Bill Federer: God's Hand In History

Join Us For this Exciting Premiere
June 27th at 9:30 PM ET
LIVE on the platforms below!

Michelle and I had the privilege of interviewing one of America’s leading Christian historians WILLIAM J. FEDERER; and you are not going to want to miss this fast-paced, power-packed hour! Bill is a nationally known speaker, best-selling author, and president of Amerisearch, Inc., a publishing company dedicated to researching America’s noble heritage.

Bill’s AMERICAN MINUTE radio feature is broadcast daily across America and by the Internet. His Faith in History television airs on the TCT Network on stations across America and via DirectTV. He’s been featured on countless radio and television programs including CSPAN, FOX, Hannity, O’Reilly Factor, NPR, NewsMax, OAN, Real America’s Voice, MSNBC, CBN, TBN, INSP, TCT, The Eric Metaxas Show, Prager U, Todd Starnes “Starnes Country-FOX Nation, 700 Club, and so much more!
Bill’s first book “America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations” has sold over a half-million copies.

His works, which have been quoted by authors, politicians, leaders, journalists, teachers, students and in court cases. I have been following Bill’s American Minute posts for years and picked up several of his books on a trip to Plymouth, MA while visiting our favorite Plymouth historians, Leo and Nancy Martin at the Jenney Museum . You might recognize Bill from his recent appearance in Joy and Matt Thayer’s Reawakening Series documentary where Bill dives deep into the Christian founding of this nation.

Few topics get me as excited as talking about America’s Godly Heritage and Christian history in political realms. Bill expertly lays out a foundation that Judeo-Christian history is linear and when you find your place in history historical facts come to life!

Bill’s love for history can be traced back to trips he took with his father to battlefields and monuments as a child. One of 11 children, Bill fondly remembers his father, who himself was a historian, taking the family on trips to places that meant something. It wasn’t until his wife volunteered him to teach a Jr. High Sunday School class that he got serious about studying the Bible so the kids wouldn’t keep tripping him up on Bible trivia. While reading the introduction to one Bible, he read a few quotes from famous people on the historical importance of the Bible. He immediately wanted to know what other famous people said about the Bible- but to his surprise, there weren’t any books to be found! Bill decided to amass as many original source documents as he could find that referenced the Bible having laid the foundation of American government. Once he had stacks of such quotes and references, he finally compiled all he had found and published a book: America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, which you can purchase by clicking the link, (I highly recommend you do as I own a copy myself and have found it to be a priceless resource!)

History Comes Alive
Bill, brings history alive with such context and vivid description that you almost put yourself back in time with Nimrod building the tower of Babel in order that if God ever flooded the earth again, he would be saved. He takes you to the Vendee, France’s countryside, during the bloody French revolution where 300,000 souls were murdered, and points to the atrocities committed in the name of overcoming tyranny when done through secular, Godless means. Throughout our interview Michelle and I sat, spell-bound, intently absorbing each new piece to history’s puzzle.

Linear Judeo- Christian Philosophy Brings History to Life
Everyone has a historical philosophy; Bill explains these different philosophies and how they shape the way we interact with one another on a daily basis. We mentioned the Judeo-Christian view that history is linear, but there are other ways such as the Pagan, Marxist, Islamist, and our current Nihilistic view of history which Bill says is the most boring of all. It’s the reason why you would rather watch paint dry than memorize another completely useless date for a test- as everything is basically meaningless.

When you see history through the Judeo-Christian view it’s like turning the corner on a corn field and seeing the rows all perfectly lined up. Everything makes sense. ~ Bill Federer

Bill dove into some of the other ways of viewing history, such as the Isalmist view, which you can read about in his book What Every American Needs to Know About the Qur’an-A History of Islam & the United States. While Christianity has certainly been fraught with war and violence, the first 300 years after Jesus Christ, saw Christianity spread far and wide, without one sword being drawn. Indeed, this is in stark contrast to Muhammad’s followers, who within 100 years of his death, conquered North Africa, the Holy Land, Persia & Spain – from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, Christians were put to the lion’s den, persecuted, and killed because they didn’t take up arms to spread Christianity.

Europe’s Religious Upheavals
However, Christianity was not always a peaceful religion and indeed, once church and state were combined, any idea of a personal relationship with God was more than frowned upon. Indeed, it seemed that whoever was reigning at the time, the people had to follow the king’s religion which led to massive internal wars, especially after the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, in Germany, infighting was so bad that a solution was needed. The Peace of Augsburg treaty stipulated that the religion of the ruler was to determine whether a state was to be exclusively Catholic or Lutheran. In the Holy Roman Empire‘s more than eighty “imperial cities” (towns that owed political obedience solely to the emperor), both religions—Lutheranism and Catholicism—were to be tolerated.

