This will surprise you . . .

You are suffering from

PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The Way It Should Be

We live under the constant threat of alienation or annihilation. We see evil and depravity on our TVs every day. This is traumatizing us. It cripples us. It weakens our resolve to fight evil. We re-elect the same politicians every election. Or we don't vote at all. We are created in the Image of God, hard-wired to transform a wilderness into a garden, and move us all closer to the City of God. When the government, the media, our neighbors, friends and even family all tell us to compromise our inborn standards and aspirations and pursue things which are transitory, plastic, unethical, and superficial, we are traumatized by this. We look for mentors and co-workers, but feel alone. We suffer dehumanizing trauma.

Treatment for American PTSD Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation And never again will they train for war. And each of them will sit under his Vine and under his Fig Tree, With no one to make them afraid. For the LORD of hosts has spoken. Pursuing the Vine & Fig Tree vision is what it means to be human. In just one year, our online home study program duplicates the colonial education that Americans received in the public schools of 1776. We don't teach "the 3 R's" (reading, writing and arithmetic); we teach the original American dream. We teach the worldview that made America "the greatest nation on God's green earth."  Twelve years of a colonial American one-room school house can be compacted into one year (365 days) of virtual online coaching. (Assuming you already know how to read.)  Our program is simple, but not easy.  There are three parts to this program: Cut out 1 hour per day of the mainstream media for 365 days; Substitute 40 minutes of the Vine & Fig Tree Coaching program; 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the evening; Become a mentor to two other people at home, work, school or church, by helping them fulfill steps 1 and 2 (and eventually 3). When you become a mentor to one other person, two people are transformed. And "where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20). We Guarantee you will be transformed from ordinary to extraordinary, and as a Certified Coach for the Vine & Fig Tree Coaching program, you'll make a little money in the process, by coaching your friends and neighbors, encouraging them to overcome the traumatizing effects of a society that rejects God, and helping them become lifelong Vine & Fig Tree learners. Become a Lifelong Learner We all need to become "lifelong learners." Most people don't want to do their homework. America has become an "adolescent" nation. The concept of "adolescence" is relatively new. Children in the past were expected to grow up and become mature, productive adults at an earlier age than today. Obamacare treats people as old as 26 as children covered by their parents' insurance. "Adolescence" means assuming no adult responsibilities, and being free to gratify selfish child fantasies, subsidized by the previous generation. It's Never Too Late to Go Back to Kindergarten If you look at the details of our program, you may be overwhelmed. You are a victim of educational malpractice. But you are capable of learning as much and being as spiritually and morally whole as Americans were in 1776. Moral and spiritual wholeness, combined with a Christian education, creates a Biblical worldview which strengthens you and immunizes you against the trauma of atheistic tyranny. It helps you see the real problems and visualize effective solutions, and empowers and encourages you to take steps to be a part of the solution instead of being a part of the problem. The Jews have a tradition called the "Bar Mitzvah," literally translated "son of command." It means you know how to obey God's Commandments. It means you have developed the internal fortitude to stand against evil and do the right thing. Its observance began centuries ago, when a 12 year-old was deemed to be an adult: not because he was gratifying his sexual urges before marriage ("adult movies"), but because he was mature in the faith, and was able to relate to authority, both good and bad, in a healthy way. He was ready to begin "exercising dominion over the earth" (Genesis 1:26-28). If you're an American adult, you are capable of much more than you think. You are using only a tiny fraction of the human potential with which you were endowed by your Creator. Dr. J. H. Van den Berg of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, has written some very stimulating things in the history of psychology. In his book, The Changing Nature of Man (NY: Dell, 1961), he gives examples of mature "children." He cites the life of Theodore Agrippa d’Aubigne, Huguenot, friend of Henry IV, born in 1550: Of d’Aubigne it is told that he read Greek, Latin and Hebrew when he was six years old and that he translated Plato into French when he was not yet eight. Plato. Montaigne recommended the reading and explaining of philosophical discourses to children. Well, if an eight year-old child can translate Plato, what objection can there be to reading a translated version to him when he is four? When d’Aubigne was still eight years old, he went through the town of Amboise, accompanied by his father just after a group of Huguenots had been executed. He saw the decapitated bodies; and at the request of his father, he swore an oath to avenge them. Two years later, he was captured by Inquisiteurs; the ten year-old boy’s reaction to the threat of death at the stake was a dance of joy before the fire. The horror of the Mass took away his fear of a fire, was his own later comment, as if a ten year-old boy could know what he meant by that. And yet, a child who has translated Plato and has been used to reading the classics for four years, could not such a child know what he wants and know what he is doing? But he can hardly be called a child. A person who observes the effects of an execution intelligently, who swears an oath to which he remains true through life, who realizes for himself the interpretation of the Holy Communion and who fathoms the horror of death at the stake -- he is not a child. He is a man. Secular Americans who have lost touch with their Vine & Fig Tree roots are traumatized by ISIS beheadings.  Faith protects us from trauma. The majority of traumatic evil in this world is perpetrated by those who claim "authority." In the case of d’Aubigne, a union of "church" and "state." America's Founders were willing to risk their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, because they were pursuing the Vine & Fig Tree vision. Now one might say these were "child prodigies," and yet the interesting thing is how many of the great musicians of that period were child prodigies and how many of the ordinary people matured at the same age. The intellectual level back then was quite high, even among the common people. The level of preaching is ample evidence of this. The ability of church members to listen to lengthy sermons of sometimes two hours, to reproduce all thirty or forty points faithfully later in the week, and to debate them or discuss them, is well documented. There was a high order of discipline, and this discipline furthered the uses of intelligence.* Consider the Constitutional Convention in this country. Go through and list the ages of those men at the time of the Constitutional Convention and they were a surprisingly youthful group. Franklin was the old man of the group, and Washington was far older than most of them. The average person there was a generation or so younger than Washington. They were young men. Not only were they young men in their 30’s but most of them had been military officers, judges, governors, for a number of years. They reached maturity in their teens because there was a different concept of discipline. Today's law students complain when they are assigned The Federalist Papers, but the "Papers" were originally newspaper columns for ordinary American farmers. If a colonial American teenager could travel through time from 1776 to our day today, he would tell you Five Things you need to know about the trauma you have experienced, and he would recommend you read Five Books that were banned from the public school you attended. These Five Books are the most important books in the history of Western Civilization. Despite our "smart phones," we are now an uncivilized people. We are powerless and passive in the face of traumatic evil. Five Things Five Books