America Bless God

AMERICA  BLESS  GOD

“Look to the rock from which you were hewn” (Isaiah 51:1).

Scores of years ago, man’s Father brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in biblical liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men stand before the face of their Creator-God.  Nonetheless, the leaders of these United States of America have entered into uncharted territory by harloting in a spiritual hemorrhage.  They have forgotten the Rock from whence this nation was hewn.  

America is being driven by the gods of:
1.    Affluence and the accumulation of wealth
2.    Comfort
3.    Recreation
4.    Glorification of materialism
5.    Personal peace at all costs
6.    Radical individualism
7.    Tolerance of all but righteousness
8.    Mistaken progress
9.    Looking to man for answers rather than the Bible
10.  Striving for retirement rather than handing down to the next generation an eternal labor

Humanism, a value system rooted in the belief that man is his own autonomous measure, is influencing every area of American life.  It fosters the rejection of absolute truth.  If Americans continue along this implosive path, they will deprove to a sub-human depravity where they can no longer disagree with Cain’s killing of Able, Hitler and Stalin’s annihilation of the Jews or the racial genocide occurring this very day on the continents of Africa and Asia.

A secularistic/humanistic value system lurches a nation toward self-destruction.  Your Bible was not made in the USA, but the God of your Bible did gift your commonwealth to this fallen world that it might be a city set upon a hill.  From whence have you come and where are you to go?  Muse upon the spiritual moorings of a new Israel founded upon the Decalogue and the two foremost commandments (Mark 12:28-31).

PRE-1776

America commenced as an idea and an ideal.  It was the fruition of the terra firma of Augustine, the liberty of Luther and the capitalism of Calvin.  It was the culmination of the immigration of the English Puritans, Scots Covenanters, French Huguenots, Dutch Calvinists and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of Ulster.  

The history of your United States is bespangled with those brave souls who believe that the kingdom of God can truly be realized in their lifetimes.  Nevertheless, to realize that gift, men must live for the Christ rather than for worldly kingdoms.  Christopher Columbus knew the cost of this new kingdom and on every island he set foot during his journey to American shores, he had his men erect a large wooden cross “as a token of Jesus Christ our Lord, and in honor of the Christian faith.”

On June 8th, 1630, John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, set before his shipmates on the flagship Arabella the true task of statecraft.  He borrowed from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount when He declared:

“We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when He shall make us a praise and glory, that men of succeeding plantations shall say, ‘The Lord made it like that of New England.’  For we must consider that we shall be as a City set upon a Hill….” 

John Winthrop and those of his ilk battled against their city on a hill becoming a tower of Babel.  A tower of Babel is a site where men build for themselves a city and make for themselves a name (Genesis 11:4).  Babels are where independence becomes the consummate virtue at the expense of dependence upon the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 8:5ff.; Judges 21:25).  As your American Puritan brethren opined:

• “Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother.”  – Cotton Mather
• “Prosperity is too fulsome a diet for any man… unless seasoned with some grains of adversity.” – Judge Sewall
• “Better is it that Israel be saved and prosperity lost, than that prosperity be saved and Israel lost.” – John Danforth

There can be little question concerning one of the primary purposes of the early settlers coming to America.  The Massachusetts’ State Seal depicts an American Indian chief with the inscription of the famous request from the Macedonian in Acts 16:9, “Come over… and help us.”  In addition, the Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declares in part:

“To win and incite the natives of that country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind and the Christian Faith, [is] in our royal intention and the adventurers’ free profession, the principal end of the  plantation.”

Those early settlers of your beloved nation founded Harvard College in 1636 because they feared leaving “an illiterate ministry to the churches.”  In 1693, Anglicans of Virginia established the College of William and Mary “for the breeding of good ministers.”  The Congregationalists originated Yale in 1701 after Harvard had liberalized its position concerning the Lord Christ and His truth.

