American History Course

All lectures will occur starting September 9, at 1 PM- 2:30 PM Central time, and will continue every Monday and Tuesday. The lecture will be accompanied by a PowerPoint demonstration with graphics of American history as well as the lesson which is taught by Dr. Wayne C. Sedlak – a pastor and linguist of 48 years, former Missionary to Africa, Dean and Professor at the collegiate level; Professor and Graduate School Campus Administrative Dean. 

Dr. Sedlak’s credentials are listed HERE

The course will cover American history from its inception through the current issues of the 21st century. The lessons are on a password protected page.  Contact us for information

Sign up today Sale: $40 PER FAMILY -Call for hardship scholarships  

Scripture warns us that a generation that distances parents and children from one another must be repented or that God would bring judgment upon that generation. Our forefathers heard that message as they cited the generation that heard the preaching of John the Baptist. Our country stands poised to face the same warnings from God as well. Hence, this course calls us to understand how such “reuniting” can be achieved, faithfully.

There is documentation today showing us that too many of our children are “Already Gone,” that is to say, departed in heart (often as early as the age of 10 or 11) from the faith and instruction of church and parents.

Author Stephen Baskerville writes of the carnage of divided families further savaged by courts and government in his book Taken into Custody. He makes the case that the judiciary of the state and federal government complex have fostered the destruction of the American family (including the impact upon the “Christian family) in America.

But that is by no means the whole story. Too often the fault lies in churches. The truths neglected by the pulpits (and even denied by some) are truths needed by a young generation to recapture the “Vision” that, early on, took hold of our Founders.

In contrast, over the course of about 45 years, the author of these classes has seen young people respond to history as an instrument for transporting God’s truths into their hearts. Is that not the purpose of history, according to God’s Word.

America’s Christian heritage is such an instrument, tracing that Heritage through the Call to Repentance in eras such as the Great Awakening (c. 1740 – 1790) as well as the Deformation of American society as America strayed from her faithful moorings.

Did you know? The “Praying Indians” as they were called throughout the New England of the late 1600s were 13 large villages of Indians who were forced by the chieftains of the Indian nations to leave their people because of their newfound faith in Christ? It would be they who would later identify the conspiracy of King Philip and help deliver the New England colonists to victory over the sudden assault launched against many cities throughout Massachusetts and the other colonies.

The vision researched and the history portrayed throughout this course have been in operation for almost four decades. Herein is a brief recital of a monumental Heritage, unique from the beginning as God called a people and developed a much more mature kind of society as one might expect from a people immersed in the genius of God’s Word. Your teacher’s credentials and the calling of the man who will teach students and adults alike in the upcoming class, is something he has been doing these past four decades.

This course is one of the many courses I took from Rev. Sedlak years ago. The truths that I learned were life-changing for me … and many of my fellow students in my class. These are enduring truths that take students through life, building not just the knowledge of the Lord’s handiwork in history, but designed to call them to a personal walk with Jesus Christ! The peace and stability of knowing HOW my Lord works “all things together for good” was one fruit of this course. I have in the past, and certainly do so now, heartily endorse this course for both students and adults who want to strengthen their walk with the Lord while gaining an in-depth, skillful – call it “professional” (and personal) – understanding of …the world and how God’s truths have been perfectly and accurately represented within that history as recorded in the Scriptures. – Tim Rawlings, Chicago, IL

Did you know? We have all heard about the tragedy of the witch trials at Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, but how many know what happened afterwards? Salem’s inhabitants were so ashamed of the travesty that saw 19 people put to death, many of whom were strong Christians, that the people mourned for years. The Judge who led the proceedings and sentenced those who died, later publicly repented of his terrible sins in this tragedy, testifying of God’s severe chastisement upon his life and family. Salem, Massachusetts would go on to become renowned for the hundreds of charitable institutions and ministries created from the mourning of this community. Indeed, the charitable disposition for which Salem would become famous, would endure for several centuries.

History is not simply the recital of names and dates of the past. In this presentation, you will be able to see history as it unfolds from another course (Ancient History). There, one can see through the lens that God’s Word provides the interpretation of those events, those names those episodes in history. Most importantly, God’s word identifies PATTERNS in the movement of historical events – and that as described in the Word of the Lord.

