#108 - Tim Barton

The founding of the United States was not a secular project, but a profoundly Christian one, argues Tim Barton of Wall Builders in a powerful conversation with Eric Metaxas. Contrary to the modern narrative that portrays the Founding Fathers as deists or secular Enlightenment figures, Barton reveals a mountain of evidence—from original documents to personal journals—that the founders consistently invoked God, morality, and Scripture as the foundation of American liberty. The episode dismantles myths like Jefferson's 'separation of church and state' being a constitutional mandate, exposing it as a private letter misused to justify religious exclusion. Instead, Barton shows that the founders saw liberty as divinely granted, with George Washington requiring chaplains and banning profanity in the army, and John Adams defending British soldiers after the Boston Massacre on principle of justice. The real story, buried for decades, is that the American Revolution was fueled by a religious awakening—the Great Awakening—and led by men like Samuel and John Adams who saw their cause as a moral and spiritual crusade. This isn't just history; it's a call to reclaim the truth before it's lost to revisionism.