David Barton’s Christian Revisionism

Jerald Finney
© August, 2009
*All articles on this blog may be accessed from the following link: http://churchandstatelaw.com/gpage8.html

Last Sunday, August 23, 2009, I began a radio broadcast series on the “History of the First Amendment.”  This series is loaded with facts that every Christian who desires to make a difference in turning America back to God must know. The facts presented are irrefutable, but most Christians don’t know them. I do not give all my sources on the broadcasts, but the sources are fully cited in God Betrayed: Separation of Church and State: The Biblical Principles and the American Application. You may hear the broadcast live over the internet by going to the “Radio Broadcast” page of churchandstatelaw.com at 8:00 a.m. Central Time on Sundays.  In addition, the broadcasts will be archived on the above website page, so that you can listen to them at any time. The series is also broadcast over a radio station in Florida. This historical series began with the third 15 minute segment of that August 23 broadcast. Those radio broadcasts are also being edited. One can go to the edited series by clicking the links on the “Blog” page of churchandstatelaw.com. Those edited segments are shorter and much more listener friendly than the radio broadcast version.

I present solid facts on these broadcasts. I encourage you to listen in and to spread the word. Please encourage other Christians to begin to listen to these broadcasts or to go to the “Radio Broadcast” page of churchandstatelaw.com to hear the archived broadcasts. Tell you friends about this broadcast! What I say next is in love. It needs to be said.

For many years I followed Christian revisionism. I was ignorant, but not willfully ignorant. If you have obtained your information from men such as the men I had followed and applauded for many years (the most influential of which was David Barton), you have been mislead. Please read further before you get mad, delete this message, and continue your futile work building a house of cards.

 

Hosea 4:6-11  “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.  As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.  And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.  For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD. Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.” See also, 2 Peter 1.3-10;  Romans 10.2 (“For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.”), 15.14; Ephesians 1.15-23; Colossians 1.9-10, 28-29; 1 Corinthians 1.5.

 

Years ago, I read The Myth of Separation by David Barton. I was enlightened in many ways because I had not done my own research on the subject he was addressing. However, even in the first reading, I noticed how sloppy his writing was. Later, I began to realize that he made many factual errors and that many times his citations did not go back to reliable sources. In spite of this, I was a faithful follower of and advocate for David Barton for many years because I did not have the time to do an independent study.

Secularists, who are the worst of revisionists, find Barton (and his followers) easy prey for criticism because Barton’s works (books, DVD’s, etc.) have many  inaccurate statements. Barton also relies heavily on half truths, often failing to tell the whole story behind selected historical incidents. Furthermore, he advocates a false biblical interpretation concerning the relationship of church and state. He believes in union of church and state. The correct biblical principle for Gentile nations is separation of chuch and state, but not separation of God and state, a concept which is alien to Barton. I fully explain these biblical concepts in God Betrayed. Because he is so charismatic, he has gained probably millions of Christian followers. He and others of like mind have done irreparable harm to the cause of Christ in America. The blind are leading the blind.  

Let me give you just one example of his fallacies (here pointed out by a secularist, but which has also been pointed out along with other mistakes and fallacies in Barton’s works in Christian literature I have read):

“On page 120 of David Barton’s book The Myth of Separation, David Barton quotes James Madison as saying:

‘We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments.’

“Barton gives the following footnote for the quotation:

“ Harold K. Lane, Liberty! Cry Liberty! (Boston: Lamb and Lamb Tractarian Society, 1939), pp. 32-33. See also Fedrick Nyneyer, First Principles in Morality and Economics: Neighborly Love and Ricardo’s Law of Association (South Holland” Libertarian Press, 1958), pp. 31.

“ The only problem with the above is, no such quote has ever been found among any of James Madison’s writings. None of the biographers of Madison, past or present have ever run across such a quote, and most if not all would love to know where this false quote originated. Apparently, David Barton did not check the work of the secondary sources he quotes….”

You can access the entire article from which the above information is quoted at: http://candst.tripod.com/misq1.htm. Again, this is just one of manifold examples.

God is very clear about what happens when one makes lies his refuge:

 Isaiah 28:14-18:  “Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.”

For His Glory,
Jerald Finney
churchandstatelaw.com
For a complete outline of all articles on this blog click the following link: http://www.churchandstatelaw.com/gpage8.html. On that page, you will find an audio series that covers all that one needs to understand concerning separation of church and state (the biblical principles and the American application).

How in the world do Christians ever expect to get America right (back under God), if they can’t even get their churches right (back under God)? If you are in a state church (a church which has submitted herself to civil government through incorporation, corporation sole, unincorporated association, etc. and 501(c)(3) tax exemption), you church is not totally under God, and she displeases the Lord. Of course, there are some non-state churches who displease the Lord as well in other ways, but every state church grieves our Lord. Churches who honor their relationship with their Husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, enough to remain separated from the civil government are more likely to honor Him in other ways as well.