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As millions of believers commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they may be stunned to learn one of the most famous Bible verses dealing with the event is actually packing additional meanings that make the episode even more spectacular.

This according to a Christian author who is shining more light on the content of Scripture.

The line in question is from the beginning of the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John where it states: “On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb” (John 20:1 CSB).

“On the physical level, most people already understand what’s happening in this passage,” says Joe Kovacs, author of the best-seller, “Reaching God Speed: Unlocking the Secret Broadcast Revealing the Mystery of Everything.”

“There’s a believing woman in the person of Mary Magdalene arriving at the tomb of Jesus early Sunday morning and she sees the rock had been removed from the tomb.

“But when we open our spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear, this verse is broadcasting a mind-blowing double and triple meaning that sums up the phenomenal message of the Scripture in one single sentence. Once you understand it, you can’t unsee it!”

Kovacs says the sentence to focus on is: “She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb.”

“Beyond the physical event that everyone already understands, there is a Spirit-based parable message being aired here, and to grasp its meaning, we only need to connect the dots with the rest of the Bible. It’s actually quite easy and fun to do.”

“Let’s start with the stone. We all know what a stone is. It’s a rock. And who famously is called a rock as well as a stone in the Bible? Yes, it’s Jesus Himself!”

Just a few of the verses calling Jesus a rock or stone include:

• “They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer” (Psalm 78:35 NIV).
• “And who is a rock, except our God?” (Psalm 18:31 NKJV).
• “that Rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4 KJV).
• “This Jesus is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11 CSB).
• “As you come to him, the living Stone” (1 Peter 2:4 NIV).

Kovacs says the second word to focus on is “tomb.”

“We all know what a tomb is. It’s a grave. It’s where dead people are,” the author says. “And interestingly, Jesus even likens PEOPLE to tombs at times, especially when He’s talking to hypocrites.”

As He said: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity” (Matthew 23:27 CSB).

Kovacs says: “On the parable level using God’s Spirit, tombs represent evil people. Even the apostle Paul calls our body of flesh the ‘body of death’” (Romans 7:24 NKJV).

“Even though we think we’re alive, unless and until we come to God, we’re actually the walking dead, and Jesus called people that when He said, ‘let the dead bury their dead’” (Matthew 8:22).

“So let’s connect the dots now. When Mary saw the stone had been removed from the tomb, this is simply another way of saying that Jesus Himself had been removed from the tomb, as in resurrected from the dead! The stone or rock removed from the tomb ultimately refers to Jesus taken away not only from His gravesite but also from His body of death!

“To drive this point home, the very next verse of the Bible has Mary uttering these words confirming the thought: ‘They’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb’ (John 20:2 CSB).

“So yes, there’s a secondary meaning in addition to the physical one of merely seeing a solid rock removed from the grave. It is the Ultimate Rock, Jesus, being removed from the tomb. But if that’s not enough to astonish you, there’s a third meaning as well.”

The author, known for his “Shocked by the Bible” series, says not only do stones and rocks represent God Himself, they can also represent human people.

“Those who read the Bible know it’s no secret that Jesus called Simon His apostle ‘Peter,’ a word meaning ‘stone‘ or ‘rock,” says Kovacs. “And this stone called Peter can represent all believers who repent of their sins to follow God and feed the sheep, as he was famously told to do in John 21:17.

“Scripture also refers to all believing people as ‘living stones’ in 1 Peter 2:5.

“Even in the story of David and Goliath, the shepherd took ‘smooth stones’ (1 Samuel 17:40) as the weapon to defeat the evil giant, because we the believers are, on the metaphoric level, the fearless smooth stones prepared and polished by God to take on and defeat the evil giant, who is none other than Satan the devil.”

“So let’s again connect the dots from the Gospel of John, keeping in mind that God often is ‘declaring the end from the beginning’ (Isaiah 46:10 KJV). When the verse says ‘the stone had been removed from the tomb,’ this is also a prophecy for the future for all people who come to follow God. Because we ourselves are the stones that will be removed from our own personal tomb, our body of death, our grave of perishing flesh. Like Jesus, we will be removed from our grave when we are resurrected from the dead and granted everlasting life!”

“Yes, folks. One single verse from the Bible that we’ve been reading all these years is broadcasting so much more than has ever been trumpeted. It’s so much more than just a physical stone being removed from the tomb. It is about the spiritual Rock Jesus being removed the grave 2,000 years ago, as well as all of His other stones, the faithful believers, eventually being removed from our temporary tombs in which we walk around every day.

