Providential America

This episode will focus on the role that the clergy played in the earliest years of the American Revolution and how even their strongest critics acknowledged the Patriot pastors’ devotion to Christ over and above the British crown. We will see how many colonists’ commitment to Christ helped to fuel the early fires of the American Revolution. 

Research for this episode was aided by Thomas S. Kidd’s God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution (Basic Books, 2010), along with the primary sources discussed. 

In today's episode we take a closer look at one of Abraham Lincoln's most famous speeches: His Second Inaugural Address. We will explore how this speech was really more like a sermon preached by Lincoln, and how he pointed to Divine Providence as the great Author of the history of the Civil War. 

This episode takes a closer look at President Franklin Roosevelt's national call to prayer in the hours following the successful invasion of Normandy, France by Allied forces on June 6, 1944. 

In this episode we will be taking a look at what was perhaps the lowest point of the American Revolution for George Washington’s army at Valley Forge. We’ll explore the role that Christian faith played throughout this chapter of the revolution, and how Divine Providence was acknowledged and praised as a result.

In this special bonus episode, we commemorate America's 250th birthday by taking a look at the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Declaration of Independence. We also discuss the importance of the principles within the Declaration of Independence and how these things relate to the Hand of Divine Providence. 

One of the most influential but often-overlooked early Patriots at the start of the American Revolution was Pastor Jonas Clarke of Lexington. This episode takes a closer look at his story and explains his connection with the "shot heard 'round the world" on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775. 

In this episode we focus on a special request Patton made for prayer in the days leading up to the Battle of the Bulge. Few today think of Patton as a praying man, but history shows us that he absolutely believed in the power of prayer. This story highlights that fact. 

In this episode we take a look at the first education law to ever be passed in America, and we examine the tradition of the use of the Bible in early American education. 

In this episode we take a look at an often-overlooked request from Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention. 

In this episode we take a look at a story involving Divine Providence saving the life of a young George Washington, and we explore the lessons this story should teach us in our modern day.