Begun twenty five hundred years after the age of the Hebrew prophet, America's historical life has spanned two hundred thirty three years and thus she is still a young nation, one which looks forward to awakening to ever dawning horizons and climbing heretofore unachieved heights. Her journal tells us that, at the beginning, she was borne, birthed and bundled in liberty, something no other nation child in the history of man could say. In that sense, her birth was of a virgin, miraculous nature - only in the power and purpose of Providence could such a conception have been possible. An unbiased study of the words of her founders and early settlers will tell the honest seeker that they certainly believed that truth.
“ The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity… I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.” John Adams
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams
“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day, the Fourth of July?" “Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity"? John Quincy Adams
" Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." Charles Carroll
“ God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel” Benjamin Franklin
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” James Madison
“ At the time of the adoption of the constitution, and of the amendment to it, now under consideration [i.e., the First Amendment], the general, if not the universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship.” Joseph Story
“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people...Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God. . . . If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws." Noah Webster
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge in the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle..." George Washington
America's unique beginning is the first reason why she is indeed an exceptional child. She was blessed with inheriting from her ancestral heroes twin towers of guaranteed liberty - the simultaneous paradox of having a burning desire for freedom and independence from all earthly tyranny and yet absolute submission and dependence upon all heavenly authority.
Her birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, written in indelible ink upon her soul, reveals to the world the heart's desire of her fathers:
"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, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness...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."
Out from Jefferson's pen, which traced Whitefield's God-inspired voice, flowed the sentiments of virtually every American - the expression of their collective mind and the revelation of their mindful convictions were written across the canvas of '76 for all the world to see - 'WE hold these truths to be self-evident' - her birth announcement called all peoples everywhere to celebrate the miracle and come to the manger to see what God had wrought. The first truth, while self-evident, is also preeminent - 'that ALL men are created equal.' A statement of Biblical truth, proclaiming universal inclusion, absolute application, and Created equality. In the sovereign will and choice of God, all of His children are created in His image and they all are recipients of His choicest gifts - the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
These precious gifts are given from above and as such they are eternal, good and perfect. Civil authority has no power in the eyes of God to give them or take them away - the sole purpose of human authority is to secure these rights - to guarantee them for all of America's progeny that all might have hope in them for all future time. Power used to destroy these rights is tyrannical in nature and complicit in it's own demise - it has abdicated it's rightful authority and it does not deserve to endure, thus, it is the duty of the governed to withdraw their consent and rescind the power they had allowed the authority to borrow.
America was originally dedicated to the eternal proposition of equality of person that affirmed the inherent value and dignity of every life. Every human being had a natural right to life, liberty, and individual possession of property and purpose - the pursuit of happiness. That foundational premise was laid in eternity past, based upon the blueprint drawn by the Architect of the Ages. It did not derive from the mind of mortal man and is not subject to the machinations of his mutable musings. It is an inviolate truth upon which rests the hope of all humanity.
Any existing flaw is neither in the Architect nor the foundation and structure of pristine principle which He has established, but in the corrupted nature of the guardians of America's egalitarian estate. In the course of her life, the young child has grown to be a beautiful lady, one who has established, defended, and advanced the blessings of liberty to millions in all corners of the world. She has served as an inspiration and a model to all those bruised and battered souls who have yearned to breathe free - lady liberty has lifted her torch beside the golden door, beckoning the tempest tossed to her shores of opportunity and hope. The peoples of the world still look and still yearn, still sacrifice all to come to live in this God kissed land and establish a home that provides so sure a foundation of boundless hope.
That having been affirmed, not America, but her great friend, Israel, is certainly the most blessed and benevolent of nations because, in God's sovereign choice, hers are the patriarchs, the prophets, the covenants, and the Saviour of all mankind. Yet America remains second to none in terms of being the fountainhead of earthly good. Truly, America's greatness is in that goodness which she has shared with all mankind, a goodness so great that the world is warmed by it's glory. America has been and remains, in the words of her political redeemer, 'God's almost chosen people' - 'the last, best hope of earth.' Throughout history, no other nation state has impacted the world for good like America - she has no peer as an acolyte of freedom and a model of Christian charity - she truly has been a city set upon a hill, lighting the darkness and leading the distressed toward the safety of home.
