Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom in America

Writing has always been a passion of mine. As I continue to write these blogs about topics that I am passionate about I am forced to take a step back from time to time and question why I even bother to study, read, and write about restoring hope within our nation.

Now as a Christian man, husband and father, I understand that true hope comes from Christ Himself and in Him alone. I have put all my eggs in one basket and placed all my hope and trust in a Savior who I know is God of the Universe.

If we want to see hearts and minds transformed there is no greater responsibility than sharing the Gospel message that brings hope to all.

I could sit here and say in the end its all going to burn anyway so why put time and effort into anything that appears to be futile?

Why advocate and pray for revival? Why pray for a restoration to our founding principles if America is just going to fall anyway?

With that attitude why do anything? I could have the mindset that hey, I am saved, I am going to Heaven why bother getting involved with anything? Hey, if God wills It, it will happen right? I am just going to sit back and ride on into Heaven on a bed of roses.

Now speaking as an American, I see that our nation is in desperate need for revival. When I say “restoring faith, family, and freedom in America” I simply want to see the country in which I live practice the fundamentals that she was founded on. I want to see our founding principles applied once again in our media, in our schools, in our government. I am not advocating for a Theocracy but for a restoration of the core values that we find outlined within our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.

America has never had a national religion but our principles have always been based on Judeo-Christian values. There is freedom in this type of government. There is freedom in the Christian life.

Man must be free to choose his own path and make his own decisions regarding his own faith. The blessings and consequences fall squarely on his shoulders.

Many times, I feel like it is pointless to even write about these things because when we look around us all hope for revival within our communities seems hopeless.

Christians just want business as usual as I still have not seen men moved to the point where they are willing to give up certain comforts to better their communities. Certain sacrifices like time. People are not willing to give up their time. People will give money before they give up their time. Christians want their routines. We want our programs. We want our “hour” of worship time on Sunday mornings. We don’t want to build relationships outside of those we already know. We want to come for the “feel good” concert like, broadway production style worship music with no movement at all.

We just don’t have the time to invest in other people we say. I am hard on the church because I am a part of it. I am being hard on myself.

A large part of me thought that after the events of 2020 we would start waking up in the church but we are only getting stirred and angry. It has to be more. Getting stirred isn’t enough. Getting angry isn’t enough. We want to grumble and complain we really don’t want to sacrifice our time and energy to get the Gospel message that actually changes lives out to a chaotic world.

What if our Founders had said you know what, we can’t mix politics with our own faith? We can’t get involved; we are just too busy.

Here is why in America that you cannot take politics out of religion and vice versa, because the matters that go on in our nation are spiritually based. I don’t mean that we advocate for a certain candidate or party from the pulpit. That is not what I am talking about. But as Christians we cannot turn our backs on the things that are going on in our Country.

Our Declaration of Independence is a spiritual document. Our Bill of Rights is a spiritual document. Faith has played a huge a role in the shaping and founding of America.

The issues at hand today that we are dealing with are spiritual.  

Transgenderism. Homosexuality. Same sex marriage. Unlawful mandates. Social Justice Gospel. These are just a few topics that taking our nation by storm and those who support these things are demanding that we affirm these “alternative life-styles” to be ok.

The issues back in the ’60s were spiritual when they decided to take prayer and the ten commandments out of schools.

Turning our backs on what goes on in our government on a local, state and federal level is part of why we are in this mess.

We retreated to our churches, our comfort zones and left the public sector a long time ago. We said we just want to have our programs, our ice cream socials, our potlucks, our “revivals” from time to time, put some money in the offering plate, sing a few songs, listen to a sermon every week to say hey we did something that makes us feel good and then be on our way.

“The 1950’s defined religion as a personal thing with this implication: Don’t talk about it or try and push it into other ‘nonreligious areas of life.”

Here is the question that I have that goes back to the point that I made earlier about all things in our nation being spiritual or “religious.” I really hate using that word, “religious” but I want you to understand what I am talking about.

“Are there any ‘nonreligious’ areas of life”?

Why have we as Christians failed to rise up and restore our institutions as testimony to the world? In the last several decades we began separating spiritual from secular when in all reality the spiritual and secular have always been linked in America which is why America has always been different than any other nation before it or since.

Marshall Foster spoke to a large group of Pastors at a conference regarding the pressing need to restore the nation to its founding principles. After this man’s speech a Pastor came up to him with these words:

“What you are attempting to do is a worthy effort but, ultimately, you know, if God wants to restore our nation, He will do it. All we can do is pray.”

There it is…. If God wills it, it will happen! We just sit back, watch, and pray.

Now that is not to take anything away from the power of pray as it is our most powerful weapon that is in our arsenal. But faith without works is dead. What good is prayer if it is not put into action?

Foster then paused and asked him this question:

“Are there any farmers in your church?”

The Pastor responded with “yes, there are.”

Foster then says, “Why don’t we go back to our churches and tell our farmers not to plant their Spring crop, but to simply pray and believe; if it is God’s will, we will have a great harvest in the fall.”

As the Pastor began to nod in agreement that while prayer is important and crucial, if we do not sow our seeds into all areas of life, we will have no harvest to reap but the destruction of our liberty along with the rise of totalitarianism.

What is totalitarianism you ask? – it relates to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.

This is where America is heading. It is happening right before our very eyes while we sit back watching it happen all because many decades ago, we ceded the fight and chose to retreat not fully realizing what the implications that decision would have on our nation.

