“IS THERE HOPE FOR AMERICA #3-OUR CHRISTIAN …
“IS THERE HOPE FOR AMERICA #3-OUR CHRISTIAN BEGINNINGS
MICAH 6:8
INTRO: In the summer of 2002, Americans were shocked when two circuit
court judges took it upon themselves to declare the phrase “under
God” in our Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. I think this
decision was a wake-up call to millions of Americans. President
George W. Bush called the decision “ridiculous” and said it was out
of step with our traditions, including the Declaration of Independence,
which acknowledges God. Politicians, even the more liberal ones,
were falling all over themselves to see who could get to a microphone
first to decry the decision. They raced to the television cameras to be
seen saying the Pledge of Allegiance, including the banned phrase
“under God.” (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. What If
America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 201).
Friends, the question is why did such a thing happen? After many
decades of the faulty view of “the separation of church and state”, it
is understandable that a liberal judge would come to this conclusion.
While God’s people have remained silent, the liberal, anti-God crowd
has been making inroads in our society. Proverbs 29:2 says—“When
the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked
beareth rule, the people mourn.” If we are ever going to reclaim America
for God, we must get back the historical interpretation of the First
Amendment. Anytime religion is mentioned within the confines of
government today people cry, "Separation of Church and State". Many
people think this statement appears in the first amendment of the U.S.
Constitution and therefore must be strictly enforced. However, the
words: "separation", "church", and "state" do not even appear in the
first amendment. The first amendment reads, "Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof..." (The Myth of Separation of Church and State.
).
Friends, our founding fathers came to this country to live their lives in
praise and worship to God as they saw fit without interference from any
government entity, not to isolate God from the public lives, but to
include Him in all areas of their lives. Where our Country finds itself
today is a far cry from what our founding fathers intended when they
came to this land. Abraham Lincoln was the first President to use the
phrase, "This nation under God." It inspired President Eisenhower, in
1954, to add the words "one nation under God" to the Pledge of
Allegiance. -- "The Untold Story of Christianity & The Civil War,"
Christian History, no. 33. This nation truly was founded as ONE
NATION UNDER GOD. But swiftly we see our beloved nation drifting
away from its Christian beginnings. If America is going to return to her
greatness we must heed the words of Micah 6:8—“He hath showed
thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to
do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” I want to
speak on the subject this morning—OUR CHRISTIAN BEGINNINGS.
Please note with me…
(1) A BASIC MISUNDERSTANDING
A. A COMMON MISCONCEPTION. The phrase “separation of church and
state” is nowhere to be found in any official U.S. document. The statement
about a wall of separation between church and state was made in a letter
on January 1, 1802, by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist
Association of Connecticut. The congregation heard a widespread rumor
that the Congregationalists, another denomination, were to become the
national religion. This was very alarming to people who knew about
religious persecution in England by the state established church. Jefferson
made it clear in his letter to the Danbury Congregation that the separation
was to be that government would not establish a national religion or dictate
to men how to worship God. Jefferson's letter from which the phrase
"separation of church and state" was taken affirmed first amendment
rights. (The Myth of Separation of Church and State.
). This phrase
from the writings of Thomas Jefferson was not about isolating God from
public life but about prohibiting a state church. Jefferson wrote:
“I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus
building a wall of separation between Church and State. (Thomas Jefferson,
Jefferson Writings, Merrill D. Peterson, ed. (NY: Literary Classics of the
United States, Inc., 1984), p. 510, January 1, 1802.)
The reason Jefferson choose the expression "separation of church and state"
was because he was addressing a Baptist congregation; a denomination of
which he was not a member. Jefferson wanted to remove all fears that the
state would make dictates to the church. He was establishing common
ground with the Baptists by borrowing the words of Roger Williams, one of
the Baptist's own prominent preachers. Williams had said:
“When they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between
the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world, God hath ever
broke down the wall itself, removed the candlestick, and made his garden a
wilderness, as at this day. And that there fore if He will ere please to restore
His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled in peculiarly
unto Himself from the world...” (John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the
Constitution (MI: Baker Book House, 1987), p. 243.) The "wall" was
understood as one-directional; its purpose was to protect the church from
the state. The world was not to corrupt the church, yet the church was free
to teach the people Biblical values. (The Myth of Separation of Church and
State. ).