“With ears to hear, the glorious conclusion for your life is no longer hidden. So when we hear someone say, ‘He is risen’ (Matthew 28:6), it’s not just directly referring to Jesus rising from the dead, it’s also alluding to the wondrous immortality for every single person who truly follows Him in order to get out of his or her own tomb.”

Endorsed by Chuck Norris and other Christian champions, “Reaching God Speed” is nothing short of a breakthrough work, as it probes God’s hidden messages embedded in popular movies, hit songs from (Adele and the Beatles to Frank Sinatra and Led Zeppelin), the stories we tell our children, everyday phrases we all say, historic news events, famous commercial campaigns, nature itself, and typical life activities such as such as inhaling every breath you take, sleeping, waking up and many more.

It features a myriad of stunning biblical revelations, as the book:

• Solves with clarity three of the greatest mysteries in Scripture, unveiling the surprisingly simple meaning of “the beast,” “the number of the beast” and “the mark of the beast”

• Easily explains how God embeds hidden messages forecasting the future in the physical, historical events recorded in Scripture

• Examines the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding, revealing why this famous event took place “on the third day,” why water was poured into six large containers, and why its instant transformation into the most perfect wine has a sublime meaning that goes far beyond what anyone has ever discussed

• Unwraps the secret messages concerning the human birth of God, including the spirit significance of Jesus in a manger, the real reason the shepherds “returned,” and the never-trumpeted, majestic picture the entire story depicts for your own glorious future

• Unmasks the miracle of the blind man healed by washing mud off his eyes. Clue: There’s something intriguing about the mud that becomes obvious when we connect the dots in Scripture

• Reveals the incredible reason the Bible constantly mentions “three days” in both the Old and New Testaments. It goes far beyond the time Jesus spent in the heart of the earth.

• Unveils the sublime, additional meanings emanating from “Let there be light” and “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” There’s much more to the beginning than you’ve ever imagined.

• Illuminates the reason the darkness of night will ultimately be eliminated, and only never-ending light will exist

• Broadcasts the never-before-trumpeted meaning of the Exodus out of Egypt. The ancient event in the days of Moses is actually a picture of something tremendous and glorious that’s still to come in your future

• Explains the incredible meaning behind serpents crawling on their bellies

• Dishes the astounding secret behind the Second Passover, and the fantastic future it holds for billions of people

• Investigates the double meaning concerning “Doubting Thomas,” and the stunning good news it contains for everyone who’s ever doubted God or any Bible story

• Announces the unheard, spirit meaning regarding raising children

• Shines the light on why ancient Egyptians were paralyzed with three straight days of darkness, while God’s people in Goshen had light in their dwellings

• Illuminates the surprising and inspiring meaning of a “darkness that can be felt” (Hint: it’s something you can do right this second)

• Explains what Jesus specifically meant by “outer darkness”

• Clearly reveals why the Bible repeatedly mentions pagan peoples such as Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Girgashites, Jebusites and Hivites. It goes far beyond these ancient tribes with tough-to-pronounce names, as it actually refers to certain people alive today with whom you deal every day

• Tells why Scripture so often talks about thorns and thistles. They’re far more than just sharp prickers growing in your garden

• Explores the untold meaning of the conflict between David and Goliath: it has gigantic significance that Sunday-school teachers seem to have missed

• Fishes out astonishing secret messages God has embedded in the famous story of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish. The scales will finally fall off your eyes when you finally see what you’ve been missing. Plus hundreds more …

The book rocketed to the #1 position in several Amazon categories even before its official release.

“Reaching God Speed” is available now at Amazon and other booksellers, and you can learn much more information at ReachingGodSpeed.com.

Those wishing to contact or interview Joe Kovacs can email him here.

(This story was originally published April 17, 2022.)

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After President Donald Trump imposed broad tariffs, some of his left-wing critics began quoting economists like Milton Friedman, who adamantly believed in unilateral free trade.

Friedman preferred that our trading partners refrain from imposing barriers on goods imported from the United States. He said: “We would be benefited by dispensing with our tariffs even if other countries did not. We would of course be benefited even more if they reduce theirs but our benefiting does not require that they reduce tariffs.”

What if Trump succeeds in getting our trading partners to reduce their tariffs, which are imposed at a higher rate on American goods? Friedman served as an adviser to former President Ronald Reagan, who, free trade rhetoric aside, did engage in some protectionism, including imposing “voluntary import quotas” on foreign vehicles, primarily from Japan.