Indeed, when full consideration is given to her words and works, America is clearly seen in all of her wondrous splendor. The following facts are indisputable and a candid world must be ever grateful for them: The founding of America provided for the first time in the history of the world an unalterable basis for human freedom and equality - literally millions at home and around the world have been the beneficiary. The New World has helped to rescue the Old from tyranny and enslavement on at least three occasions in the past century - untold millions are alive and living in freedom because of American courage and sacrifice - the sacred blood of American youth is incorporate in the soil of free nations everywhere. More missionaries and humanitarian servants have gone forth from America than from any other land - it is not an exaggeration to say that entire nations and continents have been restored from rubble to riches through the generosity of America. More importantly, millions have come to a saving knowledge of God's amazing grace and experienced spiritual freedom from the bondage of sin because myriad multitudes of America's children have been compelled by the love of Christ to go into all the world. Additionally, more earthly needs have been met through American kindness and provision than can be fathomed - she is truly the world's great benefactor. American ingenuity and enterprise have done more to raise the living conditions of more people in more places than any other system of economic production - millions live need filled lives as a result. Economically, militarily, politically, and religiously, this great nation has been the champion of freedom and done much to fulfill her destiny and high calling as ambassadors of liberty and love - her national legacy surpasses all others, enveloping more people than any other in freedom's sure embrace.
Nonetheless, if her living children are honest, they must admit that there are some things against her - she continues to walk the path of liberty, to be sure, yet, at times, she has strayed from the way of righteousness described above to travel byways of sin and forgetfulness. Her sin has always been most glaring and unseemly when she has forgotten God and thus missed meeting the lofty, idyllic bar of human equality. The nature of her transgression in this regard is seen most vividly in four distinct fault lines which run through the templates of her history.
First, in her treatment of the native born son - Despite many well intentioned religious and political efforts to protect the Indian, thousands, after these failed attempts at assimilation, were removed from their ancestral land, trailing behind them a torrent of tears that remind us still of the injustice - The effort toward effecting a proper relationship between the national government and the Indian nations, while in many cases well intentioned, is certainly an example of public policy being used to justify unwise ends and unfair means - there had to have been a better way. Many were continually pushed, pursued, mistreated, neglected, brutalized and killed, largely because they were regarded with fear as savage and brutish or seen as not deserving of the equal blessings of civil and natural rights:
"In 1830, just a year after taking office, Andrew Jackson pushed a new piece of legislation called the "Indian Removal Act" through both houses of Congress. It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would become citizens of their home state. This act affected not only the southeastern nations, but many others further north. The removal was supposed to be voluntary and peaceful, and it was that way for the tribes that agreed to the conditions. But the southeastern nations resisted, and Jackson forced them to leave.
Jackson's attitude toward Native Americans was paternalistic and patronizing -- he described them as children in need of guidance. and believed the removal policy was beneficial to the Indians. Most white Americans thought that the United States would never extend beyond the Mississippi. Removal would save Indian people from the depredations of whites, and would resettle them in an area where they could govern themselves in peace. But some Americans saw this as an excuse for a brutal and inhumane course of action, and protested loudly against removal." (pbs.org/Indian removal)
"It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages.The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it promises to the Government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community. What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization and religion? The present policy of the Government is but a continuation of the same progressive change by a milder process. The tribes which occupied the countries now constituting the Eastern States were annihilated or have melted away to make room for the whites. The waves of population and civilization are rolling to the westward, and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied by the red men of the South and West by a fair exchange, and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to land where their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual. Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what do they more than our ancestors did or than our children are now doing? To better their condition in an unknown land our forefathers left all that was dear in earthly objects. Our children by thousands yearly leave the land of their birth to seek new homes in distant regions. Does Humanity weep at these painful separations from everything, animate and inanimate, with which the young heart has become entwined? Far from it. It is rather a source of joy that our country affords scope where our young population may range unconstrained in body or in mind, developing the power and facilities of man in their highest perfection. These remove hundreds and almost thousands of miles at their own expense, purchase the lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new homes from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this Government when, by events which it can not control, the Indian is made discontented in his ancient home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode? How many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the West on such conditions! If the offers made to the Indians were extended to them, they would be hailed with gratitude and joy. And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his home than the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting to him to leave the graves of his fathers than it is to our brothers and children? Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the General Government kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of his removal and settlement." Andrew Jackson's Second Annual Message to Congress
The question was complex and the wisdom of the solution can be argued - the greater sin, it seems, was in the breaking of the promise that, once having been resettled, the government would allow the Indian to live in peace. The promise once given should have been kept - it was not. Ultimately, in comparison to the whole, all but a very few acres were wrested from the hand of the red to rest in the hand of the white.