[1]

The hour is late and the time for putting our faith into action has never been more urgent.

The time for “cruise ship” Christianity has got to come to an end. We must realize that this a “battleship” Christianity.

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[1] Foster, Marshall. The American Covenant: The Untold Story. Page. 25.

I want to say first thing that there is no greater priority, responsibility, and honor in the world than the spreading the message of the Cross. Evangelism should always be at the forefront of everything that we, as Christians, pursue. Everything that we do is worship. Our actions should go hand in hand with our words otherwise they are just words.

Now to answer the question, Can America be restored to what it once was? A return to having a respect and reverence for our Judeo-Christian principles.

Some may object and say shouldn’t the spread of the Gospel be our most important duty? Shouldn’t we prioritize evangelism over restoring and repairing our cultural/public institutions?

I believe that our founders would agree as many were fundamentally motivated by the furthering of the Gospel message as they began to set foot in the new world.

The great Pilgrim historian and governor, William Bradford was very clear on the desires of the Pilgrims as they came not to make war but came in peace with the love of the Gospel message. There were two different groups that landed, one at Plymouth and the other at Jamestown.

The Jamestown crew came with different goals and desires in mind as they were more motivated financially but that is another discussion for another time but it is a discussion that we will have.

Here are William Bradford’s own words on the desires of the early Colonist’s:

“A great hope and inward zeal (passion) they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.”

Their priority, even as they sought out new worlds, was to disciple nations. [1]

Matthew 28:18-20

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Our forefathers prioritized discipling nations as well as proclaiming the Gospel to all of the world. We must realize and understand that not only is God glorified and souls reached through our words but His light shines through us as we practically apply our Christian principles to all areas of our life, not just within the walls of the church or our homes.

The Scriptures teach us in the book of James that “faith without works is dead”.[2]

James 2:20 & 26

20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Yes, our home is the place that we must glorify God first. If we cannot do it there, then we will not be effective in our witness to the world.

There must be a balance.

When we look into the God’s Word, we find balance. We have the OT and the NT. When we look at our government, there should be balance. No one branch should ever have too much control. Our Founders set up a system of checks and balances. Each branch keeps the other in check. There is accountability in balance. 

As a government for the people, of the people, and by the people we should always be holding one another accountable respectfully even when we strongly disagree on issues.

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams all were very different but were united in the common cause of liberty.

There was a balance between evangelism and the manifestation of Judeo-Christian culture in America that was very clearly illustrated from our very beginning. We were not set up as a Theocracy. That system had been tried and tested as you cannot force people to worship. People must be free to choose even if that decision differs from our own path.

America came into existence through the obedience of millions of people who took the message of the Gospel and then applied it to every faucet of life.

America was once likened to a “shining city on a hill” and a “light to all nations” as we were “caring for our own vineyard”.

Through the faith of the founding generation, our nation demonstrated the power of Christ in the lives of these individuals to the entire world.

We must do it again.

America once stood proudly on these principles and the world took notice. We had and still have enemies that hate us and always will but what do they hate us for?

Before there may have been hatred but respect was there. Is there still that hatred combined with respect for our country?

Even enemies can show respect. How can the world respect us when we as a people don’t even respect ourselves?

We must regain our focus, regain our desire to feed our hearts and minds with the Scriptures daily. The founders had revival before revolution. If we want a revival of Americas fundamentals now, we must have an awakening. [3]

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[1] Matthew 28:18-20

[2] James 2:20-26 KJV

[3] Foster, Marshall. The American Covenant: The Untold Story. Page 23.

Our current education system in America is much different from what our founders had envisioned. Parents had the majority say about their child’s education, a strong emphasis on history was placed in the classroom, teaching students how our legal system worked was crucial and the Word of God was the foundation for all subjects taught.

Now this again is not to say that we were founded upon a Theocracy. There was liberty in how the American way of life was set up as opposed to other nations before or since.  The people told the government what they were going to do not the other way around.

There was liberty in the classroom to open up a Bible and learn from what God had to say. There is much wisdom in the Scriptures. From the perspective of non-believer, he must look at the 10 Commandments and even say to himself that there is much wisdom there. Our Founding Fathers knew this even though not all were Christians. Some even became Christians in the process. Revival had to happen before a revolution.

So, what changed and when?

1838. Horace Mann.

This gentleman became the secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. In the years that ensued, Mann introduced a very fundamentally different philosophy of education to that of the Founding Generation.

Horace Mann is known as the father of the progressive public-school movement.

What did he advocate for?

• Forced taxation for state schools which was disastrous for private schools
• Deemphasized the Biblical Doctrine of Salvation as the basis of character development replacing this founding principle with a more humanistic view of the perfectibility of man through the means of education and environment  
• Encouraged group thinking and study over individual initiative and creativity
• Standardized teacher training, textbooks, and accreditation
• Transitioned away from Christian principles and philosophy taught by the FOUNDER of America’s educational system, Noah Webster. [1]

The 20^th century then introduced us to John Dewey.

His progressive methods concerning education came in part due to his subjection to Russia’s Communist educational system.

Now when I say something is “progressive” it may sound like it is a good thing when in fact it is the opposite.

Progressive – happening or developing gradually or in stages; proceeding step by step.

Now again this may sound like it is this great leap forward. Progressives use this method as a means to say that we are always growing and getting better but what is their version of growth and what do they mean by better?

Yes, as a people we are always learning, always growing, always wanting to move forward but as we as we move forward and continue to learn and grow, we must not deviate from our founding principles rooted in Judeo-Christian principles.

