A Christian Nation

Greetings,

As the fourth of July comes and goes I want to take just a moment to reflect upon some of my thoughts for this holiday we observe.  This day has always been a day when we celebrate the freedoms we enjoy and the birth of a new nation. We all have a tendency to agree with those ideas.  Where it gets a little sticky is when we have to, somehow, agree about how it was founded.  Some people believe that the independence we sought from King George was strictly about taxes and, no doubt, it played a major part. Yet, for whatever reasons, we wanted freedom and we got it!My comments, this day, address not the desire for a new nation but, rather, how that nation was built.

For over two centuries we Americans have debated whether or our nation began as a christian nation.  Some say yes and some say no, some say they don't care!  In my opinion the history speaks for itself.  However, for every piece of evidence that I can produce I am sure that some one of a differing or dissenting opinion could produce evidence in favor of their stance.  So, you need to decide for yourself.  Here we go!  These items were taken from a number of different sources ranging from other sermons to books.

*In 1776, 11 of the 13 colonies required that one had to be a Christian to be eligible to run for political office.


*In 1777, the Continental Congress voted to spend $300,000 to purchase Bibles for distribution in the nation.

*The GETTYSBURG ADDRESS states "...this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom..."

*94% OF THE WRITINGS OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE U.S. CONTAINED QUOTATIONS FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

*THE STATE CONSTITUTIONS OF ALL 50 STATES MENTION GOD.

*On that First "Thanksgiving", who do you think the people were giving thanks to? To God!

*The famous "Liberty Bell" has part of Leviticus 25:10 inscribed on it: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

*Part of the Scripture Proverbs 14:34 is inscribed above the L.A. city hall door: "RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION: BUT SIN IS A REPROACH TO ANY PEOPLE."

*An image of Moses carrying the tablets of God’s Law faces the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

*The entering President takes his courtroom OATH OF OFFICE with his right hand on the Holy Bible, and concludes his vow "So help me God."

* The Supreme Court itself begins each of its sessions with the phrase ’God save the United States and this honorable court,’

*First Vice President and Second President, John Adams wrote in 1798:

     "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the         government of any other."

* President Thomas Jefferson:

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - 1781

*Our sixth President, John Quincy Adams said:

"No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly studied, and so profoundly meditated upon as the Bible." -

*At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin said,

"God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?"

*The Christian writings and pronouncements of our 16th President Abraham Lincoln would fill an entire book. He said this when he assumed leadership over a nation on the brink of civil war:

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven… 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." - 1863


*Theodore Roosevelt, America’s 26th President, wrote:

     "In this actual world, a churchless community, a community where men have abandoned and scoffed at, or ignored their religious needs, is a community on the rapid down-grade." - 1917

*Woodrow Wilson, our 28th President and Governor of New Jersey, said this:

     "America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of the Holy Scripture." - 1911

*Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, said this about our founding fathers:

"They were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance with the principle of self- government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that He might send choice grain into the wilderness... Who can fail to see it in the hand of destiny? Who can doubt that it has been guided by a Divine Providence." - 1923

*Franklin Roosevelt prayed this prayer on a national radio hookup on D-Day, June 6, 1944, as our troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France:

     "Almighty God... with Thy blessing we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogance. Lead us to the saving of our country. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen."

*Harry Truman, our 33rd President, not known to be a committed believer, understood the spiritual heritage of this nation:

     "If men and nations would but live by the precepts of the ancient prophets and the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, problems which now seem so difficult would soon disappear”

*Gerald Ford, our 38th President, quoted a 1955 speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower on December 5, 1974:

     "Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first - the most basic - expression of Americanism. Thus the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God’s help, it will continue to be."

*President Ronald Reagan:

    "If we ever forget that we are ’One nation, under God’, then we will be one nation gone under."

These are just a few of the indicators of how and why our nation was birthed.  They are not open to speculation due to the specific nature of their application.  The founding fathers, perhaps not all but most, believed that God had ordained and blessed the forming of our new nation.  And in appreciation for this new nation they also believed that we should thank and honor God for that blessing.  Our country was founded on Biblical principles!

I am not sure why people are so angered about that statement.  It's a fact, we were birthed as a christian nation.  It does not mean that government that existed in Great Britain at the time of the American Revolution somehow was transferred to our new government.  According to our Constitution's "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof Bill of Rights ".  However, that's how people want to get you!  Cries of, "You see! We couldn't have been a christian nation we made a law that government can't tell you what kind of god you should worship" come flying at you.  The fact is, they are right!  Our government can't tell you what god to worship.  But that has nothing to do with the fact that we were birthed as a christian nation and that the majority of our founders believed that we should be a christian nation.

In all honesty my concern is not how were founded or whether George Washington was a Christian, a Buddhist, a Mason, or an Atheist.  What concerns me is our nation today.  Yesterday we celebrated our freedoms but we did not take the time to thank God for our freedoms.  I said yesterday in my sermon that God is the soul of America and that America is in danger of losing it's soul!  Our country, in a very short period of time, has gone from a nation who embraced God to a nation of people who profess to be God.  We have lost our way and God is watching.

This day brave men and women put their life on the line to defend our nation's freedoms.  Yet, in my opinion, we don't play our part.  We have forgotten our freedoms and from where those freedoms are derived.   We lack the moral backbone to stand and say that there is a right and wrong, a good and bad, a moral and immoral.  We have embraced all choices and have called it tolerance.  We have worshipped idols and have called it being enlightened and we have replaced Almighty God with the almighty buck.  America is losing it's soul.

Yet, if I standby and watch all this happening I would be a hypocrite.  If Christians believe that America is in danger of losing it's soul then we have a duty to respond.  No longer can we sit back and let life just "happen" to us.  We must stand up and speak up.  We must share the good news of Christ with others.  We must hold fast to the idea that we used to be a christian nation and that we can be one again.  So many people Christians are afraid to to take a stand in fear of upsetting the beliefs of someone else.  And while I am not going out of my way to offend others the truth of the gospel must be said.  Like it or not, and I happen to like it, according to my God there is going to be winners and losers.  Righteousness will prevail.  The only question we have is what side our nation will fall.  II Chronicles 7:14 reads, "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." (NIV)  I don't think those are just Old Testament words.  I believe they apply to us today.  Brothers and sisters, America is in danger of losing her soul!

Let us not be a people who give thanks for our freedoms and forgets the one who gave us those freedoms in the first place.

Until next time!  Blessings!

Derek