Among those patterns is one of the most important, yet most tragic, patterns in all history. That tragic pattern is identified by the author herein by the slogan “Conquer thy neighbor,” For that is exactly what nations and people have done throughout many millennia. In American history, there was a far more successful attempt to replace this tragic pattern, as the churches did indeed strive to teach the people to “Love thy neighbor as thyself” as a theme bound up first in the admonition of scripture to “Love the Lord thy God… with all thy might…”

Did you know? When George Washington died, the British lowered their ensigns onboard their ships to half mast and their flags were lowered as well in honor of the great man. The Delaware Indians and many other Indian nations also recognized him with honor, and took his advice to encourage the study the Christian faith among their people. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the French flag and ensigns to be lowered to half-staff. He also ordered all French soldiers to wear a medallion in memory of Washington. Even the British general, Lord Cornwallis, who opposed Washington in the War of Independence, publicly honored him after many years of corresponding with Washington after the War.

Our four daughters and I took Dr. Sedlak’s …history course…It changed how we read the Bible. Instead of only seeing the Bible in black-and-white, it has come alive with color, context, understanding and dimension. We are reading and analyzing Scriptures with a different understanding and analyzing wording variations, not simply taking it for granted. The girls (ages 10 – 16) and I really enjoy the class and look forward to each upcoming class. We highly recommend this course for everyone who wants to see the true history that God has revealed in the Bible and through history… Truth that Satan and the world want erased. I cannot express my gratitude enough! The depth of this course has given us a deeper understanding and perspective of God and changed our family dynamic. – Emily Diefenbaugh, Sparta, Wisconsin

When answering the question, “What is a ‘Christian Heritage?’” one must FIRST inquire as to the source from which a society received its counsels. Ancient civilizations received their counsels from kings, priests, “wise men” (philosophers) and above all, the “spirit world” of the idolatries. The infamous Socrates said he received his insights from “daimonia” (spirits, a Greek word from which we derive “demons.”).

In contrast, America repeatedly was humbled beneath the preaching of God’s Word: the Reformation, the Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening and the regular worship and influence of churches throughout most of the cities, towns, and villages of America.

As Daniel Webster (1850) put it: 

“If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.” – Daniel Webster, Senator of the United States.”

Did you know?

“…[H]istory is examined through the lens of a Biblical worldview. It demonstrates the power, precision and accuracy of God’s Holy Word. The truths that are revealed in this course are not monotonous but rather uplifting, designed to bring to us more than simply coursework… History as I learned it here, is life-changing in that, as a student, I could see God’s glory, his purposes, and handiwork in the lives of people and in the destiny of nations. This is no ordinary course. It awakens the student to the fact that God “weighs us all in the balance” demonstrating for all to see that, throughout history, those who honor the Lord, He honors. And those that do not … become a sobering lesson for any student to weigh carefully in the fear and admonition of the Lord.” – Jacob Gamble, Electrical Engineer, Watertown, WI

SIGN UP HERE

• THE WHOLE MAN, IF YOU WILL, IS THERE IN THE CRADLE

Alex de Tocqueville was a visitor to America in about 1840. Though he came to the States on a minor foreign mission, he quickly fell in love with America. He would go on to write his classic work, Democracy in America. He begins his second chapter (the first chapter is all North American geography) by describing America in this manner:

“When a child is born, his first years pass unnoticed in the joys and activities of infancy. As he grows older and begins to become a man, then the doors of the world open he comes in touch with his fellows. The first-time notice is taken people think they can see the “seeds” of the virtues and vices of his maturity taking shape. 

That, if I’m not mistaken, is a great error.

 Look at the baby in his mother’s arms. See how the outside world is first reflected in the still easy mirror of his mind. Consider the first examples that strike his attention. Listen to the first words which awaken the dormant powers of thought. Only then will you understand the origin of the habits, prejudices and passions which are to dominate his life.  

The whole man is there if one may put it so, in the cradle. 