Progressives have tossed out this founding philosophy in stages, gradually, piece by piece, little by little, in stages over time so that by the time we have finally noticed over the last couple years we have come to find out that the philosophy that men like Noah Webster set up for us no longer exists.

Our founding educational philosophy has been twisted and corrupted by those who seek to further their own agenda. Satan knows that he needs to get children young so that is where he has focused his time and energy for many generations and as Christians, we decided to turn a blind eye long ago becoming indifferent with a who cares mentality.

Now that we have decided to finally wake up is it too late?

The ideas of Horace Mann and John Dewey are so woven into the very fabric of our educational system only a complete overhaul of the system is the only viable option.

But what does that look like and are we prepared as parents to fight that fight?

“By 1935, a humanistic curriculum had become the dominant influence in most fields of scholarship in our nation.”[2]

Again, what is humanism?

…an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems…

Basically, it is a system of thought that takes God out of the equation, makes man his own god where he can find the answers in life apart God. The answers all lie within the heart of man.

Read the book, By the Hand of Providence by Robert Gragg and you will see that our founders looked to the Heavens for divine intervention when they did not have a solution for the problems they were facing. You will see God at work in the lives of the Colonials in this account on how faith sharped the American revolution.

Since 1935, our public-school bureaucracy, the largest the world has ever seen has done its best to vaccinate our young people against what it considers to be this infectious disease of absolute moral values ingrained within our Constitution that is our founding Judeo-Christian principles.

This idea of “modern progressive education” rooted in communistic ideals seems to be collapsing before our very eyes because our public education system is a train wreck.

Millions of lives have been damaged over the last 150 years. The fruit of their labor has come home to harvest on our watch.

How can we correct 150 years of bad fruit?

It has to be more than just allowing students to pray voluntarily. As I said earlier this process involves a complete change and overhaul of the system. That involves the leadership along with their philosophy.

Challenging the status quo is rooted deep within the American culture. It is what our founders did. They became dissatisfied with how things were so they took steps to change it. I am not sure if progressives would approve of their gradual, step by step, little by little approach that led up the American Revolution. Our revolution was rooted in biblical principles. Much prayer went into the decision to finally say “we have had enough!”

Here is the real question that faces us today:

How many of us as parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, friends are willing to sacrifice precious time and finances to help rebuild what has been torn down?

In order to restore this broken wall of culture that has been there over 150 years we must learn the actions of our Founding fathers. We must heed the words of leaders gone on before us.

A full repentance is the only solution. Only then will we truly learn what real wisdom is and where it comes from. We will learn that our founders needed the wisdom within the Scriptures every single day. We will realize that they desperately needed God in their darkest hour.

Once a full repentance takes place our hearts and minds will be open to see the reasons for:

• Rises in crime
• Failure of government programs like welfare
• Failure of jurisprudence system (theory/philosophy of law)
• Failure of evangelical activity to transform society (Yes, when we decided as Christians to leave the public sector, we forfeited that battle and have no one to blame but ourselves.)

We must go back to the fundamentals and examine the Scriptures as well as our own hearts if we want to see a fundamental change in our culture. A restored fundamental change back to our founding principles.

If we want to preserve our future we must come to terms with our past.

The church at Ephesus had left their first love and needed to remember why they existed in the first place? They needed to repent.

Much like the church at Ephesus we must repent as a nation. We must do what made us fruitful in the beginning. We must return to our first love.

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[1] For further information on Horace Mann’s approach to education, read his Education of Free Men.

[2] Foster, Marshall. The American Covenant: The Untold Story. Page 22-23

The education system in early America was very unique. Private education within the home, churches, the schools with the Bible at the center of character development was the norm. The early pilgrims along with the colonists had education high on their priority list as they saw it predominately as a personal, family, and church responsibility.

Formal education was sometimes offered by communities at the township level but parents always maintained control over what their children were being taught and the content was always biblically based.

During America’s Colonial period, our early founders knew the great importance of education as they founded hundreds of colleges and private schools. Many if not most of these colleges primary focus was training men for ministry work.

Here is an account by Educator Rosalie J. Slater about the Founders early educational efforts:

“At the time of the Declaration of Independence, the quality of education had enabled the colonies to achieve a degree of literacy from 70% to virtually 100%.

This was not education restricted to a few. Modern scholarship reports “the prevalence of schooling and its accessibility to all segments of the population.” Moses Coit Tyler, historian of American literature, indicates the colonists “familiarity with history…. extensive legal learning…. lucid exposition of constitutional principles, showing, indeed, that somehow, out into the American wilderness had been carried the verry accent of cosmopolitan thought and speech.” When the American state papers arrived in Europe…they were found to contain “nearly every quality indicative of personal and national greatness.”

Hmmm…..All of this achieved without a Department of Education? No common core? No Government program upon program like the “No Child Left Behind Act?

The literacy rate for the United States in 2021 was at just 86%. In 245 years we have gone from a quality of education in America that enabled the colonies to achieve a literacy rate of nearly 100% to now where we are hovering just around 86% which puts us at around 125^th worldwide.

How did the colonists achieve this?

1. Familiarity with history
2. Extensive legal learning
3. Lucid exposition of Constitutional Principles

They knew their history. They learned their legal system and knew how our system worked. They knew our founding principles.

These men and women educated themselves. They cared about the facts. They knew all too well what happened to a society that was not educated. We simply do not care about the facts today. We do not care about our history. Our current state of affairs reflect this.

