HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Yesterday's worship service at the church I attend was absolutely wonderful. I started attending this church just over 3 years ago - so this was my fourth year of having the privilege of attending their annual Fourth of July service. It is a day that those who serve or have served in the military are honored. Men who can still get into their uniforms come dressed in uniform. There is a proper color guard with the congregation reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. And the songs....

Yesterday, in addition to songs of worship and praise, we sang: America, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, The Star Spangled Banner. The choir sang patriotic music. The sermon was titled, "Don't Give Up On America." It focused on the truth of our history and the finale of the day was an incredibly touching solo titled "A Few Good Men" during which those in uniform came and stood across the platform, and at the end, spontaneous applause for them for their service to our country.

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER
by Francis Scott Key, 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Generally the first verse is the only one we ever hear. I knew there were other verses - - and have read them in the past, but yesterday our congregation sang the last verse together. What wonderful words.

Psalm 32:12 states: Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

Obviously that refers first and foremost to God's chosen people, Israel, but we who place our faith in Jesus Christ are grafted in. It is obvious that God has blessed America incredibly over the years. There has been no other nation like it.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to grow up in this country where differing views could be expressed without fear. There was a lot of 'agreeing to disagree' I know, but freedom of speech (including freedom to criticize without reprisal), freedom to assemble, freedom to worship according to each one's own preference...those are freedoms you won't find under dictatorships.

God, you are the rock on which this great nation was founded. I see us slipping off the rock, and it makes my heart ache. Yet, today - on this day of remembering, I pray for revival, for eyes to be opened, for hearts to turn once again to You, and to follow Your ways.

God Bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her, and guide her
through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains to the prairies
to the oceans, white with foam....
God bless America, my home, sweet home.
GOD BLESS AMERICA, MY HOME SWEET HOME!

AMERICA - AN EXPERIMENT IN FREEDOM

We are unlike any nation that has ever existed. We were not founded on ethnicity but on an ideal.

Our founders were men with a Christian Worldview who wanted to establish a new republic that was committed to preserving the freedom to honor God as each chose. Religious freedom was specifically freedom from anyone dictating which of the multiple Christian 'denominations' they should belong to. Freedom was founded on freedom in Jesus Christ, but with the right to join any church one chose, without having a State religion all must follow with the threat of persecution if they didn't.

Our forefathers were poignantly aware that different people would have differing views about how to interpret God's Word – and they needed to be free to do that. It was freedom from dictatorship. Freedom to freely explore Truth – and the One who is Truth. It was the freedom to choose within parameters that established and honored God for who He truly is – the one and only King, Master, Creator and Deity!

I have heard several people state that the battle cry that spread throughout the thirteen colonies in their pursuit of independence was: “No King but King Jesus!”

In the research I did online it appears that this rallying cry had been used before in the Fifth Monarch Rebellion – and the passion for that freedom from tyranny came with the earliest settlers – those who came here for freedom from religious persecution. The reason they came to America was to have the freedom of religion they had been denied in England. Please note it was not freedom from religion, but freedom of religion! All of the religions they were referencing were Christian religions, different denominations who held to slightly different interpretations. Their passion was for people to be able to carefully study and come to different opinions without reprisal.

A site called daveblackonline is a wonderful resource for checking out the Christian foundation of our country. I am dreadfully disappointed that our history books never gave us the broader scope of our true history!

All excerpts below are quotes on the afore-mentioned site, which are credited with being taken from America’s God and Country Encyclopedia Of Quotations, by William J. Federer, 1994 (page numbers listed in brackets at end of excerpt).

The Great Law of Pennsylvania (April 25, 1682), was the first legislative act of Pennsylvania. It proclaimed:

Whereas the glory of Almighty God and the good of mankind is the reason and the end of government, and, therefore government itself is a venerable ordinance of God… [there shall be established] laws as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty, in opposition to all unchristian, licentious, and unjust practices, whereby God may have his due, and Caesar his due, and the people their due, from tyranny and oppression. [p.503]


The Charter of Privileges of Pennsylvania (1701), granted by William Penn to the province of Pennsylvania, stated:

And that all persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, shall be capable to serve this government in any capacity, both legislatively or executively.

No people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil liberties, if abridged of… their religious profession and worship… [p.503]


The Committees of Correspondence… began sounding the cry across the Colonies
(ca. 1774):

No King but King Jesus. [pp.58-59]

Constitution of the State of North Carolina (1776), stated:

There shall be no establishment of any one religious church or denomination in this State in preference to any other.

Article XXXII That no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within this State. (until 1876)

In 1835 the word “Protestant” was changed to “Christian.” [p.482]

The Constitution of the State of Delaware (until 1792) stated:

Article XXII Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust… shall… make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit:
“I, _______, do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed forevermore; I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.” [p.203]

John Jay (1745-1829), was the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, having been appointed by President George Washington. He was a Founding Father,
a member of the First and Second Continental Congresses… He was very instrumental in causing the Constitution to be ratified by writing the Federalist Papers, along with James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.

