I’m going to make a bold statement (that shouldn’t be strange to you). 🙂 Most Americans are truly ignorant of our history as a nation, or they are believing the “rewritten history” that’s being postulated as history in our schools and universities today.
This is President Woodrow Wilson…
He was president in 1913 and he said:
“A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are tying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we have come from, or what we have been about.”
So, where have we come from? What have we been about? Do we, as a people remember the ancient paths that we once walked?
Jeremiah 6:16a says: 16 This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.
Many Christians have been duped into believing that we must somehow compartmentalize our faith. Therefore, we have a compartmentalized view that allows us to express faith and values in church but then divorces that same faith and values from the civil arena. The teachings of the Bible reject this compartmentalized approach to life. We are called to be salt and light in all areas of life. We must not hide our light under a bowl. And what we are seeing today is that indeed, our history demonstrates that for generations Christians embraced a viewpoint that we must assert the principles of Christ in all facets of life.
Benjamin Franklin not only drafted a statewide prayer proclamation for his own State of Pennsylvania, but also recommended Christianity in the public schools and he even worked to raise church attendance in his state. He also worked to start a colony in Ohio with the help of Rev. George Whitfield to “facilitate the introduction of pure religion among the heathen…” Franklin said, “In such an enterprise I could spend the remainder of life with pleasure, and I firmly believe God would bless us with success.” It was Franklin who called for the establishment of chaplains and daily prayer at the Constitutional Convention when the Constitution was being developed, discussed and ultimately written. And these actions by Franklin (well documented as one of the “least religious” Founding Fathers) show you his grid for living.
Do you know this man?
That’s John Jay. He was the original Chief-Justice of the US Supreme Court…now think about that…he was the first Supreme Court Justice (let that set the context of what a Supreme Court Justice might say today). He said this: “Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son…Blessed be His Holy name.”
This is Roger Sherman, a signer of both the Declaration and the Constitution and he declared: “I believe that there is only one living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost…and that at the end of this world there will be a resurrection of the dead and a final judgment of all mankind when the righteous shall be publicly acquitted by Christ the Judge and admitted to everlasting life and glory, and the wicked be sentenced to everlasting punishment.”
Richard Stockton, signer of the Declaration of Independence declared: “I subscribe to the entire belief of the great and leading doctrines of the Christian religion and I exhort that the course of life held up in the Christian system is calculated for the most complete happiness that can be enjoyed in this mortal state.”
There is no mention of Buddha, or Confucius or Mohammed or Islam in the founding documents of this nation. There is no mention of Hinduism or Joseph Smith or Charles Taze Russell. Bottom line: This nation was founded on Christian principles and on the teachings and tenets of Jesus Christ. The faith and belief in Jesus Christ of our Founding Fathers permeates every document written from the Constitution to the Declaration of Independence.
But something happened in the early 1960s. In 1962, our nation allowed a simple, non-denominational prayer in public schools to be declared “unconstitutional.” This was the prayer:
“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.”
The people of this nation should have demanded the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren…
He’s in the middle of the picture seated and surrounded by the other 8 men of his court. But, nothing was said or done. So, in 1963 Bible teaching in public schools was banned, and again…we did nothing. In 1980 the public schools were ordered to remove the Ten Commandments from students’ view, and we did nothing.
Friends, from the Revolutionary War through the 1930s our school children learned to spell and read from passages from the Bible via McGuffy’s Reader.
Mr. William McGuffy, the author of the Reader died in 1873, just two years before the church I help Pastor was established. This Reader was basically the “Bible” of the schools and it taught principles from, guess where? THE BIBLE!
Did you know Our Continental Congress approved on September 11, 1777 the purchase of 20,000 copies of the Holy Bible in order for people in our nation to have a Bible who didn’t currently own one? In the word of the Special Congressional Committee in 1777:
“The use of the Bible is so universal and its importance so great…the committee orders the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 Bibles for distribution in the states of this Union.”
Yet, today, the great heritage of our nation is being removed from our history books by progressive, liberal, humanists who are re-writing history to suit their agenda. One day…if we don’t point our children back to Scripture and to the true history of this nation…all of the true history of the founding of this nation will be lost.
What must we do? We must pray for our nation and its leaders.  I encourage people to speak up for truth and to get involved in the public forums of our day. Get involved with the local school boards, county commissioners and state and government politics. I, for one, am going to do my civic duty this November and vote. So many suffered and sacrificed to give us the freedoms we enjoy today.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not placing America above the Lord Jesus. I’m not even speaking of American exceptionalism. I don’t believe in that. The Lord sees people, not national borders. But, we as a nation have been blessed by God because (in my opinion) we sought Him and as a nation, had a desire for what pleased Him.
As we look to celebrate our Independence as a nation next week, this is my overriding prayer for our nation and for the world:
2Â Chronicles 7:14
14Â If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Oh how we need another Great Awakening in this nation and that can only begin as we humble ourselves and seek the face of God and repent of our sins. Then, and only then, will there be any real hope for this nation. Oh that we would remember!