Many do not even have a basic understanding of how our legal system works. Just look at the recent Supreme Court Decision of the overturning of Roe v Wade. If many knew or even cared about how that process works, you would not see as many people crucifying one another because much of what people are speaking out on the matter is based out of ignorance of the law. It is the same issue concerning Separation of Church and State. The statements made or based on feeling not fact.

What were our founding principles? Look no further than the Scriptures that inspired these words from the unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 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.”

Here is what I noticed in my study of the success of early American education:

1. Private Education in the home was common
2. Community education always remained under parental control
3. Bible was the foundation of character development

If we wish to seek out the source of what truly made America great, we need to look no further than the 150 years of the instruction within Christian Schools along with the self-governed, “principled study and reasoning undertaken in Christian homes”

Many see the name Webster and simply resonate it with the most current version how we are defining words of the day. But in all reality Noah Webster is considered to be the father of American Education. He is known for making the development of Christian character the very core of his educational philosophy.

As we have seen in early America, because all education was built on the foundational principles found within the Word of God, children grew up knowing how and where to find guidance for human aspirations through reasoning from these biblical principles.

The Scriptures were the economic and political textbook of our founders. The Bible was considered the great textbook of the Patriots. It is what led, guided and directed them. You want to know their motives, look to the Scriptures.

Rev. J. Wingate Thornton’s Pulpit of the American Revolution is noted to say that in 1777, the Continental Congress wrote “directing the Committee of Commerce to import 20,000 copies of the Bible, the great political textbook of the patriots.”

If we want to fix our education system here in America we must look to the guiding light of the Scriptures. Our schools were founded upon these principles.

As a parent myself, there is no greater issue in my own heart and mind than the failure of the education system here in America and how far we have strayed from our founding principles.

Today the blame game continues as we try and understand this failure by pointing fingers at teachers, parents, administrators, bureaucrats rather than looking for a solution to this epidemic.

If we wish to figure out where we went wrong and how to right this wrong, we must look to our Christian history that will help us focus on long-term solutions. By looking to our rich Christian history, we look to the Scriptures.

Many today do not know their history or care which in part has led to this downfall. If we do not have a clear understanding of our past both good and bad, we will be led astray very quickly and believe the lies that are being fed to us from the politicians today like “separation of church and state.” If the Bible was at the very core of our Early American Educational system, please tell me where “separation of church and state” fits that bill?

We want to understand mass shootings today? We want to understand students’ behavior in the classroom? What has changed? We must go back to the beginning and see what changed and when? Only then can we find the root of the problem.

We can pour millions of dollars into education and create government program after program but until we dig into our past and find that fork in the road where we veered off course, only then will begin to find solutions to todays heart problem that America has.

Morality and religion have left the public sector altogether.

As John Adams wrote to the Massachusetts Militia on October 11, 1798:

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

When we compare the educational philosophy of the early Americans to this modern, extremely progressive philosophy and the content taught in the classrooms from then and now the standard that is missing is the Word of God.

Does this mean that the early education system was without problems? Of course not. There will always be problems. But when a problem arose many of our founders looked to the Word of God as their lamp.

What do we look to today? What is the standard? What is at the core of our current educational system? What and who are we looking to for guidance when problems arise?

There is no standard within the current educational system. The system that our founders set up had been completely disregarded and thrown in the trash-heap of history.

So, when did it all begin to change?

1838. Horace Mann. [1]

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[1] Foster, Marshall. The American Covenant: The Untold Story. Pages 20-21

As we celebrate our 246^th year of Independence there are some things that are worth discussing as we evaluate where we are and what direction we are moving in as a country?

When we look at what united our founders almost 250 years ago, we can look at what took place during this special session of Congress:

“On September 7, 1774, as Congress began, the founding fathers listened to Rev. Jacob Duche’ read Psalm 35, which was the “Psalter” for the day according to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer:

“Plead my cause, Oh, Lord, with them that strive with me, fight against them that fight against me.”

Prayer was their rallying cry. As we examine this generation we can ask a couple questions….

What was our founding generation like? What was their purpose?

I think sometimes we may look at our founders as we do comic book characters, superhuman. But we know that those who participated in the drafting and the writing of the Declaration of Independence, those who signed their names to that document that pivotal Summer of 1776 by no means had the power to fly, to read minds, or self-heal.

They were not indestructible beings. Every single one of these men were flawed human beings with weaknesses. I say this not to demean their accomplishments but only for us to understand that they were flesh and blood just as we are today. We are human beings filled with flaws but God uses us in spite of our shortcomings.

There were some of our founders that even had a strong dislike of their peers. Just as we do today, they did some things that they often regretted. We all have things we wish we had done better. I don’t think anyone of us can look in the mirror and say with all confidence that we always tried our best.

As imperfect human beings, in spite of their flaws and their differences these men rose to the occasion as a strong testimony to their humanity.

The world loves to define us by our weaknesses, our failures, our shortcomings and our sins. Our Heavenly Father loves us despite all of these things. We are not known just for our failures and as our founders have shown, as our forefathers have shown in the generations before us, we are capable of rising to the occasion with the courage of our convictions.[1]

Men like Adams, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Rush, Madison among many others knew that what they had created was no more perfect than they were. America was not handed to us in perfect working condition, ready to run like a well-oiled machine but that our Republic needed to be tended to with improvisions needed to work better while these improvisions be built off of an idea laid out in the Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights.