But it’s good news that the left has discovered and begun quoting Friedman on unilateral free trade. Perhaps they will start examining Friedman’s positions on other policies such as school choice, health care, regulations, the size of the federal government, tax policy and the minimum wage.

On school choice, Friedman wrote: “Governments could require a minimum level of education which they could finance by giving parents vouchers redeemable for a specified maximum sum per child per year if spent on ‘approved’ educational services. Parents would then be free to spend this sum and any additional sum on purchasing educational services from an ‘approved’ institution of their own choice. The educational services could be rendered by private enterprises operated for profit, or by non-profit institutions of various kinds.”

But the Democratic National Committee’s 2025 platform opposes the use of vouchers and tax credits for education, describing them as “schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education.”

About health care, former President Barack Obama said: “If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense. That’s the kind of system that you have in most industrialized countries around the world.”

Friedman was asked in 2006, “Is there an area here in the United States in which we have not been as aggressive as we should in promoting property rights and free markets?” He responded: “Yes, in the field of medical care. We have a socialist-communist system of distributing medical care. Instead of letting people hire their own physicians and pay them, no one pays his or her own medical bills. Instead, there’s a third-party payment system. It is a communist system, and it has a communist result.”

About regulations, Friedman believed that they are necessary to prevent theft, fraud and force. But he also argued the regulations are often written by those with political power who seek to block competition.

On the minimum wage, Friedman said: “We regard the minimum wage rate as one of the most, if not the most, anti-black laws on the statute books. The government first provides schools in which many young people, disproportionately black, are educated so poorly that they do not have the skills that would enable them to get good wages. It then penalizes them a second time by preventing them from offering to work for low wages as a means of inducing employers to give them on-the-job training. All this is in the name of helping the poor.”

On taxes and the size of government, Friedman offers a little comfort for those who claim, “the rich don’t pay their fair share” and who are attacking the Department of Government Efficiency. Friedman in 1967 said: “Like many other economists, I oppose the increase in taxes recommended by President Lyndon Johnson but for reasons different than most. I oppose a tax increase because I believe that the Federal government is already absorbing too much of the community’s resources. We need lower taxes, not higher taxes.”

About government spending, Friedman argued the more government leaves in the pockets of its citizens, the better. He said of all spending, government spending is the least efficient: “Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. … And I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government.”

To the leftists now quoting Friedman on tariffs, the Nobel Prize-winning economist had an opinion or two on a few other things.

After years of stonewalling, spin, and subversion of truth, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the leadership of Director Kash Patel, has finally placed Deep State operative Brian Auten on administrative leave.

Sources familiar with the matter told the New York Times that Auten was placed on administrative leave last week.

BREAKING: Kash Patel has suspended and removed from HQ C.I. the FBI analyst Brian Auten who rubber-stamped the fake dossier to frame and spy on Trump adviser as a “Russian agent” & who later discounted Hunter Biden laptop evidence as Russian disinformationhttps://t.co/rTk4TNfKug

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) April 12, 2025

Auten’s suspension comes after years of public outcry over his corrupt misconduct inside the Bureau, which turned the FBI into an arm of the Democrat Party.

He was a key player in Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s scandalous counterintelligence investigation based on the now-discredited Steele Dossier.

According to the DOJ Inspector General, Auten failed to alert FBI leadership about gaping holes and fabrications in the dossier, yet still aggressively pushed for illegal FISA warrants on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Let’s be clear: this was the FBI spying on a presidential campaign based on false evidence — and Brian Auten was in the thick of it.

But Auten didn’t stop at attacking Trump. In 2020, just weeks before the election, whistleblowers allege that Auten authored an internal FBI report that falsely labeled damning information about Hunter Biden as “Russian disinformation.”

That report effectively shut down the FBI’s investigation into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings — conveniently just in time to protect Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

Auten’s fingerprints were reportedly all over both cases — despite being under internal investigation for misconduct related to the FISA abuse during the Russia probe. Instead of being removed or disciplined, he was allowed to continue shaping politically explosive investigations under dirty FBI Director Chris Wray.

Auten’s fingerprints are also on the FBI’s unprecedented raid on President Trump’s home, another blatant abuse of power targeting the Biden administration’s chief political opponent.

More from the NY Times:

Mr. Patel has called the Russia investigation a hoax, and singled out Mr. Auten in his book, “Government Gangsters.” In the book, Mr. Patel claimed that the F.B.I. was trying to “hide and spin” what he called “the Biden family corruption” buried in the laptop, even as agents investigated the matter.