Something analogous happens with nations. People always bear some marks of their origins. Circumstance of birth and growth affect all the rest of their careers.” (Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in America, chapter 2 page 31 of the Harper Perennial edition, 1975)

As the great historian Alexis de Tocqueville once said (1840) “America is the only country in which it has been possible to witness the natural and tranquil growth of society and where the influences exercised on the future condition of states by their origin is clearly distinguishable… We are close enough to the time when the American societies were founded to know in detail the elements of which they were compounded and far enough off to judge what the seeds have produced. Providence has given us a light denied to our fathers and allowed us to see the first causes in the fate of nations, causes formally concealed in the darkness in the past.”

Did you know? The famous Apache Indian chief, Geronimo, was converted to the Christian faith later in life. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. His autobiographical testimony was that, despite his distrust of the “white settlers,” he DID trust the Church of Christ and the Christian faith. He publicly stated that he continually encouraged his fellow Indian tribesmen and women to adopt the Christian faith because of its wise counsels and teachings on charity and benevolence. He said he was very glad that the great Chief of the United States (the President) was a Christian for then it could be possible for Christianity to spread its pervasive influence among white and Indian populations.

• THEIRS WAS THE TRIUMPH OF AN IDEA

Jamestown: The discovery of America by Columbus and later the colony of Jamestown as the first successful colony, were two episodes constituting “beginnings” in America’s colonial past, neither one of those episodes determined the character of what would later become the United States.

This concession is made even by the most humanistic of secular historians. But secularists are then “stuck” with a need to determine why America was so heavily influenced by Christian precept and ethic, like the universal observance of the Lord’s Day (Sunday) all across the colonial landscape. If nothing else, secularism spends so much time and effort denying the powerful and favorable impact of the Christian Faith stamped upon the American colonies, that the sheer effort is itself a testimony of the Christianity’s influence. Additionally, the vast number of monuments, archived documents, public references and recitals, court cases, acts of Congress, as well as the tens of thousands of people who testified in a veritable “ocean” of public and private documents, diaries, sermons, poems, books, town hall meetings, quotations… all demonstrate the powerful influence exerted, an influence too much to even recite by way of source materials!

New England: There yet exists much of that voluminous testimony, despite the decay of years and loss of valuable source materials. To discount the Christian influence upon America by the churches and the Christian testimonies of so many thousands of individuals in its founding years, is simply an exercise in willful blindness and historical bullying.

Alexis de Tocqueville, visitor turned historian (1840) described America’s real character and influence in his Democracy in America. In it, he cites the Pilgrim Fathers who began a real social and political Revolution by determining that the Bible they held in hand was more than a mere devotional. They sought – and they successfully used it – as a MANUAL for the creation of an entirely new kind of society. D’Tocqueville wrote:

“The foundation of New England was something new in the world, all the attendant circumstances being both peculiar and original. All the immigrants who came to settle on the shores of New England presented an unusual phenomenon of the society in which there were no great lords, no hereditary aristocracy… The leadership grew from the influence of wise counsels of men and women with immigrants to the New Land brought with them wonderful elements of order and Christian morality.” 

He goes on to relate the fact that…

“The men who journeyed here came with their wives and children to the wilds. They gave up desirable social positions in their old countries and, in facing the inevitable sufferings and labors of “exile,” they prayed, they hoped, and they worked unceasingly “for the triumph of an idea.”

He adds that their Christianity…

“Is not just a religious doctrine, but they sought a land so barbarous and neglected by the world that there at last they might be able to live in their own way and pray to God in freedom.”

EXAMPLES of the AMERICAN HISTORY COURSE: Sign Up Below- For Testimonials Click HERE

• THE CITY SET ON A HILL

The Liberty Bell poised on its elaborate mount in Independence Hall (1872)

New England became the place of “wise counsels.” New England would become distinguished as a haven for the Gospel and, as such, its quest to be a Light for All Nations to behold. This we see from their documents, such as the Pilgrims’ Considerations… for the Plantation of New England, Massachusetts Body of Liberties, the Fundamental Order of Connecticut, the Mayflower Compact, the Magnolia Christi Americana, and the many colonial charters and other constitutional documents of the era (including those cited from England: The Petition of Rights, Abolition of Star Chamber, The English Bill of Rights, et.al.). Despite what would later develop as the “Salem Witch Trials (1692), the New England colonies were distinguished by the multitude of innovations and wise counsels which were copied – in full or in part – by ALL of the Atlantic seaboard colonies constituting the original 13 colonies of America. Such innovative practices, drawn almost entirely from the Scriptures included the following:

• Participation of the people in public affairs, including voting, was first practiced at Plymouth Colony (Pilgrim original colony) cf. Deut. 1: 13ff.