Improvision. What does it mean?

To create something spontaneously without preparation or to produce something from whatever is available.

Being a teacher, this is teaching 101!

As Americans we seem to have the gift of improvision. It seems to be who we are. Now I am not saying the Constitution was thrown together on whim carelessly with no thought or prayer whatsoever but the founding generation were entering waters that no man had ever been before so when I say they improvised they were creating something that the world had never seen before. They were men forged in the fire and created for such a time as this.

In the year 1774, none had any experience in nation building or in starting revolutions. I guess you could say they were making it up as they went with much prayer involved. Keep in mind that these men were not old white men with long grey beards who could barely move but they were quite young in fact. I am always saying if we are going to see revival come to our nation it will come from our young people.

These men were driven by their ideals and were young. George Washington was the oldest of them at 43 in 1775 when he took command of the Continental Army, Thomas Jefferson was just 33 when he wrote the Declaration of Independence, John Adams was 40, and Benjamin Rush was only 30 when he signed the Declaration.

When these men declared war on Great Britain, the greatest empire in the world at that time, they had no money as there wasn’t one bank in the entire country, no navy, no real army. It was a young nation that consisted of about 2.5 million people 500,000 whom were slaves.

The odds seemed impossible from any point of view but they knew their purpose, they knew what they stood for and despite their differences they came together united in the cause of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Can we overcome our differences today, unite again despite our differences in the same causes that lit the fire in the hearts of our founding generation?

Very few nations know their beginning. Very few nations know when they were born. Americans know exactly when we were born. We know the date of when we began, why we began and who founded us.

The why is what we need to reexamine in America today?

We must regain our why despite our differences as we are all brethren of an American nation. But can we resolve the things that separate us as we celebrate our nations 246^th birthday?

We are so divided on nearly every subject. We are in the middle of a spiritual culture war whether we want to admit it or not.

There is a greater threat looming and we must come together if we want to remain the UNITED States of America. We can come together as Americans and still hold fast our convictions and principles.

There is one thing that a government fears more than anything else and that is a united people with a common goal and purpose.

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[1] McCullough, David. The American Spirit. Pg. 107-108

The debate over the true meaning of “Separation of Church and State” has been burning for decades in our courts, in the halls within our legislation, in our homes, and in our workplaces. This phrase has been used time and time again as an attempt to eliminate any and all influence of the Word of God involving state, national, and civil affairs. But what happens when we actually look at the 1^st Amendment and what it says?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

If we know our history, we can get quite a different look when we look at the actual text rather than just rely on how we feel about “religion.”

Our founders knew all too well how Monarchs and dictatorships worked. They were familiar with tyranny firsthand as all of them came from the European system of government experiencing the purpose of State-run churches as a means to control the masses.

These men and women had been fed up with the man made “divine right of kings.” James Madison wrote these words as to why the 1^st Amendment was drawn up in the first place:

“The people feared one sect might obtain a preeminence, or two combine together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform.”

What Madison is saying here is that the First Amendment’s intentions are to protect the churches from the overreach of the federal government especially from those in Congress. Look at where we are at today with our Legislative branch. Our founders knew what they were doing.

Those who framed our Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments given to us by God and are absolute, never meant for the Church (Christians and their denominations) to have absolutely no influence on a state, national and local level. Separation of the Church from our national, state, and local way of life was never the intent.

Men like Washington, Madison, Franklin, Jefferson, Rush, Webster believed Christianity as the moral foundation of our government at all levels. Even though not all were Christian they believed that the principles, ten commandments, within the Scriptures should be the basis on which we operate as a society.

George Washington said:

“True religion offers the government its surest support.”

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote these words in the early days of our Republic as the First Amendment was just being adopted:

“An attempt to level all religions and make it a matter of State policy to hold all utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation or strong disapproval, if not universal indignation.”

As he goes on to explain the real reason for the 1^st Amendment was to “prevent any national ecclesiastical or Church establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government.”

…Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion…

… “prevent any national ecclesiastical or Church establishment…

So far this seems very clear to me. We have gone from this to getting rid of any and all evidence of our Judeo-Christian principles from academia today. How and why did we just succeed to this without a fight? How was prayer, the Bible and any teaching on creation, any mention of the God of the Bible just allowed to be taken out of our public institutions without so much as a batting of an eye?

In 1849, Robert C. Winthrop, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, made his voice known on his understanding of the constitutional time period very well as he stated:

“It may do for other countries, and other governments, to talk about the State supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions, it is religion which must support the State.”

It is religion that must hold up the State. Not the other way around as it is today. The State has its foot on the neck of the Church today and won’t let up. Anytime there is even any mention in the slightest of Christianity, Christ, the Gospel, Creation we immediately hear Separation of church and state, separation of church and state!! It is shouted from the hilltops from the people who really seem to have no understanding of the context of the words that they are screaming.

Fact: The phrase “Separation of Church and State” is not in the Constitution, it is not in the First Amendment, it is not in the Preamble, it is not mentioned anywhere.

So where is this phrase derived from?

This term comes from the letters that Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 as he was replying a sect of Baptists and Congregationalists in Danbury, Connecticut as they were questioning his position on religion.

 Keep in mind that Thomas Jefferson was not a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was not a member of the First Congress under the newly framed Constitution that passed the Bill of Rights.

So why has the Supreme Court consistently relied on Jefferson’s personal testimony as he nothing to do with the drafting and writing of the Bill of Rights?

