Politics
America’s moral and spiritual value system is facing challenges daily from people who want any references of God and the Bible eliminated from the public sector of our land. Secular humanists, the national media, and the American Civil Liberties Union are doing everything with their power to discredit the influence that our Judeo-Christian heritage has had on our society. The credo of secular humanists is atheism, autonomous man, amorality, evolution, and socialism. The national media presupposes that they can change our Godly values by infiltrating our minds with the filth incorporated in the television programs that they produce. Their agenda is contrary to the agenda of God’s word. The ACLU promotes the separation of church and state which basically attempts to remove God from our governmental institutions and our public schools. (4)
However, the greatest challenge to God’s influence in our land has been the American Civil Liberties Union. From their inception, the ACLU has worked diligently to prevent any one religious group from being dominant in the United States. The ACLU has promoted the idea of a complete separation of church and state in our country. They have used all their resources to eliminate, at least in their eyes, the threat to America’s First Amendment freedoms. (7)
But, since many of the ideas that became part of our Constitution were straight from the Bible, then it would be safe to assume that the concept of the separation of church and state never entered our Founding Fathers’ mind. One such example would be contained in Isaiah 33:32 which states, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King….” This scripture was used as the basis of our three branches of government-the judicial, legislative, and executive. Therefore, based on this concept alone, the church should be allowed to influence the state, but the state should not dictate to the church. (16)
In Revelation 22:18, God stated that He would curse any one who added to or took away from his Holy Word. This is what modern-day humanistic leaders have done with the concept of the separation of church and state. They have added to Thomas Jefferson’s original separation of church and state speech made on January 1, 1802. Jefferson stated: “I contemplate with solemn reverence the 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.” (16) The purpose of this wall was to keep the state from interfering with the free worship of all people. Jefferson’s thought was not to prevent the church from influencing the state, but to prevent the state from dictating to the church. (16)
America desires a pluralistic society. However, this cannot actually be achieved. There will always be one majority group. The question is which group will it be-the Humanists or the Christians? This concept reminds me of the Old Roman Empire. Pagan worship was accepted but Christians were slaughtered for their beliefs. Then, in AD313, Constantine made Christianity a legal religion, and in AD395, Theodosius made Christianity the official religion within the Roman Empire. It is evident that one dominant view will spring forth. The problem is that today humanism is winning out over our Judeo-Christian heritage. (16)
Thomas Jefferson said what he meant and meant what he said about the separation of the church and state. His belief was that Congress should not establish a national religion. He did not promote the idea of the complete separation of the state from all church influence. However, Justice Hugo Black in the Supreme Court case of Everson v. Board of Education in 1947 stated: “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.” In other word, his opinion totally disregarded Thomas Jefferson’s opinion. (17)
Since 1947, the anti-Christian liberals have intensified their attack on the people they believe are hindering the development of our modern nation-the Christians. Two words that they enjoy demanding from the Christians are “diversity” and “tolerance.” But, at the same time, they are intolerant and insensitive toward a Christian’s view. They are not concerned with “freedom of religion.” They are more concerned about “freedom from religion.” They desire to rid our nation of any resemblance of a Christian nation. They want to create their own man-made religion that is ungodly and immoral. As stated earlier, they want their concept of the separation of church and state to become the dominant view. They desire to eliminate all Biblical principles from our governmental and educational systems. (17)
However, there is no Constitutional evidence that absolute separation of church and state was ever wanted by our forefathers. Since most of them were Christians, their personal religious views would naturally become part of any written document. Neutrality does not exist in the public area. Based on the frame of reference used by any politician, each politician would base his legislative opinions on a moral or immoral system. Of course, our Judeo-Christian beliefs must be at the center of the beliefs of a moral nation. As James Henley Thornwell so explicitly stated, “Our standard of right is that eternal law which God proclaimed from Sinai, and which Jesus expounded on the Mount. We recognize our responsibility to Jesus Christ. He is Head over all things to the church, and the nation that will not serve Him is doomed to perish.” (17)
Despite the original purpose of the First Amendment of our Constitution, humanistic atheists have their own ungodly agenda that they are trying to force us to accept as a nation. To them, the Constitution must be a secular document. There should not be any reference to Biblical principle associated with this great document. They refuse to accept that any religious issues were incorporated into the Constitution. They do not accept that the three branches of government came from the Bible as stated in Isaiah 33:32. Humanists refuse to accept the idea that our Constitution was influenced by the concepts of ethical monotheism as depicted in the Ten Commandments, too. This is the reason that strict separationists are working so diligently to remove the Ten Commandments from the public arena. (18)