Christianity was the acknowledged faith of the colonists.  On the cusp of your declaration of independence from England, one of Great Britain’s Crown-appointed governors wrote to the Board of Trade in England: “If you ask an American, ‘Who is your master?’  He will tell you, ‘None, nor any governor, but Jesus Christ.’”

1776

Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.  The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country.  What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.  Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods.”  Wars try men’s souls because in the season of war, allegiances are defined and declared.

Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” speech was delivered in the year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  Mr. Henry (1736-1799) was a member of the First Continental Congress and was the first governor of the State of Virginia.  His address was delivered at the Virginia Convention, St. John’s Church, Richmond, Virginia, March 23rd, 1775. This excerpt from the speech rivets your attention upon the strength of your founder’s trust in the Almighty God of Scripture:

“Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.  Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.  Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone.  There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise friends to fight our battles for us.  The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone, it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.  Besides, sir, we have no election.  If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to return from the contest.  There is no retreat but in submission and slavery!  Our chains are forged!  Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston!  The war is inevitable – and let it come!  I repeat it, sir, let it come!

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.  Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace! – but there is no peace ….  Our brethren are already in the field!  Why stand we here idle?  What is it that gentlemen wish?  What would they have?  Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take, but as for me: Give me liberty, or give me death!”

Governments cannot be neutral toward religion.  Secularism is a religion.  When the policies of a government are divorced from Christianity the state is ceded to an anti-Christian ideology.  Neutrality is a myth.  

The members of the Continental Congress forged upon the anvil of Christianity a document rivaled only by the Magna Charta.  With the signing of this august manuscript the United States of America was birthed as a desire with only a war to be fought in order to bring the concept to fruition.  This Declaration of Independence leaves no doubt as to Whom allegiance is due:

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights….We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

Many have contended that George Washington was a deist.  However his own writings rivet one’s attention upon Christ.  William Johnson wrote a book titled George Washington, the Christian, wherein a number of revealing prayers written out in General Washington’s own hand are reproduced.  Two of these prayers may be helpful to read in order to appreciate the significance of your first President’s relationship with your Savior.

• “Direct my thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit… daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son Jesus Christ.”
• “Thou gavest Thy Son to die for me; and hast given me assurance of salvation, upon my repentance and sincerely endeavoring to conform my life to His holy precepts and example.”

The United States of America is not a mosaic – it is one nation under God whether the people acknowledge God or not.  God addresses nations on a corporate basis throughout Scripture.  Why would anyone expect God to have a different attitude toward these United States?

Your government should be governed by the principles of historic Protestantism while at the same time giving full religious freedom to those of differing beliefs.  That has been the position of your courts until recent years when secularism reared its venomous serpentine head.

DEMOCRACY – A  REPUBLICAN  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT

The American form of government cannot succeed except in a milieu pervaded with Christianity.  An effective democracy requires a voluntary surrender of rights, lifestyles and agenda.  A true social contract between the individual units within a nation requires a covenant relationship with Christ.  

Benjamin Franklin, who declared that he was not a Christian, wrote to the French in 1778 stating, “He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world.”  Mr. Franklin knew the truth even if he did not trust the Truth.

The Constitution of these United States of America embodies much of Christian political thought.  The system of checks and balances between the three branches of government works because it recognizes that man’s motives are impure and he always forever is totally depraved in nature and judgment.  If the framers of the Constitution had forged this document under the assumption that man is good, there would be no union of states today.  

Two years after the American Revolution the French revolted and attempted to found a democratic government.  Nonetheless, theirs was unsuccessful because it was founded upon the poison of the Enlightenment.  Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political thinker and diplomat, toured the United States and was impressed by the position Americans took in regard to the indispensability of Christianity as the undergirding of democracy.  He placed his political and spiritual finger upon the heart of the matter when he said, “There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.”  

Subsequent to Mr. de Tocqueville’s visit to America in 1831, he wrote back to his French governors, declaring:

“I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests – and it was not there.  I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning – and it was not there.  I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

How would you describe your United States in the light of Mr. de Tocqueville’s splendid declaration?

