heaven or the domain of darkness?”
Think about that in respect to the churches in your community.
Do we truthfully believe that the Kingdom of God is restricted only to the personal hearts of individuals or the sanctuaries of ourchurch buildings? Doesn’t God’s kingdom extend to every sphere of our lives? Think of how Christians behave in regard to their family, their education, and their personal economics? Are they even thinking about the kingdom of God when they think about things like that? How do Christians in your community regard their relationship with their local government, their neighborhoods, and their workplace? Do we ourselves meaningfully think about and talk about how we can bring the kingdom of God into those spheres of our lives? How do we think about our own view of things like the arts, the media, and the law? Do we just let whatever happens influence us in those areas without even thinking about it?
This is not some kind of modern theological argument. We’re talking about the main theme that Jesus wove into all of His teachings that we read in our Bibles – The Kingdom of God. It was our whole Western Society’s inheritance from the Reformation – a biblical principle of Jesus’ “great commission.” It was the mission of the Pilgrims and Puritans … covenantal faithfulness and total divine sovereignty. When they came to this New World, their goal was not religious retreat was it? It was to bring Christ’s lordship into every sphere of life, especially in the realms of society-wide law and government.
That foundation however, the foundation of Western Bible-based culture, has largely been abandoned by the modern Church. The dominant theological belief system in evangelical churches today is dispensationalism. Most people have little, if any, clue what that even is. It was introduced before the Civil War by John Nelson Darby [1800-1882], a former Anglican priest and leader in a sect of the English church called the Plymouth Brethren movement.
Darby’s distinctive theological system divided redemptive history into what he called “dispensations.” He drew a sharp distinction between ethnic Israel and the Church, completely ignoring the New Covenant teaching of the Apostle Paul in the books of Romans and Galatians, as well as the book of Hebrews. Darby embraced a young girl’s visionary dream to introduce a brand-new doctrine. It’s what people call a “pre-tribulation rapture.” And now it’s become a primary belief of popular evangelical eschatology – replacing 1800 years of historic orthodoxy about “end times” ideas. At its core, his theology created an abdicating hope for escapism from future earthly judgment. It made a clear separation between their idea of the “Church Age” and any sense of responsibility for the condition of their society or their culture.
The result was a Church that retreated from engagement with the surrounding culture at large. And increasingly, as this new philosophy flourished in America, it tended to go along with increasing sectarianism and multiplied ‘splinter-groups’ of Christian denominations. You may have heard the phrase, “You don’t polish brass on a sinking ship.” Well, sadly, that pretty well captures Darby’s worldview. The world is doomed, so why bother reforming it? His eschatology emphasized Christ secretly rescuing the church instead of returning for a spotless overcoming bride, engaged in His commission of restoration. He favored withdrawal from society over engagement with it, and rapture over reformation. It trained generations of Christians to focus narrowly on “conversions” while surrendering the public square to secular forces… completely ignoring Christ’s commission to disciple the nation.
Do you suppose this might have anything to do with the fact of the pathetically declining success of America’s public schools? Our nation’s grade schools and high schools have been allowed by local communities to be dominated by teachers’ unions. And those unions completely depend on a society, willing to bow in conformity to secular federal standards. That means standards that forbid biblical values in their policies and curriculum. Worse yet, do you think there’s any connection between the widespread public apathy about traditional values and the fact that 90% of America’s families continue to choose sending their children to public schools, rather than working to find better private alternatives that are at least morally strong if not guided by biblical virtues?
In stark contrast, early America’s Puritan and Reformed vision proclaimed Christ as Lord of all, calling believers to build, disciple, and govern according to God’s Word. Darby’s dispensationalism produced a passive Church, waiting to escape rather than laboring to transform the world.
Despite the rise of wicked darkness and deception, the last 20 centuries of expanding growth of Christ’s Ekklesia gives us Biblical ground for the hope of seeing another Great Awakening like what happened in the middle of the 1700s, leading up to the unquestionably Christian-minded generation of America’s Founders. With that expectation it’s understandable that a new Reformation should be on the horizon – one that recovers an all-inclusive, Kingdom-centered theology and reclaims every square inch of God’s creation for Christ.
Can we believe, along with millions of hope-filled young people, that a new generation of believers, and churches, and institutions is rising to “rebuild the ancient ruins” of our society as described in Isaiah 58:12? Can we agree with God’s Word for our unique place in the history of God’s world praying not only for the salvation of millions of lost souls, but also for a fresh vision of the reformation of our culture, rooted in godly obedience to His New Covenant in Jesus, our Messiah?
In 1973, the Lord Jesus led me into a profound time of personal transformation. It put me on a path to a life of seeing God’s Spirit guiding my steps as I dug deep into His Word. The most memorable Scripture passage that I discovered early in that year was Isaiah 58. It culminates in a remarkably hopeful promise… listen to it…
“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” [Isaiah 58:12]
This is a promise to a repentant and covenant-keeping people. It’s not merely for the rebuilding of cities. It’s clearly aimed at the restoration of moral, spiritual, and institutional foundations. In our day, it means the reconstruction of Christian civilization. And how does that start?