On October 12, 1816, John Jay admonished:

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. [p.318] [emphasis added]


The Constitution of the State of Mississippi (1817), stated:

No person who denies the being of God or a future state of rewards and punishments shall hold any office in the civil department of the State. [p.451]

Congress of the United States of America (May 1854), passed a resolution in the House which declared:

The great vital and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. [emphasis added] [p.170]


These are just snippets of information excerpted from a much longer article – but they make my point. Our foundation as a nation was decisively Christian.

This weekend we celebrate our independence from England. It wasn’t just about unreasonable taxation, it was about religious freedom to choose whatever denomination within Christian faith we want to align ourselves with.

Our tolerance has expanded to ‘religious freedom’ of any sort…but that was not the original intended purpose. Now, what our forefathers fought so valiantly for is at risk. We need to pay attention!

I feel absolutely deprived that the TRUTH of our foundation as a country was not taught in the schools I attended.

The men who carved out the ideals of The United States and its government had a Christian Worldview, even if they were not all ‘Christian’ in the sense of a personal spiritual discipline. I’m overwhelmed with what I am just learning at the age of 65!!!!!

My online search included trying to find support for a statement attributed to George Washington when he was asked to serve as leader, that when they asked him to be king, he wisely responded, "There is no king but King Jesus." I couldn’t find any solid evidence to support that contention – but - since it was corroborated that it was the rallying cry of the colonies, it is plausible that he may have reiterated that truth.

All of the other information I found supports the larger issue of our foundations, and what we celebrate this weekend. Our Independence Day is specifically independence from religious persecution – and over and over the documents of our nation’s history bear out the Christian foundation that was established as a unique experiment in freedom.

I love our roots! Happy 4th! Happy Independence Day!

Freedom isn’t free – and I am deeply grateful to all who have fought to preserve our freedom. We are the land of the free because of the brave!!!!! I don’t know who first said that – but it is sooooo true!

THANKSGIVING: Our Christian Heritage

I found the following on the internet this morning. It whets my appetite for wanting to read the book this excerpt is from! My education in public school, Sunday School – and even college at a Christian University – never informed me of the extent of the Christian foundation of America! My first insights came through viewing THE TRUTH PROJECT, by Del Tackett, which provides a Christian Worldview as opposed to the altered version we received in our textbooks. This article continues that insight. It is a wonderful link to our history this Thanksgiving season!

God in Washington D.C.
by Gary DeMar

The official minutes of the first session of the continental congress in 1774 show that Sam Adams made a proposal that the sessions be opened with prayer. Not everyone agreed. John Jay and John Rutledge opposed the recommendation claiming that the diversity of religious opinion precluded such an action. Their minority opinion did not carry the day. At the end of the debate over the proposal, Adams said that it did not become “Christian men, who had come together for solemn deliberation in the hour of their extremity, to say there was so wide a difference in their religious belief that they could not, as one man, bow the knee in prayer to the Almighty, whose advice and assistance they hoped to obtain.”

After the appeal by Sam Adams, the disputation ceased and Reverend Jacob Duché led in prayer. John Adams wrote home to his wife that the prayer by Duché “had an excellent effect upon everybody here…. Those men who were about to resort to force to obtain their rights were moved by tears” upon hearing it. The Continental Congress also issued four fast-day proclamations. The July 12, 1775, fast-day is especially significant. All the colonies were to participate. John Adams, writing to his wife from Philadelphia, said, “We have appointed a Continental fast. Millions will be upon their knees at once before the great Creator, imploring His forgiveness and blessing; His smiles on American Councils and arms.”

Declaration of Independence

With the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776, the colonies moved into a new era of political independence with ties to its Christian past. The Declaration is a religious document, basing its argument for rights on theological grounds. Rights, the Declaration maintains, are a gift from the Creator: “We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.” The logic is simple. No Creator, no rights.

The moral state of our nation is directly tied to this single phrase in the Declaration. Today, while our nation clamors for rights, it rejects the standard by which those rights secure their moral anchor. “Nature’s God,” who is the “Supreme Judge of the world,” makes rights a reality. While the Declaration is a theistic document, referring to “Divine Providence,” it is not specifically a Christian document. Even so, the religious phrases found in the body of the Declaration were easily understood in terms of the prevailing Christian worldview of the time. One Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration wrote: “When I signed the Declaration of Independence I had in view, not only our independence from England, but the toleration of all sects professing the Christian religion, and communicating to them all equal rights.”