“Government Gangsters” also included a list of 60 names in an appendix called “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.”

Mr. Auten was among the names listed in the appendix. At his confirmation hearing, Mr. Patel denied that it was an enemies list.

“It’s a total mischaracterization,” he told senators. He later added: “There will be no politicization at the F.B.I. There will be no retributive actions taken by any F.B.I., should I be confirmed as F.B.I. director.”

The suspension of Mr. Auten came after he and others had been disciplined for serious mistakes found in the F.B.I.’s applications for a secret surveillance warrant involving a former Trump campaign adviser.

[Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com]

HBO host Bill Maher on Friday described President Donald Trump as a “possible friend” while reporting on a star-studded dinner at the White House and lambasted critics who said he should have refused to meet with the Republican president because of all the areas where they disagreed.

Maher joined UFC President Dana White and musician Kid Rock at the White House for the dinner, which took place in late March. During the “Real Time with Bill Maher” show’s monologue, the comedian described speaking candidly about policies he disagreed with, and said Trump’s “no anger” reactions during the dinner were “emblematic” of why the Democratic Party was unpopular. (RELATED: Hollywood Actor Defends Child Sex Changes With Bizarre Analogy About ‘Suppressed’ Left-Handed People)

“Honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump,” Maher said during a 13-minute report on the dinner. “That’s just how it went down, make of it what you will. Me, I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days.”

WATCH:

Maher described how he disagreed with Democrats on multiple issues, notably Israel’s war with the radical Islamic terrorist group Hamas, child sex changes, biological men competing in women’s sports and wokeness. He related his favorite moment of the dinner.

“So MAGA fans, don’t worry, your boy gave me nothing, just hats. Hats and a very generous amount of time and a willingness to listen and accept me as a possible friend even though I’m not MAGA, which was the point of the dinner,” Maher said. “My favorite part of the whole night was [when] we were standing in the blowjob room — we were — and he said, ‘You know, I’ve heard from a lot of people who really like that we’re having this dinner. Not all, but a lot.’ And I said ‘Same. A lot of people told me they loved it, but not all.’ And we agreed, the people who don’t even want us to talk, we don’t like you.”

After audience applause from the reference to former President Bill Clinton’s liaisons with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky died down, Maher then tore into those who didn’t like his attendance at the dinner, taking aim at Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey’s record-setting Senate speech.

“Don’t talk. As opposed to what, writing the same editorial for the millionth time and making 25-hour speeches into the wind?” Maher asked. “Really, that’s what liberals have? He takes the piss out of everybody else and we can hold ours?”

“Okay, that’s my report. You can hate me for it, but I’m not a liar. Trump was gracious and measured and why he isn’t that in other settings, I don’t know and I can’t answer. And it’s not my place to answer, I’m just telling you what I saw,” Maher continued. “And I wasn’t high. Damn! Missed opportunity.”

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Saturday in West Palm Beach, President Trump was presented with a life-size bronze statue of himself posing with his fist in the air in defiance – just moments after an assassin’s bullet nearly took his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year.

Former congressional candidate Anthony Constantino, the CEO of Sticker Mule, gifted the president the monument, which is be a permanent fixture at his Trump International Golf Club.

Dubbed “The Defiance Monument,” the 7-foot-tall statue sits atop a stone pedestal with Constantino’s name engraved on it.

“The president was in a happy, joking mood, which was great to see,” said Constantino, according to a statement.

Trump and Constantino met at the monument before the president went out to play a round of golf. According to the statement, they were joined by Roger Stone, who’s become an adviser and friend to Constantino, as well as Bo Loudon, a friend of Barron Trump.

President Donald Trump is authorizing the U.S. military to take jurisdiction over federal lands along the southern border to help enforce his immigration agenda.

Trump issued a memorandum to the secretaries of Defense, Interior, Agriculture and Homeland Security late Friday titled “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions.”

The order directs the secretaries to facilitate the transfer of jurisdiction over federal land along the border so military activity along the border can “occur on a military installation under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense.”

President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with New York Governor Kathy Hochul has reignited discussion about the Constitution Pipeline. A longtime proponent of the project, Trump sees it as part of his broader push for American “Energy Dominance.” However, the meeting did not yield an agreement to revive the project.

Beyond the politics and speculation about what may have been discussed behind closed doors, the pipeline’s cancellation and the region’s persistent energy challenges highlight a broader economic reality: energy policies that constrain supply drive up costs—not just for energy itself, but across the entire economy—contributing to inflation.