With religious and political upheaval in Europe, many Christians came to America and set up their own state run denomination. Virginia was Anglican, Rhode Island Baptist, Massachusetts Congregationalist, and all of these men had to come together in one accord to fight the British. And they did.

Tyrants and Deconstruction
We asked Bill to explain history being rewritten over the past century in order to remove the amazing stories of our founding heritage. Bill gave us another history lesson on how every time a nation would conquer another nation, they would wipe out and erase that culture to begin anew. Indeed, all despots and conquerors throughout history have utilized “Deconstruction,” to portray the previous rule negatively so the people will emotionally detach. Chairman Mao did this in China, destroying centuries of Chinese religion and culture, including wiping out the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Pol Pot in Cambodia killed one-third of all his citizens, killing everyone with glasses because, if you wore glasses that meant you could read and if you could read, then you would remember history.

Bill said that France utilized this method of Deconstruction during the French Revolution- declaring 1792: year one. Revolutionaries went so far as to dig up and publicly burn the bones of St. Geneviève, the Patron Saint of Paris. She is said to have fended off the Huns by calling for fasting and prayer around 500 AD as Atilla the Hun made his way to Paris.

“Wherever you have a People’s Republic, you get a dictatorship.”

Whether Marx, Lenin or Pol Pot, “he who controls the purse strings makes the rules.” Bill said something incredibly powerful about the claim that early Christianity was socialism,

“The early church is not socialism, the early church is the early church- Socialism is a counterfeit of the early church.”

Bill says that giving must be done with love; you cannot give if you don’t own property and have enough left over that you can share with others. This is why our founding fathers felt so passionately about limited government and personal responsibility.

“If the devil were all powerful, we’d all be dead a long time ago,” Bill said when asked about the world he sees us living through today. “The spiritual descendants of Cain are always to go after the spiritual descendants of Able because Able brought the lamb- a representation of Christ.” With each new advancement the king or those in power get to conquer a bigger area and right now we are in an age where “information is the weapon of choice.”

William Howard Taft Federalized The Courts
Opining on the recent ruling of the Supreme Court overruling Roe V. Wade, Bill brought up the fact that William Howard Taft federalized the courts. Taft, 27th president, and later chief justice of the Supreme Court, centralized court rulings so that one ruling would affect all others. Before this, every jurisdiction had the ability to reach their own conclusions on legal matters. This federalized the court resulting in FDR using a packed court to push through his radical agendas without the need for Congress, many times.

“All the kingdoms of the world are ruled through fear, from the top down. Christ came and showed his disciples how to govern as a servant, from the bottom up.” This was the philosophy the founders of America used to create the first representative, civil body politic.

Peter and Fredrick Muhlenberg- Pastors on a Patriotic Mission
I asked Bill why do today’s pastors see a line between Church and politics, when our founding fathers clearly did not. Bill explained that after Martin Luther, the Calvinists dug into the scriptures to find “God’s will and put it into order.” While there was mixed feeling amongst the clergy, one powerful Lutheran minister named Henry Muhlenberg had two sons who were also ministers. Peter Muhlenberg was a clergyman, who upon hearing a rousing message from Patrick Henry, joined the cause of Liberty, was commissioned as a Colonel, and told to go find his troops. Peter went straight to his congregation and rallied 300 men.

Muhlenberg’s text for the day was Ecclesiastes 3 where it explains, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted….”

Coming to the end of his sermon, Peter Muhlenberg turned to his congregation and said, “In the language of the holy writ, there was a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away.” As those assembled looked on, Pastor Muhlenberg declared, “There is a time to fight, and that time has now come!” Muhlenberg then proceeded to remove his robes revealing, to the shock of his congregation, a military uniform.

Marching to the back of the church he declared, “Who among you is with me?” On that day 300 men from his church stood up and joined Peter Muhlenberg. They eventually became the 8th Virginia Brigade fighting for liberty. Frederick Muhlenberg, Peter’s brother, was against Peter’s level of involvement in the war. Peter responded to Fredrick writing, “I am a Clergyman it is true, but I am a member of the Society as well as the poorest Layman, and my Liberty is as dear to me as any man, shall I then sit still and enjoy myself at Home when the best Blood of the Continent is spilling?…so far am I from thinking that I act wrong, I am convinced it is my duty to do so and duty I owe to God and my country.”
Fredrick’s home in New York was later sacked and burned by the British and he too joined the cause of Liberty. Peter was a member of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives not once, but three times. He was also elected to the Senate in 1801. Fredrick became elected to the House of Representatives and was Speaker of the House twice.