• The First free voting of households, without the interference of aristocrats, took place in BOTH Massachusetts and Connecticut. ALL of the colonies followed this practice later, taking their cue from the example of these two colonies, cf. Deut. 1: 13-14.

• Connecticut was the first to begin the practice of APPELLATE jurisdiction in Courts of Appeals, allowing common folk to appeal over local courts. This developed out of one of the most famous sermons ever preached; that sermon was preached by the Rev. Thomas Hooker and was based on Deuteronomy 1:13-18. ALL the colonies followed later from this precedent.

• Individual freedoms were a function of covenant and not mere “indistinguishable rights.” Such were drawn from the Bible, although ALL of the colonies articulated these freedoms as they were found in the English Bill of Rights (1689) and vast portions of which would make their way into our Constitution of the United States a century later.

• Responsibility of rulers and judges to their constituency began in New England and were cited and copied, more or less, as such by all the rest of the colonies in due time. Cf. Deut. 1: 13-18

• Education of ALL children – girls and boys (contrary to modern feminist allegations to the contrary) – was the hallmark of both Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies. Indeed again, de Tocqueville, who traveled the length and breadth of the American states, would write that the American woman was the best educated, best prepared female (for life) in the world. He noted the fact that Christian parents care as much about their daughters learning how to read, write and do their ’rithmetic, as they did their sons. De Tocqueville concluded that the daughters of America were the best prepared for life than any woman of any country around the world. Cf. Deut. 6; Proverbs 22:6.

• From the very beginning, liberty was defined much differently than the license that so often passes is liberty today. De Tocqueville quoted from the highly influential John Winthrop a statement that would determine the character of liberty for generations:

“Nor would I have you to mistake in the point of your own liberty. There is a liberty of corrupt nature, which is affected by men and beasts to do what they wish; and this liberty is inconsistent with authority, impatient of all restraint. By this liberty which is the grand enemy of truth and peace, and all the ordinances of God are bent against it. But there is a civil, a moral, a federal liberty, which is the proper goal and object of authority. It is a liberty for that only which is just and good. For this liberty you are to stand with the hazard of your very lives… This liberty is maintained by a subjection to (godly) authority… The authorities set over you for your good, will be quietly submitted unto by ALL but such as have a disposition to shake off the yoke and lose their true liberty by their murmuring at the honor and power of authority.”

• HUMANISM: American Christianity gave away its birthright to the testimony of Darwinism and humanism. This was accomplished, to a great degree, through the adoption of educational, ethical and legal tenets as taught by Horace Mann, the Prussian model of education, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, John Dewey, and Roscoe Pound. 

It is understandable that as men would rise in opposition to Christianity and its absolutes, such modernists would be intellectual and moral relativists. They would therefore seek to overthrow the traditionally predominant Christianity upon which Western and American society was once based. Such influences will be traced throughout the entirety of American history that we will set before the students… and adults are certainly welcome to attend this course work.

All lectures will take place starting September 9, at 1 PM- 2:30 PM  and will continue every Monday and Tuesday. The lecture will be accompanied with a PowerPoint demonstration with graphics of American history as well as the lesson which is taught by Dr. Wayne C. Sedlak – a pastor and linguist of 48 years, former Missionary to Africa, Dean and Professor at the collegiate level; Professor and Graduate School Campus Administrative Dean. 

Dr. Sedlak’s credentials are listed at this website. 

The course will cover American history from its inception through the current issues of the 21st century. 

Sign up today $40 PER FAMILY

American History Course $40 Per Family- Sale Now until September