Basically, they would like us to join them in their effort to boot God completely out of our nation. However, despite their firm belief in the separation of church and state, it is one-sided, also. They are attempting to promote their ideology of godliness to be incorporated into our way of life in America and into the principles of our Constitution. In reality, the “wall” that humanists say exist between church and state is only a facade used by separatists to deny religious freedom to anyone who believes different than them. (18)
Many people become furious when religion is associated with the Constitution and government. However, since the words “separation”, “church”, and “state” are not mentioned in the First Amendment to the Constitution, people should not claim that these words do exist. The words that Thomas Jefferson used were taken out of context. In fact, the words he used, since he was speaking to a Baptist congregation, were taken from a speech made by a Baptist minister named Roger Williams. Williams stated: “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 even 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 Him from the world…..” (16)
Jefferson was attempting to calm the fears of many people who were afraid that a national church would be established. The purpose of this so-called wall was to insure that the state would not infringe on the rights of the church. But, the church was still permitted to teach Biblical values. That’s the way Jefferson intended it to be then and now. Ultimately, the concept of the separation of church and state should not exist, and in fact, does not exist in the United States Constitution.
(16)
What has changed our fundamental beliefs? Why have we turned our minds and hearts away from the God of our forefathers? Simply, in the 1960s, Americans began a paradigm shift from one value system to another. It started on college campuses and spread to the media. It was a time that accepted the protests against the Vietnam War. It was an era that accepted every act of defiance as permissible along as the cause was just. New value systems rejected authority, tradition, God, and absolute standards. It was also during this period that our Judeo-Christian heritage was attacked severely from the Supreme Court to the public schools. It was the time that prayer and Bible reading were taken out of public schools, too. Hostility toward the Christian religion in society and public schools became acceptable. Reports on Jesus Christ and Christianity became unacceptable at the same time, and it is still unaccepted today.
As a result, “the advent of moral relativism following the expulsion of Bible reading and prayer from the public schools in the ‘60s, and the legal system’s growing antagonism to anything not of this world, put the government in the place of God and sought to make man the focus of worship. This led to the denunciation of what was once considered pure and holy and good and the elevation and promotion of that which once was regarded universally as vile and decadent.” (14) Also, the Judeo-Christian value of responsibility was replaced with “whatever is right for me.” Therefore, the backsliding of America from its Judeo-Christian heritage has caused God to remove His blessings from our nation and has replaced them with His curses, especially in our public school systems. As Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth President, said, “It is the duty of all nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God 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.” (4)
Another influence that has changed our fundamental beliefs has been the rewriting of our history books so that they do not define our Judeo-Christian heritage. But, instead, history books today are reflecting a liberal, secular humanist format. Patriotic stories of our forefathers have been left out of most modern history textbooks. Patriotic words such as honor, duty, and country have been left out, too. (8) Of course, the writers’ main objective has been to remove all mention of religion from our history. Modern students have been taught a godless history of our nation. They have been brainwashed to believe that man alone is responsible for the outcome of all our historical events. They have denied the existence of the Providence of God in our history. Students have accepted the satanic lies of modern humanists. These are the same men and women that have had extreme difficulty understanding the relationship between religion and government in America.
When our Founding Fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution, they developed it on the basis of four profound premises. They believed that religion should be the foundation of our government. They believed that there were many false religions but only one true religion. The Founding Fathers believed that it would be very destructive to establish a commonwealth on a false religion. Ultimately, our government must be established on the one and only true religion. This true religion was Christianity. (10) However, our nation has turned their back to this truth. Modern government leaders have refused to accept that America was a Christian nation at one time. Therefore, we must insure that the history of our nation is reported accurately, including our Christian heritage. The politically correct approach to writing history textbooks must stop. Our children are entitled to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Our government must stop promoting the secular humanistic view.