SEPARATING  GOD  FROM  MAN

The Constitution of the United States prohibits Congress from establishing a national church, but the framers had no intentions of forbidding the government from all involvement with religion, and particularly the Christian religion. On the very day following the First Congress’ passage of the First Amendment they set aside a national day of prayer and thanksgiving!
Though the efforts of the anti-Christians are strong, God is still God.  He yet superintends the lives of His beloved.  He has allowed this American people much encouragement throughout the history of American jurisprudence.  The United States Supreme Court in Abington Township v. Schempp (1963), wrote:
“The state may not establish a ‘religion of secularism’ in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus, ‘preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe.’ …Refusal to permit religious exercise thus is seen, not as the realization of state neutrality, but rather as the establishment of a religion of secularism.”

Historic revisionists are stealing America’s ancient paths from the soul of this nation.  They are robbing you of your models, your heroes and the ethos of a truly Christian culture.  Christianity must prevail in every arena of life in these United States – in government, the family, business, education, science, the arts, media, technology, and the list goes on.

EPILOGUE

The most significant unreached people group in the world is American leadership.  No people group exerts as much influence on this universe as the American leaders in industry, commerce, government, education, media, science, the arts and technology.  Your leadership has traded your birthright for a bowl of porridge.  Your forefathers knew nothing of a United States without a Christ Jesus.

Why should America bless God?

National sins demand national punishments.  When a nation blessed with the light of the American Puritans, the courageous founders and the wise sustainers refuse the light of Christ, they can only expect God to remove His lampstand.  Death is hurrying – the pale horse with the brimstone breastplate is galloping toward your beloved country.  The arrow of death is fitted to the string, readied for its release.  Your responsibility is clear: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf: for in its welfare you will have welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).

How can America bless God?

Even as British Colonialists became Americans, so must you pledge allegiance to the King of kings.  You must experience and live a transfer of citizenship because your “citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).  You know the means to bless Christ:

• “And My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (II Chronicles 7:14).
• “Righteousness exalts a nation” (Proverbs 14:34).
• “If that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it” (Jeremiah 18:8).

The greatest generation this nation has known required graves and crosses in order to battle the onslaught of an evil empire.  Could we be on the cusp of more crosses and graves?

PRAYER  OF  NATIONAL  SUPPLICATION

God, we are in a political, societal, communal Dark Age where we are journeying through uncharted territory.  We have been hijacked by indifference to tolerance and tolerance of the intolerant.  Our society is “out of order,” our innocence has been stolen (or forfeited) and we are without passion, prayer and action.  Our Christianity has become so private that we cannot even identify it ourselves.

Our governments, and sadly many of our churches, are, through their actions and inactions, assuring us of a culture of death.  For some hellish reason we have come to believe that the number of people either voting or shouting in protest determines “right.”  

Our conversations are shallow, our society is without a rudder and we are hemorrhaging.  We cannot navigate our streets at night, the programming of the electronic media is shockingly dreadful and those who should be our shepherds have traded their souls for a bowl of porridge.  Other shepherds have absented themselves from the public square and no longer engage in the arena of civil debate believing that Your Bible has no place in the political and social affairs of men.  We have few sons of Issachar who are willing to lead us to the meadows of Runnymede on the bank of the Thames where we may forge once again a Magna Charta of liberty.

God, we do not seek to turn the clock back, but we do desire a radical transforming change because we have forfeited our moral compass, and His name is Jesus.  You owe this generation nothing, for we are but a race of sinners, but we need you.  We pray in tears trusting that the object of our tears will not perish.  We pray in the name of Jesus for the coming of the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ – that He will reign forever and ever.

SOLI  DEO  GLORIA!

“Look among the nations!  Observe!  Be astonished!  Wonder!
Because I am doing something in your days – you would not believe if you were told…” (Habakkuk 1:5)