B. A CORRUPT MISAPPLICATION. The blight of the misapplication of
“separation of church and state” has been the root cause of many evil
decisions made in our society. The church state which the First
Amendment was intended to prohibit was the very reason that drove many
people to flee to the new world to begin with. They came seeking religious
freedom. The design was to take the state out of the church, not the church
out of the state!
ILLUS: But the term “separation of church and state” is used today for a
multitude of evils. Joshua Hendrickson, a junior in a public high
school, is blind. While silently reading his Braille Bible in the
lunchroom, some friends asked him to read aloud. He happened
to be reading in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. When he did,
the principal found out, and suspended the boy for three days,
putting this on the boy’s permanent record. Suppose the boy
wasn’t blind, and he was turning the pages of Playboy or some
other pornographic magazine. Would he be suspended for three
days and have it on his permanent record? It’s almost as if the
Bible is X-rated in our public schools. (D. James Kennedy with
Jerry Newcombe. What If America Were A Christian Nation Again?
Pp. 201-202).
Government was never meant to be our master as in a ruthless monarchy or dictatorship. Instead, it was to be our servant. The founding fathers believed that the people have full power to govern themselves and that people chose to give up some of their rights for the general good and the protection of rights. Each person should be self-governed and this is why virtue is so important. Government was meant to serve the people by protecting their liberty and rights, not serve by an enormous amount of social programs. The authors of the Constitution wanted the government to have as little power as possible so that if authority was misused it would not cause as much damage. Yet they wanted government to have enough authority to protect the rights of the people. The worldview at the time of the founding of our government was a view held by the Bible: that Man's heart is corrupt and if the opportunity to advance oneself at the expense of another arose, more often than not, we would choose to do so. They firmly believed this and that's why an enormous effort to set up checks and balances took place. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. They wanted to make certain that no man could take away rights given by God. They also did not set up the government as a true democracy, because they believed, as mentioned earlier, Man tends towards wickedness. Just because the majority wants something does not mean that it should be granted, because the majority could easily err. Government was not to be run by whatever the majority wanted but instead by principle, specifically the principles of the Bible. (The Myth of Separation of Church and State. ).
The documentary evidences of the Christian origin of our nation would fill many volumes. We have seen A BASIC MISUNDERSTANDING concerning “separation of church and state”, but let us also see…
(2) A BLESSED MANDATE
PSALM 33:12—“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the
people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”
A. A CHRISTIAN FOCUS. Was this nation truly founded upon Christian
principles and with a Christian focus in view from the beginning? The
Supreme Court of the United States thoroughly studied this issue, and in
1892 gave us what is known as the Trinity Decision. In this decision, the
Supreme Court declared, “These, and many other matters which might be
Noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic
Utterances that this is a Christian nation.” (D. James Kennedy with
Jerry Newcombe. What If America Were A Christian Nation Again? Pp. 203-
204). Friends, this is where we started as a nation. “One nation under
God”! But it seems that our focus has been corrupted. We have lost our
moral compass and are in dire straits as a nation!
B. A COURAGEOUS FAITH. John Quincy Adams said, “the highest glory of
the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond,
the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” “One
indissoluble bond,” Government and Christianity. Well, today there are
those who have come with their solvents of unbelief, skepticism, atheism,
Marxism, humanism, and secularism and are doing everything in their
power to totally dissolved that indissoluble bond. Some will say, “Yes, but
doesn’t the First Amendment say there should be a wall of separation
between church and state?”…The First Amendment never mentions “a wall,”
it never mentions “separation,” it never mentions the “church,” it never
mentions the “state”. The First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof…” (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. What If America Were
A Christian Nation Again? p. 204). Friends, this is what our founding
fathers courageously fought for: A CHRISTIAN NATION!
Even as late as 1775-150 years after the Pilgrims landed—the makeup of
America was 98.4 percent Protestant, 1.4 percent Catholic, and .2 percent
Jewish. (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. What If America Were
A Christian Nation Again? p. 205). Listen to what some of our patriots
declared:
➢ George Washington said, “True religion offers to government its surest support.” In fact, Washington said that without a humble imitation of Christ we could never hope to be a happy nation.