If the humanists are successful in creating a “religion-free” zone in the public arenas of our nation, we as Christians would be classified as second-class citizens and Christianity would be prohibited. (13) This is the reason why our government must return to its Judeo-Christian roots. If we continue to permit these groups to promote their satanic agenda, our nation will collapse just as the great Roman Empire did in A.D. 476. “The decay of decency in the modern age, the rebellion against law and good faith, the treatment of human beings as things, as mere instruments of power and ambition, is without a doubt the consequence of the decay of the belief in man as someone more than an animal animated by highly conditioned reflexes and chemical reactions. For unless man is something more than that, he has no rights that anyone is bound to respect, and there are no limitations upon his conduct which he is bound to obey. This is the forgotten foundation of democracy.” (12) Therefore, we must return to the faith of our Founding Fathers.
In conclusion, there are several things that we must do as Americans in order to return to the faith of our Founding Fathers:
“First, we must recognize the unalienable right of absolute truth. We must return to a national commitment to Judeo-Christian values.
Second, we must recognize America’s obligation to the Creator, the One we originally recognized in the Declaration of Independence. We must teach our children again that they were created in God’s image-not that they evolved from some animal form.
Third, we must recognize that every American has an equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness because they were created in the image of his/her Creator. In other words, we must renounce racism of every sort. We must boldly stand against abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and human cloning.
Fourth, we must repent of our personal sins and rebellion. We must forsake the pursuit of selfish pleasures, just for the sake of pleasure.
Fifth, we must confess our national sin in Identification Repentance. We must recognize that our national sin will bring God’s judgment on the nation.” (15)
Therefore, America has become a great nation by following the principles of our Judeo-Christian heritage. However, if we as a nation continue to backslide from the Christian values of our forefathers, America may face insurmountable problems that could possibly dethrone us as the greatest nation on the face of the earth. In fact, at present, we are combating world terrorism, immorality and academic failure in our public schools, and a proactive court system that is destroying our Judeo-Christian value system. America must return to the God of our Founding Fathers and we must return now.
P.S. According to David Barton of WallBuilders, who has dedicated his life to present America’s hidden history to those who have little knowledge of America’s Christian heritage, there are many examples that prove that the United States was influenced by Christianity. Some of his examples are:
*The first English Bible was sanctioned and printed in United States by Congress in 1782 for use in public schools and for every citizen in the United States.
*Christian history is depicted in four paintings in the Rotunda in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
*The U.S. Capitol Building became the first Mega Church in the United States. President Thomas Jefferson began the church in 1857 and it lasted for over 100 years. Over 2000 people each week attended the services.
*James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, was a minister. He was part of the Second Great Awakening in the United States. In fact, he preached a revival in which 34 people accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
*One-fourth of the statutes in the Capitol Building were ministers.
*Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of the United States, twenty-nine were ministers.
*In 1803, President Jefferson gave Federal Funds to send missionaries to the Indians to preach the gospel and build churches.
Therefore, there is enough proof that lies hidden in America’s well-documented history that America was and is still a Christian nation. However, it is the Judeo-Christian history of the United States that might just be the catalyst for a new spiritual awakening. Of course, without the recurrence of a great spiritual revival in America, the United States will continue to flounder in a sea of turmoil in a boat that is about to sink, instead of floating on waves of spiritual renewal and the blessings of God.
References
1. What Was the Faith of Our Founding Fathers, www.str.org
2. America’s Judeo Christian Heritage, www.blessedcause.org
3. Quotations Concerning the Separation of Church and State, www.members.aol.com
4. America’s Christian Heritage, www.forerunner.com
5. Key Quotes on America’s Judeo Christian Heritage, www.shalomjeresalem.com
6. Judeo-Christian Roots of America’s Founding Ideals, www.nccs.net
7. A Brief History according to the ACLU, www.re-focus.com
8. America’s Godly Heritage, www.members.aol.com
9. Public Schools Are Not for Christians, www.hisglory.us
10. Religion Is the Foundation of Government, www.members.aol.com
11. The Christian Founding of the United States, www.retakingamerica.com
12. America’s Godly Heritage, www.jeremiahproject.com
13. Adult Student Guide, Vol. 92, No. 2, March-May 2005, Pentecostal-Charismatic Commission.
14. Philosophical Roots of Change, www.jeremiahproject.com
15. Founding Fathers, www.mcbible.com
16. The Myth of the Separation of Church and State, www.noapathy.org
17. The Separation of Church and State, www.jeremiahproject.com
18. The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State, www.members.tripod.com
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