The Context

The Constitution Pipeline was a proposed 124-mile natural gas pipeline designed to transport up to 650 million cubic feet per day from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania to upstate New York, connecting to infrastructure that supplies New England. Initially approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2014, the project faced a major setback in 2016 when New York denied a crucial water quality certification under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA)—a provision that allows states to block federally approved projects if they do not meet local environmental standards.

The companies behind the pipeline—led by Williams Companies—challenged New York’s permit denial in court, arguing that the state had exceeded its authority and was using environmental regulations as a pretext for an outright ban on fossil fuel infrastructure. The case led to a protracted legal battle, ultimately reaching the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which upheld New York’s decision. The pipeline developers petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review, but in April 2018, the Court declined to hear the case, leaving the state’s permit denial in place.

With no legal path forward, Williams officially canceled the Constitution Pipeline project in early 2020, citing regulatory obstacles and the prolonged legal uncertainty. The cancellation underscored the growing challenge of building energy infrastructure in states with aggressive anti-fossil fuel policies.

The Effects

Energy prices are up across the board for all the would-be beneficiaries of the cancelled project, the residents and businesses of New York and New England who rely on natural gas for heating, electricity, and industrial activity.

Since the Section 401 CWA denial in 2016, the average cost of natural gas for New York commercial users has increased by 70%. Over the same period, residential rates have risen 49%. Nearly 60% of New Yorkers use natural gas for home heating, making these price hikes a direct hit to household budgets.

Blocking the flow of gas results in higher electricity prices too. According to the EIA, 46% of the state’s electricity comes from natural gas, generating twice as much electricity as any other fuel source. Natural gas power plants account for approximately three-fifths of the state’s generating capacity. As such, average New York residential, commercial, and industrial electricity prices are up 38%, 30%, 45%, respectively, since 2016.

The data tell a similar story in New England, where high demand coupled with natural gas supply constraints sent city gate and electricity prices soaring.

Restricting Energy is Inflationary

There are a few characteristics inherent to energy products which elevate their influence on broader macroeconomic issues, such as inflation.

1. Energy is the fundamental economic input. Every household, business, school, and institution relies on energy. Our world is so thoroughly structured around access to power, fuel heating, and petro transportation, it’s hard to take stock of the full scope of our dependence on it. It is required at every stage of production for all products—from raw material sourcing to manufacturing, distribution, and final delivery. When energy costs rise, so do the prices of all goods and services. Even relatively small increases in energy prices can have an outsized impact on overall inflation.

2. Energy demand is price-inelastic. Households and businesses must continue buying energy, even at higher prices. Unlike discretionary goods, there is no substitute to heating homes, fueling trucks, or keeping the lights on. Unlike other products, you cannot “switch brands” when energy prices spike—you simply pay more.

3. High energy prices reduce purchasing power. Because energy utilities are indispensable and energy is an input to all products, price hikes leave consumers with less money for other goods and services. This effect is especially severe for low-income and middle-class families, who spend a higher percentage of their income on utilities and transportation.

While inflation is a multi-factor issue, the role of energy shortages and misguided energy policies cannot be denied and should not be ignored.

Rising Energy Costs Are an Energy Emergency

Trump’s “Energy Emergency” framework correctly identifies high energy costs as both an inflationary pressure and a direct burden on working Americans.

The Constitution Pipeline could have alleviated some of these pressures—but its cancellation serves as a cautionary tale. Now, with Trump’s tariffs on foreign energy imports—including a 10% tariff on Canadian natural gas, which New England relies on—there is even greater urgency to expand domestic infrastructure.

At the same time, political pressure is growing on Democratic leaders in the Northeast. As reported by The Washington Post, many low-income, predominantly Black communities in Boston—traditionally Democratic strongholds—are feeling the squeeze of high energy prices and losing faith in their party’s energy policies. A February report by the Progressive Policy Institute warned that high utility costs were a major factor in shifting voter support toward Trump. The report’s author explained that the working class in the Northeast, who are struggling to pay their heating bills, are not moved by the typical Democrat talking points on climate policy or tax credit initiatives to support expensive electrification overhauls.

As for the future of the Constitution Pipeline, the CEO of Williams Transco, Alan Armstrong, stated on March 12 that he is “absolutely in support of building” the pipeline, contingent on “strong support” from regional governors. With a major industry player signaling readiness, the shifting political and economic landscape—including rising energy costs, new import tariffs, and direct backing from the Trump administration—could provide the necessary momentum to revive the project. If regional leaders respond to growing voter frustration and industry support, they may finally be motivated to approve the effort.