➢ Samuel Adams, who was called the firebrand of the American Revolution, said, “Let divines and philosophers, statesmen, and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by impressing the minds of men with the importance of education their little boys and girls, of inculcating in the minds of youth the fear and love of Deity.
➢ Charles Hodge, probably the greatest theologian America ever produced, who was sometimes called the glory and jewel and crown of Princeton Theological Seminary, said, “The proposition that the United States of America is a Christian and Protestant nation, is not so much the assertion of principle, as the statement of fact” (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. What if America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 205).
ILLUS: Our U.S. Constitution was founded on Biblical principles and it was
the intention of the authors for this to be a Christian nation. The
Constitution had 55 people work upon it, of which 52 were evangelical
Christians. (M.E. Bradford, A Worthy Company: Brief Lives of the
Framers of the United States Constitution (Marlborough, N.H.:
Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1982), p. 4-5.) We can go back in history
and look at what the founding fathers wrote to know where they were
getting their ideas. This is exactly what two professors did. Donald
Lutz and Charles Hyneman reviewed an estimated 15,000 items with
explicit political content printed between 1760 and 1805 and from
these items they identified 3,154 references to other sources. The
source they most often quoted was the Bible, accounting for 34% of all
citations. Sixty percent of all quotes came from men who used the
Bible to form their conclusions. That means that 94% of all quotes by
the founding fathers were based on the Bible. The founding fathers
took ideas from the Bible and incorporated them into our government.
If it was their intention to separate the state and church they would
never have taken principles from the Bible and put them into our
government. An example of an idea taken from the Bible and then
incorporated into our government is found in Isaiah 33:22 which says,
"For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our
king..." The founding fathers took this scripture and made three major
branches in our government: judicial, legislative, and executive. As
mentioned earlier, the founding fathers strongly believed that Man was
by nature corrupt and therefore it was necessary to separate the
powers of the government. For instance, the President has the power
to execute laws but not make them, and Congress has the power to
make laws but not to judge the people. The simple principle of checks
and balances came from the Bible to protect people from tyranny. The
President of the United States is free to influence Congress, although
he can not exercise authority over it because they are separated.
Since this is true, why should the church not be allowed to influence
the state? People have read too much into the phrase "separation of
church and state", which is to be a separation of civil authority from
ecclesiastical authority, not moral values. Congress has passed laws
that it is illegal to murder and steal, which is the legislation of
morality. These standards of morality are found in the Bible. Should
we remove them from law because the church should be separated
from the state? (The Myth of Separation of Church and State.
).
We have looked at A BASIC MISUNDERSTANDING, A BLESSED MANDATE, and finally let us see…
(3) A BELIEVABLE MISSION
PROVERBS 14:34—“ Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a
reproach to any people.”
A. A REMBRANCE OF GOD. Consider some of our nation’s founding
documents:
➢ THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Our nation’s birth certificate, if you will, mentions God four times. And in each of these in no small way. God is the source of our rights, according to this document. The Declaration was drafted upon the premise, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29). Matthew Henry said, “if men's commands and God's interfere God's commands must take place.” (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary. e-Sword. Version 7.6.1. Copyright 2000-2005. Rick Meyers. All Rights Reserved Worldwide).
➢ THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. The forerunner to our Constitution was this document, adopted in 1777, which also remembers God. In fact, the Constitutional Convention initially met in order to revise the Articles, not to create a totally new document. The Articles say of God, “And whereas it has pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual union…” (D. James Kennedy with Jerry Newcombe. What if America Were A Christian Nation Again? p. 209).
➢ THE CONSTITUTION. This document explicitly signed “in the year of our Lord.” This document mentions God and also affirms the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Constitution was finally ratified in 1789, Congress was so thankful that they requested President George Washington to declare a national day of thanksgiving to God to honor the event.
➢ THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE. The same men who gave us the First Amendment also wrote this document. It was written in 1787 and adopted that year and also again in 1789. It stated, “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged.”
➢ THE TREATY OF PARIS. This document negotiated by Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay, acknowledged the Trinity as it made official our separation from Great Britain. How does it begin, “In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.”
B. A RELIANCE UPON GOD. Not only did our founding fathers show forth A
REMEMBRANCE OF GOD but also they showed A RELIANCE UPON GOD
in the founding of this great nation. Consider how they showed their great
reliance upon God:
➢ CHAPLAINS. Chaplains have been on the public payroll from the very beginning of this Country.
