RTTBROS

The Cost of the Signature

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The Cost of the Signature

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost?"

— Luke 14:28

THE STORY

They knew what they were signing.

The fifty-six men who placed their names on the Declaration of Independence were not acting on impulse. They were committing, in the plainest terms imaginable, an act of treason against the British Cr...

"The Author of the First Amendment,"

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The Author of the First Amendment

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."

— 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Story

Almost nobody remembers who actually wrote the First Amendment.

James Madison propo...

The Chief Justice’s Open Bible

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The Chief Justice’s Open Bible

“"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

— Psalm 119:105

THE STORY

John Jay is one of the most important and most forgotten men of the founding era.

He co-authored the Federalist Papers alongside Hamilton and Madison. He served as the first Chief Justice of the United States ...

The Preacher Behind the Constitution

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The Preacher Behind the Constitution

“"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

— Jeremiah 17:9

THE STORY

James Madison arrived at the Constitutional Convention with a plan.

He had spent the winter of 1786 to 1787 reading every book he could find on the history of governments. He studied the...

The Quill and the Covenant #RTTBROS #NIGHTLIGHT #USA250 #AMERICA250 #NATION250

“"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.”

— Romans 13:1

THE STORY

Jefferson agonized over every word.

The Declaration of Independence went through multiple drafts, multiple committees, and multiple rounds of debate. Jefferson was frustrated by many of the ch...

The Limits of Reason

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The Limits of Reason

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

— Proverbs 14:12

THE STORY

Thomas Paine believed in God. He just did not believe in much else.

His 1776 pamphlet Common Sense was one of the most influential documents in American history. Washington ordered it read aloud to his troops. It sold hundred...

The Miracle Fog

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The Miracle Fog

And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these.

— Exodus 14:20

THE STORY

By the night of August 29th, 1776, the American cause was almost certainly finished.

Washington's army had been routed at the Battle of Long Island. Nine thousand American soldier...

The General on His Knees

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The General on His Knees

And it came to pass, when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees.

— 1 Kings 8:54

THE STORY

Isaac Potts did not mean to see it.

The Quaker farmer was riding through the woods near Valley Forge in the bitter winter of 17...

The Prayer

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The Prayer That Moved a Convention

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it.

— Psalm 127:1

THE STORY

It was the summer of 1787, and the Constitutional Convention was on the verge of collapse.

The delegates had been arguing for weeks. The small states and the large states were deadlocked. The entire enterprise was unraveling, and men were talkin...

Give Me Liberty

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The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

— Proverbs 28:1

THE STORY

Most people know the last line. Very few know what came before it.

Patrick Henry's speech to the Virginia Convention on March 23rd, 1775, is remembered for its thunderous conclusion: "Give me liberty, or give me death!" But the speech itself, delivered entirely fro...

The Shot and the Prayer

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

— Joshua 1:9

THE STORY

The night before the battle, Captain John Parker gathered his men.

It was April 18th, 1775, and the British regulars were on the march from Boston. Parker's militia, farmers, tradesmen, ordinary men who had never been soldiers, assem...

The Preacher Who Emptied Franklin's Pockets #America250 #Nation250 #Nightlight #RTTBROS

“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?"”

— Romans 10:14

THE STORY

Benjamin Franklin did not believe everything George Whitefield preached. He said so himself.

But he admired the man enormously, and th...

The Awakening Before the Revolution #RTTBROS #America250 #Nation250 #America #NIGHTLIGHT

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.”

— Acts 2:17

THE STORY

Before there was a revolution, there was a revival.

Between 1730 and 1745, a wave of spiritual awakening swept through the American colonies with a force that no one had anticipated and no human organization ...

The Praying Governor #RTTBROS #NIGHTLIGHT #AMERICA250 #NATION250

"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep."

— Psalm 107:23-24

THE STORY

William Bradford kept a journal for thirty years.

He began it in the bitter winter of 1620 and wrote through the decades of struggle, loss, harvest, and hope that followed. Of Plymouth Plantation is not a...

Before They Left the Ship #RTTBROS #Nightlight

"O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever."

— Psalm 107:1

THE STORY

November 11, 1620. The Mayflower sat anchored in the cold waters off Cape Cod, and nothing was going according to plan.

The Pilgrims had intended to settle in Virginia, under the jurisdiction of an existing charter. But storms and navigational error had brought them far north of th...