The Congressional Bible

In 1777 Congress issued a proclamation for a day of thanksgiving for November of that year. December 18 was also to be set aside for “solemn thanksgiving and praise.” The proclamation called upon all citizens to “join the penitent confession of their manifold sins,” and to offer “their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance.”
The same year Congress issued an official resolution instructing the Committee on Commerce to import 20,000 copies of the Bible. With the outbreak of war with England, the sea lanes had been cut off to the colonies. This meant that goods that were once common in the colonies were no longer being imported—including Bibles printed in England. Congress decided to act. Historian B. F. Morris states the following:

The legislation of Congress on the Bible is a suggestive Christian fact, and one which evinces the faith of the statesmen of that period in its divinity, as well as their purpose to place it as the corner-stone in our republican institutions. The breaking out of the Revolution cut off the supply of “books printed in London.” The scarcity of Bibles also came soon to be felt. Dr. Patrick Allison, one of the chaplains to Congress, and other gentlemen, brought the subject before that body in a memorial, in which they urged the printing of an edition of the Scriptures.

The committee approved the importing of 20,000 copies of the Bible from Scotland, Holland, and elsewhere. Congressmen resolved to pass this proposal because they believed that “the use of the Bible is so universal, and its importance so great.” Even though the resolution passed, action was never taken to import the Bibles. Instead, Congress began to put emphasis on the printing of Bibles within the United States. In 1777 Robert Aitken of Philadelphia published a New Testament. Three additional editions were published in 1789, 1779, and 1781. The edition of 1779 was used in schools. Aitken’s efforts proved so popular that he announced his desire to publish the whole Bible; he then petitioned Congress for support. Congress adopted the following resolution in 1782:

Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled, highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Aitken, subservient to the interest of religion as well as the progress of the arts in this country, and being satisfied from the above report, of his care and accuracy in the execution of the work, they commend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and hereby authorize him to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper.

The Continental Congress’s records show that it was not neutral to religion. “Its records are full of references to ‘God,’ under many titles, to ‘Jesus Christ,’ the ‘Christian Religion,’ ‘God and the Constitution,’ and the ‘Free Protestant Colonies.’”

The First United States Congress

The first order of business of the first United States Congress in 1789 was to appoint chaplains. The Right Reverend Bishop Samuel Provost and the Reverend William Linn became publicly paid chaplains of the Senate and House respectively. Since then, both the Senate and the House have continued regularly to open their sessions with prayer. Nearly all of the fifty states make some provision in their meetings for opening prayers or devotions from guest chaplains. Few if any saw this as a violation of the First Amendment.

On April 30, 1789, George Washington took the oath of office with his hand on a Bible. After taking the oath in Federal Hall, New York, he added, “I swear, so help me God”—words that were not part of the oath. Every president since Washington has invoked God’s name in this way. The inauguration was followed by “divine services” that were held in St. Paul’s Chapel, “performed by the Chaplain of Congress.” The first Congress that convened after the adoption of the Constitution requested of the President that the people of the United States observe a day of thanksgiving and prayer:
That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness.

This resolution was opposed by some as an infringement on the authority of the states: “It is a business with which Congress has nothing to do; it is a religious matter, and as such is proscribed to us.” Nevertheless, the resolution was adopted. Washington then issued a proclamation setting aside November 26, 1789, as a national day of thanksgiving, calling everyone to “unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions.” Washington called for days of prayer and thanksgiving on January 1 and February 19, 1795.

Good Government and Religion

Prayers in Congress, the appointment of chaplains, and the call for days of prayers and thanksgiving do not stand alone in the historical record. The evidence is overwhelming that America has in the past always linked good government to religion—and, in particular, to Christianity. Historians and constitutional scholars Anson Stokes and Leo Pfeffer summarize the role that the Christian religion played in the founding of this nation and the lofty position it has retained:

Throughout its history our governments, national and state, have co-operated with religion and shown friendliness to it. God is invoked in the Declaration of Independence and in practically every state constitution. Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, is universally observed as a day of rest. The sessions of Congress and of the state legislatures are invariably opened with prayer, in Congress by chaplains who are employed by the Federal government. We have chaplains in our armed forces and in our penal institutions. Oaths in courts of law are administered through use of the Bible. Public officials take an oath of office ending with “so help me God.” Religious institutions are tax exempt throughout the nation. Our pledge of allegiance declares that we are a nation “under God.” Our national motto is “In God We Trust” and is inscribed on our currency and on some of our postage stamps.
After only a cursory study of the years leading up to and including the drafting of the Constitution and the inauguration of the first president, it becomes obvious that Christianity played a foundational role in shaping our nation. It is not surprising that when courts had to define religion, they linked it to the Christian religion. In 1930 the Supreme Court declared, “We are a Christian people, according to one another the equal right of religious freedom, and acknowledging with reverence the duty of obedience to the will of God.” Further evidence of the role that the Christian religion played in the maintenance of our nation can be found in national pronouncements and inscriptions in our nation’s capital.

[Excerpt from America's Christian History: The Untold Story (Powder Springs, GA: American Vision, 1993, 2008), 113-118. Used by permission.]