➢ CONSTITUTIONS. The Constitutions of all 50 states mention God in one way or another.
➢ THE LIBERTY BELL. Did you know that the Liberty Bell has a Bible verse engraved on it? It proudly proclaims: “Proclaim Liberty throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof.” (Leviticus 25:10).
➢ THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. Our national anthem shows our reliance upon God. Especially the fourth stanza: “And this is our motto: In God is our Trust.”
➢ PRESIDENTS. Every president from George Washington to George W. Bush, have been sworn in on the Bible, saying these words, “So help me God.” Also prayers have been said at the swearing in of every president. Every president has called for national days of prayer, fasting, of thanksgiving. Every president that has given an inaugural address has mentioned God.
➢ OUR FOUNDING FATHERS. Our founding fathers quoted the Bible often in their writings. Two professors of political science conducted a major study on more than fifteen thousand books, monographs, pamphlets, articles, and so on from 1750 to 1805, the founding era. They discovered that 34 percent of the quotations came from the Bible, far more than any other source.
➢ COURTS. Oaths in courtrooms have invoked God from the very start.
➢ HOLIDAYS. We have celebrated our Savior’s birth for centuries as a nation. Thanksgiving has been an unofficial holiday since the pilgrim’s time.
➢ NATIONAL BUILDINGS AND MONUMENTS. God is mentioned in stone all over Washington, D. C.. Many of these were constructed in the 1930s. If they had been built earlier, there would no doubt have been more references to God. If the ACLU had its way, all references to God would be sandblasted off these buildings. For example, the Washington Monument has written at the top, “Praise be to God” and a number of Bible verses are quoted below. The Supreme Court building has carvings of Moses and of the Ten Commandments. Emblazoned above the Speaker of the House in the U. S. Capitol are the words “IN GOD WE TRUST.”
➢ SOCIETY OF REFORM. Consider how the Church has been instrumental in reforming society: Dueling was banned around the turn of the nineteenth century, Slavery was abolished by a largely Christian movement, Prohibition began because of the concern of Christian women to the ravages of alcohol, the civil rights movement used churches as their bases of operation, and recently, Operation Rescue clearly had its origins in Scripture.
CLOSING: Friends, we have seen today that our blessed country had
CHRISTIAN BEGINNINGS. We looked at A BASIC
MISUNDERSTANDING, A BLESSED MANDATE, and A
BELIEVABLE MISSION. Our founding fathers loved this country
and believed in this country. The question is, “Will we?”
IS THERE HOPE FOR AMERICA? Yes, but it is time for us to have
the courage to SPEAK UP and STAND UP. It’s time we say,
“ENOUGH!” to the godless forces who are causing are nation is
sink deeper and deeper into the cesspool of sin.
In spring of 1999, Michelle Shocks, a pregnant women was riding a
bus in Seattle, Washington. She struck up a conversation with a
fellow passenger, and they began to discuss church. She told him
about church, and he was quite receptive to it. The bus driver
overheard the conversation and asked them both to come forward.
The driver told them to stop talking about God in this public setting.
If they didn’t, they would have to kick them off. Michelle was
shocked at this and returned to her seat. The gentleman next to her
asked a quick question about what they had been discussing before
since they weren’t finished with it. The bus driver then declared,
“That’s it. At the next stop, you two are off my bus!”
Even though she was pregnant, it was pouring rain, and the next
bus would not come for quite a while, even though religious liberty
(not to mention free speech) is protected by the Constitution, and
even thought this took place on Good Friday, Michelle got kicked off
the bus for talking about God with a fellow passenger. She walked
at least a mile in the rain, on the side of the highway, and felt like a
drowned rat when she finally got home.” (D. James Kennedy with
Jerry Newcombe. What if America Were A Christian Nation Again? Pp.
220-221).
Friends, almost all of our founding fathers would have been thrown
off that bus. Would we have? Do we have the courage to STAND UP
and SPEAK UP for what we believe in? America finds itself at the
crossroads, which way America? Satan’s way or God’s way?
Friends, us who believe, let us pray and witness that America will go
God’s way!
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