Similarly, the sin of American slavery, a despotic and demonic institution whose life spanned two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil, was destructive beyond human comprehension. In it's final, glorious death throes, Lincoln spoke in his second inaugural address, of the life of this death dealing institution and it's impact upon the nation:
So rooted in the rock hard soil of man's sinful and selfish heart, it required the death of over six hundred thousand American children to remove it. Indeed since that sacrificial work and divine judgement, untold more have toiled, suffered and died to destroy the replanted seeds of segregation and racial prejudice - the timeless, essential work continues:
"Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.' Martin Luther King Jr.
In these words, we hear an American prophetic voice calling, one hundred years after the liberator of his race prayed for America itself to be born again unto freedom, for the sanctifying work to continue unto eternity. May the words of both be heeded and lived.
Abortion - the murder of a human being - a precious child in the comfort of a mother's womb - is an ever spreading stain upon the soul of America and she must weep in shame and sorrow for unrealized potential and exterminated lives. It is her children she is killing and the very blood of her blood that is being shed! Over forty million, never hers to nurse, nurture, and raise in the blessings of liberty - America must tremble at the knowledge that God is the Supreme Judge of the Universe.
The blood of the innocent, like Abel's, cries out from the ground as a resounding witness and indictment upon us all - every moment, however, we stand, still unmoved, still silent, still not our brother's keeper, as one after another are wrenched through the torn veil of eternity.
Finally and incredibly, worst of all, is America's amnesia concerning the Source of all of her blessings, all of her liberty, all of her goodness and her very life itself. It is not a new phenomena:
It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author.”
“ The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal." Thomas Paine
Simply put, America has forgotten God. History has shown that when this has occurred in other nations, God's judgment comes as He looses the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. The grapes of wrath are being stored up and ultimately, apart from national repentance, they will be pressed out until His cup of undiluted fury is filled to overflowing.
“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” Thomas Jefferson
America is in the process of exchanging life for death, liberty for tyranny, absolute Truth for moral relativism, the eternal for the temporal, the heavenly for the earthly, the spiritual for the material, Christianity for Humanism, God for man. Nothing short of America dropping to her knees in contrition and confession will save her from a weakened and eventually shortened life. We must emulate the proclamation issued by Father Abraham, March 30, 1863:
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation:
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and, of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
Abraham Lincoln
While not new, the lack of an acknowledgment of God in all our ways has reached new levels - millions today would remove all vestiges of His Presence from America's life. This is perhaps best seen in the understanding that such a proclamation as noted above would not be tolerated today by those who would deny the very existence and recognition of our manifold sins and God's absolute authority. Truly, our varied sins have this in common - they all involve the forgetting of God and His truth, the denial of His sovereignty, wisdom, precepts, and blessing. America once, despite her sins, acknowledged the hand and will of God in her life and valued it above all - she is now in the process of giving it all away and allowing herself to be turned over to dark and malevolent forces. Those of you who love her, know and heed this clarion call: America is in danger of death by suicide. Who will help her? Who will warn her? Who will intervene? Who will intercede? Who will raise a voice and stand for Truth? Who will take her by the hand, walk her down the aisle, and kneel with her at the foot of the Cross, that she might remember and return to her first love? Her life and the life of her posterity hang in the balance. God is asking for someone to lead her in the Way again. Who will go for us? For her? Will you? May God raise up a generation of Isaiah's who will boldly and courageously say, "Here I am, send Me!" It is America's - it is our - only hope.
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