Listen to God’s word leading up to this promise in Isaiah 58… beginning at verse 6…
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? He’s telling us we have a commission to bring the delivering power of Christ’s kingdom to those who are burdened and oppressed by wickedness. 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh? He’s challenging us to reach out to hurting people and show them the generosity and deliverance of Christ’s enduring loving kindness. And what happens when we do that? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, And get this… It really grabbed my core reason for living when I discovered this truth. 10 If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
The light bulb just flipped ON. It’s the “Golden Rule” on overdrive! Give yourself to the needs of others… it’s not about you… and when you do… amazingly… your gloomy problems start changing into a whole new reality… like the brightness of noonday. And what happens next?
11 The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. 12 Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
Bonus Segment
Now, if you’re willing to receive it… here the last two verses of Isaiah 58…
13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, 14 Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Does that sound strangely like the principles of what we’ve been looking into… here on Reclaiming Your Legacy?
American people, as a society, are daily at a crossroads of deciding their future. And it starts with each of us. Will we strive to apply God’s wisdom along with knowledge, discernment, and compassion… to every policy-making decision? That’s what will be required if we honestly expect to sustain freedom for our children and grandchildren. The opposition will always continue its intensity. Only those who learn from the failure of American Christians over the last 100 years can prevail. They may have shirked their responsibility and ignored Christ’s assignment found in Matthew 18:19-20, but we have the invitation before us to take action ourselves…now
“Make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” And what did Jesus command his disciples? Just start reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6 and you’ll have a good start.
G. Edward Griffin interviews Norman Dodd on the Reece Committee investigation https://www.brighteon.com/b9c81e93-1456-47f7-b600-e525afbceec5
G. Edward Griffin interviews Norman Dodd, who was the congressional Director of Research for the Reece Committee, 1953-1954. In 1953, Congress tasked Rep. Carroll Reece with establishing and directing a congressional investigative committee to investigate the activities of the major Wall Street tax-exempt foundations – Carnegie, Ford and Rockefeller – on the ground of suspicions of subversion.
The Reece Committee was thus created. The Committee’s investigation involved numerous interviews and the thorough study of these foundations’ private records, on site. It determined the foundations’ activities to be unamerican and subversive, and to consist of the use of propaganda, influence and grant making power to control the channels of social influence (media, advertising, etc.) and, thus, public opinion, but also to control education, and to infiltrate institutions and co-opt relationships of power.
A key aspect in the discovery of all of this was the debasement of education and its transformation into a vehicle of indoctrination. Also essential was the use of social influence and institutional power to advance socialist legislation and globalist policies. Not surprisingly, the investigation revealed the incremental degrading of the authority of Congress as the truly representative body of government, while simultaneously empowering the executive branch towards dangerously despotic standards. After all, it’s easier to run the government when most power is concentrated in the executive, and you covertly run the executive, and the president, from behind the scenes.
The declared aim was to create a silent, non-bloody revolution in the United States.
The purpose was also, ostensibly, to degrade and debase the population to make them more manageable and controllable. If you’re debased and dissolute you won’t care about the takeover of society, won’t stand for principle, and won’t join with others to fix stuff. You will, in fact, help take down the fabric of society by means of inept, degraded interpersonal behavior. Also, if the focus of your concerns is whether you feel good, special and cool, have nice things for yourself, etc., then you’re easily controlled by those who have the power to either give you candy, or to chastise and punish you. You’re fit for social control, and that’s what these foundation characters knew.
Yet, there was more. As Rowan Gaither, the director of the Ford Foundation, explained to Norman Dodd: «All of us here have at one time or another served in the OSS [the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA], or the European Economic Administration, operating under directives from the White House. We [still] operate under those same directives. The substance of the directives under which we operate is that we should use our grant making power to so alter life in the United States that we can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union».
The “merger of the United States with the Soviet Union” Gaither alludes to occurs at two levels. First, it refers to merging capitalist democracy with the paradigm of the socialist controlled society to create a form of technocratic, corporate fascism – what we’ve gradually been going into for the last decades, pace now speeding big time. But it also refers to what has since become known as “convergence”: to literally converge the U.S. and the Soviet Union (along with the rest of the world) into a standardized system of world governance, one that will eventually be run by a socialist world government (on behalf of a high oligarchic elite).
Read the Reece Committee Report. Go to http://www.americandeception.com/inde…, type in “reece committee” in the search box, and you’ll get the links for the Report pdf files (each pdf contains a section of the Report).
In addition to this interview, you should also read Professor Carroll Quigley’s writings, “Tragedy and Hope” and “The Anglo-American Establishment”. Professor Quigley, being somewhat of an in-house historian for the old Anglo-American aristocratic and mercantile dynasties that run the U.S. (what may loosely be termed the Establishment), describes their agenda for the world, whom he personally advocated. He also describes their vast institutional and organizational networks, extending from finance banking to commercial banking, and then to industry, to politics and to civil society – and including the big Wall Street foundations. He lets you know how these networks are organized to fulfill the general oligarchical policies and agendas that emanate from Establishment circles. Everything Norman Dodd mentions in this interview is validated in Professor Quigley’s books.
You should also read Charlotte Iserbyt’s work on the foundations’ role on the debasement of education. Charlotte was Senior Policy Advisor for the Department of Education under Reagan and is an accomplished author on the use of education and the social sciences to subvert and degrade populations. Her essential bestseller is “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America”.