They have used his words to uphold important rulings and decisions that involve public schools more than any other public arena that they cannot have Bible readings, devotionals, ten commandments posted throughout the halls and the schoolrooms, teachers cannot lead prayer, cannot even have a Bible on their desk.

Let us take religion out of it altogether and just look at what the ten commandments say. Those that oppose any religious influence in schools are adamant that these commandments not be taught to our kids? What are the 10 Commandments?

1-You shall have no other Gods before me

2-You shall not make for yourselves an idol

3-You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God

4-Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy

5-Honor your father and your mother

6-You shall not murder

7-You shall not commit adultery

8-You shall not steal

9-You shall not give false testimony

10-You shall not covet

So, from a moral standpoint we are teaching our kids they shouldn’t murder, shouldn’t commit adultery, shouldn’t steal, shouldn’t lie, shouldn’t be jealous, they should respect their parents…

Yes, I know these are terrible things to teach our kids. The issue with our youth, with our young people is not guns, social media or video games but it is a heart issue. We stopped teaching them what it means to be a respectable human being and having a reverence for their fellow man. Would we still have problems? Absolutely. But we started going to downhill as a nation when said our kids weren’t worth the fight.

We retreated to our churches that we turned into country clubs. We wanted a comfortable Christianity. We decided we wanted to ride on into on a cruise ship Heaven on a bed of roses. We simply said this battle wasn’t worth fighting. And now it shows. It’s our fault as Christians for falling asleep at the wheel.

In the words of Samuel Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Remember the exact words:

…Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free thereof…

John W. Whitehead was a very respected constitutional lawyer and author who gave a great analysis of the First Amendment translating it into modern English:

“The federal government shall make no law having anything to do with supporting a national denominational Church, or prohibiting the free exercise of religion.”

As we continue to examine and re-examine actual evidence from our history it is very evident that “separation of Church and State” is not a Constitutional phrase that is now used as a rally cry for those who oppose the Word of God being involved in academia.

Know your history. Know your Constitution. Know the facts. Know what you believe and why you believe it. What is the foundation of your belief? [1]

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[1] Foster, Marshall. The American Covenant: The Untold Story. Pgs 18-20.

There are many today that do not have a basic understanding or knowledge of America’s rich Christian history which in turn makes it difficult to discern fundamental answers to the current problems of the day such as….

Is Abortion a fundamental right? Are the Bill of Rights absolute?

Having an understanding of America’s Biblical principles will help answer these questions and how our founders thought.

There are several Christians who are politically active and actively involved in the media in whatever form that may be that are addressing key issues with little to no knowledge of our actual history. Due to this lack of awareness and understanding our leaders in academia become an easy target and fall prey to very well-trained humanist politicians, journalists, and media personalities.

What is a humanist?

Humanism is a broad religious view that encompasses all religions that use human ideas rather than God and His Word as the foundation of truth. All religions outside of God’s one and true religion are influenced by humanistic beliefs. [1]

Humanism or Secular Humanism is a religion in and of itself that is running rampant in our world today. Why has there been a rise in this way of thinking? What is happening in our Churches and in our homes here in America?

According to a recent Gallup poll, belief in God in America has dipped to 81%, a new all-time low. Only 4 in 10 believe that God can intervene on people’s behalf. Between 1944 and 2011 more than 90% of Americans believed in God or at least had a reverence for God.

Now keep in mind that Christianity is never going to be the most popular way of life no matter what our polls indicate. It is not supposed to be. The Bible does say in Matthew 7:14 “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which. leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” It will only ever be a few that come to really know the one true and living God.

But here in America, being founded upon Judeo-Christian principles, the majority have always had a belief or a reverence for the one true and living God that the Bible speaks of. As time goes on that number is going down.

So, what is going on inside of our homes and our churches?

What are we teaching our kids?

Husbands how are we leading our families? Are we being passive about the things going on in our communities on a local, state, and national level? Fathers and Husbands are we indifferent to Church, to Sunday School, to our schools? Do we even care about the spiritual state of our kids, our schools, our homes, our wives? Yes, we have a responsibility to provide and work but we also have a responsibility to educate our home on the spiritual things such as teaching our families to rightly divide the Word of God, teaching them who Jesus is, and teaching how and why it is important to understand the history in which our great nation was founded upon.

This is why we have a falling away from our foundational beliefs because we have stopped doing our jobs as husbands and fathers. We have decided to let the schools, television, and Hollywood train up our kids and the world has gladly taken them in and trained them up. Is it too late? No, it is not. I believe that we can still have revival in our nation but we must wake up.

Humanists who know and understand all of the cliches about “witch hunts,” and “bigoted Christians,” and how to spin these cliches in their favor.

When we have leaders with Judeo-Christian centered values that call for a return to a God-centered America with values that our founders lined out in our Declaration and our Constitution the humanist undermines the message by equating that message with the motivations of extremists and demagogues, a political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.

If we do not know our true history, yes, the good and the bad, a false sense of guilt will then set in, and as a result we go on the defensive concerning God and America’s history. We will begin to doubt ourselves, what we belief and why if we do not know what we believe and why we believe it. We must be educated on our true history. Not this revisionist history that is being taught today that only teaches that America has always been all bad and nothing good has ever come from her.

Once we go on the defensive, we then take a reactionary position which then puts the Christian in a position in which they become the easiest group in America to destroy and immobilize due to the fact that they know that Christians who know how to rightly divide the Word of God know that they cannot force feed people their beliefs on others. The secular humanist knows this and uses this as a weapon against them. Even if you’re not a Christian but hold Judeo-Christian values, you know that the idea of America is something that you cannot force on somebody else.