Ironically, a current Trump ally—HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—was once a vocal opponent of the Constitution Pipeline. In 2016, Kennedy denounced the project at a protest at the New York State Capitol, calling it an “abomination” and declaring, “we don’t want it, we don’t need it.” But the numbers tell a different story.

The politics may be complicated, but the economics are straightforward: build pipelines, lower costs, and restore economic stability—or continue down the path of self-imposed energy scarcity.

 

Matthew Roy is an energy industry professional with over a decade of experience in corporate management and strategy. He is currently the Visiting Research Fellow for the Budapest Fellowship Program at the Danube Institute, focusing on energy policy.

Within the past decade or so we have witnessed something remarkable in education – the rise and fall of a fad we were promised would revolutionize K-12 education. In the 2010s, tech moguls and others began pushing schools to teach students coding skills, often at the expense of other topics. In 2013, Code.org launched with the claim that every student should learn to code. States began promoting computer science as a core subject. By 2016, President Obama put his weight behind the movement with the Computer Science for All initiative.

Fast forward to today, and the experts now tell us students may no longer need those once-prized coding skills. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has said the rise of artificial intelligence is making programming skills less relevant. In a leaked memo, Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman reportedly stated that AI would likely replace most software engineers. Most recently, entrepreneur and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya echoed these claims: “The engineer’s role will be supervisory, at best, within 18 months.”

What does Palihapitiya suggest students study instead? “Philosophy, psychology, history, physics, and English writing.”

The coding fad follows a well-established pattern. A movement is launched with great fanfare, grows rapidly, pushes for widespread reforms, and then fades into irrelevance. Before coding, there was the 21st century “skills” craze, in which schools were told they needed to prepare students for jobs that didn’t yet exist.

The recurring theme of many fads in education is their departure from the timeless purposes of education. Rather than cultivating the intellectual and moral virtues necessary for self-government, they focus on workforce readiness. But to sustain a constitutional republic, the public must have both skills.

This lesson is clear if we turn to the women of the Founding era.

On August 14, 1776 – barely a month after the Declaration of Independence was signed – Abigail Adams wrote to her husband John, responding to his complaints about the poor education of young men: “If you complain of neglect of Education in sons, what shall I say with regard to daughters, who every day experience the want of it?” Most women at the time were not given a proper classical education. They did not read the Greek and Roman poets or moral philosophers. They were unfamiliar with Virgil, Ovid, or leading English thinkers like John Milton and John Locke. Instead, they were taught what we might call “18th-century skills” – needlework, music, drawing, and etiquette.

Abigail Adams knew that an education that focused on domestic tasks or job preparation was insufficient for a free and self-governing society. “If we mean to have Heroes, Statesmen and Philosophers,” she wrote, “we should have learned women.”

It was exactly that kind of education, rooted in the classics, that propelled several leading women of the time to prominence. Mercy Otis Warren, tutored in classical literature alongside her brothers, authored poetry and satirical plays that supported the Revolution and stirred the affections of the colonists.

A similar story can be told of the enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley, who inspired the young nation through her verse. Influenced by the evangelical minister George Whitefield, Wheatley’s enslavers provided her with a classical education alongside their own children. Upon receiving a poem from Wheatley, George Washington wrote, “The style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your great poetical talents.”

Adams, Warren, and Wheatley stood out because they were educated for citizenship. That’s what an education grounded in the classics – the best that has been written and thought in human history – can do. It produces people equipped to think deeply, to reason morally, and to lead wisely.

Americans intuitively yearn for this type of education.

In a recent poll of more than 2,400 people conducted by the Institute for Governance and Civics at Florida State University, participants were asked what would make U.S. education better. The most popular responses – selected by roughly 85% of respondents – included requiring schools to teach the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and mandating an approach to civics that focuses on the Constitution. Seventy-eight percent supported requiring students to demonstrate competence in American history to graduate high school. And 67% favored an education focused on the great texts of Western Civilization – the very texts Adams, Warren, and Wheatley read.

It may be time to move on from coding, but the danger is that we’ll simply replace it with yet another skill set that will soon become obsolete. That would be short-sighted. Today’s students must be trained for the job market – and also prepared for the responsibilities of self-government. Job skills change. Technologies fade. But an education grounded in civic understanding is timeless and can provide long-term stability to our republic.

James V. Shuls, Ph.D., is the Head of K-12 Education Reform at the Institute for Governance and Civics at Florida State University.