The people have to choose for themselves the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Our founders wanted all Americans to be free to pursue who and what they were going to worship but while holding a high standard of morals and values that they outlined in our Bill of Rights and these rights along with the 10 commandments be the guiding light of our decision-making process.

As a Christian, I do not want a church-run society, we are not a theocracy. It is a beautiful thing in our long line of rich American heritage that our Founders provided for us that we could be a nation with true liberty and justice for all for both the believer and non-believer. [2]

What we have today are the humanists running around like an angry mob just waiting to “burn those at the stake” who do not affirm their belief or narrative.

We must know our Bible. We must know our Constitution. We must know our history. We must know America’s founding principles and pass this knowledge onto the next generation if we want to preserve our Constitutional Republic. We must know what we believe and be able to defend why we believe it.

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[1] Bodie Hodge & Roger Patterson: World Religions and Cults: Atheistic and Humanistic Religions. Vol. 3 Pg. 64

[2] Foster, Marshall. The American Covenant. Pg 18.

Whenever there is a tragedy here in America like what we witnessed in Uvalde, Texas we often hear phrases like “We need to do something?” or “We need change now!” But if we want real change we must get to the root of the problem. The heart of the issue. When we peel back the layers and do enough digging, we aren’t going to like what we find because the core of America’s soul is rotted from the inside out. As we constantly hear people and politicians spewing off nonsense and political rhetoric on social media demanding that change needs to happen now nearly every single one are shouting what they don’t understand. They go to their social media accounts and instantly start typing giving no thought for what they are even reading or considering the source of what they are sharing. People share their feelings because it sounds good to them. Every single one of them refuse look at the heart of the matter because it’s not a pretty sight and they refuse to believe what the truth simply because it doesn’t fit their worldview. People today will believe a lie if it sounds good to their version of the truth. If we want to understand what happened at Uvalde, Texas we need to retrace our steps and see where we took a wrong turn on this path we are currently on. How did we get here? Why does this keep happening? We have to go back about 70 years. [1]

Let’s start with the 1950’s. Many, predominately on the left, had pointed out the widespread problems of racism and sexism in American society. As they diagnosed the problem their aim was not try and better the system but rather to utterly lay waste to it. This diagnosis, as is with all diagnosis’ in societies problems today, was self-serving. Ever since the days of Karl Marx, many on the left had always viewed the principles of western civilization as the root of the problem and this foundation needed to be destroyed with a new utopia built over top of it and they have been slowly chipping away at the values and principles that made America truly great in the eyes of the world ever since.

I use the term “left” several times because it is generally those with far-left ideologies that contradict not only America’s core principles but western civilization in general. The left claimed that all ills in society could be laid at the feet of the system they absolutely despised.

Many young Americans that lived through the turbulent social and cultural change of the 1960’s identified with the messages of Marx, Mao, and Marcuse. Herbert Marcuse made popular the phrase “make love, not war.” Students during the 1968 revolt in Paris carried banners reading MARX, MAO, AND MARCUSE.

These students were praising men whom they didn’t fully understand but it felt good and their message resonated with their cause. So these men were praised as heroes to the counterculture. Marcuse advocated for certain types of speech to be banned. He said that “freedom was serving the cause of oppression, so therefore oppression could serve the cause of freedom.” Speech could then be labeled violence. He then argued further that we needed to reexamine the issue of violence. The traditional distinction between violent and non-violent action. This then led to reexamining the traditional distinction between violent and non-violent speech.

If violent action and speech could be re-written and re-defined all in the name of tolerance then the culture in academia could be changed. If you could control what is taught and accepted in academia which our environment or community concerned with the pursuit of research, education, then you can control the narrative and truth becomes subjective. Truth becomes what main stream says it is.

Many of the youth of the 1960’s largely embraced the teachings of Marx, Mao, and Marcuse because they were looking for a change in the system because they bought in to the idea that the system itself needed destroyed because everything about the American Dream was evil and needed replaced. Again, replaced with what? What type of revolution were they trying to usher in? A Change to what?

We keep hearing that we need a change today? A change to what? What are you suggesting when you say change?

Those that follow the teachings of Karl Marx have been attempting to destroy the very fabric of western civilization for years and now they are on the verge of realizing that dream of theirs. They are targeting the very same demographic they always have: our youth.

You want change? You will get it. You will see the marketplace of ideas come to die. The idea of thought and individualism will be cast out. You will be forced to think how and what those in academia think or your thought and speech will be deemed violent and intolerable.

Evil is in the heart of man. You take away the gun and you still have an evil heart. Until we want to tackle the heart of the issue we will still be getting the same results. So when you demand change, you really have no idea what you are advocating for. You are just shouting nonsense and political rhetoric because you are angry.

Shouting nonsense solves nothing. Getting to the root cause of the problem is the start of “fixing” the issue. But we have to be willing to get down on our hands and knees, roll up our sleeves, and start digging otherwise we will lose the soul of our nation if we haven’t already. Time is ticking.

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[1] Shapiro, Ben. The Right Side of History. Pg. 192-193.

Who were our leaders most responsible for the great awakening in America that led to our Independence?

We are familiar with the likes of:

• Samuel Adams, the Father of the American Revolution
• Thomas Jefferson, the main author of the Declaration of Independence
• John Hancock, President of Congress
• John Adams, negotiated the peace treaty with Great Britain to secure our Independence

These leaders were irreplaceable and I believe that God appointed them for a time such as this. These men had a purpose and had it not been for men like these we would not have an America today. We need men like this today. Men who will risk it all, everything they have including their financial security for a cause bigger than themselves.

But there were other leaders that are a little less well-known that without them there may not have been a Jefferson, an Adams, a Washington. Previous generations knew about these other leaders so why don’t we know them today?

These men were leaders who helped shape a nation from behind the pulpit. Our pulpits have always been the heart and soul of America. If our nation is going to be won back, it is going to have to happen from behind the pulpits in America. America was birthed from its pulpits so that is where revival will take place.

Rev. Dr. Jonathan Mayhew and Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper were two courageous men of God who John Adams declared as “most conspicuous, most ardent, and influential” in the “awakening and revival of American principles and feelings” that led to independence.

Let’s fast forward to the year 1816. We have a man named Hezekiah Niles who decided to write a book on how the America declared her independence. Niles himself had not lived through the revolution but was inspired by the patriots that went on before him. He goes on to ask former President John Adams who had a first-hand account of the events that transpired and was also very much and active participant of the revolution. Adams was also the one most responsible for the ideas in which inspired the birth of the America that we have grown to know and love. These same ideas would make America different than any nation before or since.

At the very top of Adams’ list of the most influential people were these two ministers Rev. Mayhew and Rev. Cooper.

Here is President John Adams, a Founding Father, his signature is on the Declaration of Independence, identifying these two pastors by name as some of the most influential men in the fight for liberty and freedom.

I don’t ever remember learning about these men in my history textbooks in school? Maybe if we still taught the importance of men like this, we would have a different America today.

We must ask the question, “Why would Adam’s point to a couple preachers as being so influential in the battle for independence?

As David Barton puts it, “Because historians have documented that every right set forth in the Declaration of Independence had been preached from the American pulpit prior to 1763.” The American Revolution was born out of the Generation that experienced the 2^nd Great awakening in the new world.

If we wanted to, we could attempt to read the rights within the Declaration as a list of sermon topics. The 4 most important natural rights, as our founders claimed them to be, are as follows:

• Life
• Liberty
• Pursuit of Happiness

Natural Right can be defined as a right considered to be conferred by natural law.

What is natural law? Natural law is a body of unchanging moral principles regarded as a basis for all human conduct.

Natural Law is:

• Based upon Principles and Truth, essential to Creation
• Harmonized with, due to Knowledge and Understanding
• Universal, exists and applies anywhere in the Universe regardless of location
• Eternal and Immutable (unchanging over time)
• Exists and applies for as long as the Universe exists and cannot be changed

Our Founders came to the common understanding that the rights they listed in the Declaration of Independence were natural rights derived from natural law that could not be changed by man. It doesn’t get anymore concrete than that.

It was the pulpits across America that helped shaped Americans view towards their natural rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness as well as how to look at everything else through a Biblical worldview.

When we look at sermons from the “Founding Fathers Generation”, we see a Biblical relevance to the daily life of a colonist that we don’t really see today.

John Adams wrote these words, “Our pulpits have thundered.” As I have gone back and thumbed through the sermon topics and titles from the Founding Era I have come to this conclusion, these men preached the Gospel with fire, with zeal, with passion, and with anointing most of all. These sermon titles include:

• Called Unto Liberty, 1791 – John Leland
• Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men, 1776 – John Witherspoon
• America’s Appeal to the Impartial World, 1775 – Moses Mather

The characteristics of many sermons across America at this time carried a similar theme as you can see. While these men were on fire for God, they also had a passion and desire for Independence. Rev. Jonathan Mayhew was one of those preachers.

Sources: The Role of Pastors and Christians in Civil Government by David Barton

Ive been researching the sermon titles and topics from our Founding Fathers Generation because this was when we had the 2nd Great Awakening.

When I look at what they preached on you would be shocked as they preached the gospel with fire, with passion, with zeal.

The most popular sermon from that era was from Jonathan Edwards titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

We have this idea as Americans that we are just going to storm into Washington DC, take it over, guns blazing.

Am I angry at what is happening, absolutely. Does it break my heart to see our leadership in the shape that it is in, absolutely but how we are going to win back our nation is not by storming D.C. but from the pulpits spread across this great land. We have to wake up there first before we can take action.

When Thomas Jefferson penned these words:

“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…”

We have to think of what drove the Colonists to write these words?

They didn’t just start running around like a crazy mob but what drove them were the principles that came from the revival of a people stirred up.

He says “it is the right of people to abolish it, institute a new government laying its foundation on such principles…”

What is our foundation today and where do our principles derive from? Our Founders foundation was the Word of God and within the Scriptures we find what guided their principles.

America was founded in the pulpits therefore it must be won back in the pulpits. In order for that to happen America’s preachers need to wake up and preach the gospel message with the same passion and fire that those Founding Era ministers preached with. Like every soul in the universe depended upon hearing the Gospel message!

The Gospel stirred the Colonists to movement. Many are stirred today but not by the gospel. There is no real movement in the hearts of our people today. People are filled with anger but not over the condition of their neighbors heart.

Until we start repenting of our sin we will continue down the road we are on. We will fall. We will crumble and America will cease to exists as we’ve known her.

Sermons like Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God stirred up something inside the people’s hearts that sparked a revival that started a revolution that birthed America.