WHAT IS WRONG WITH AMERICA?
It is with a heavy heart that I type this blog this morning. I am so heartbroken for those babies at Robb Elementary School in Texas that were robbed of life by a deranged killer bound for Hell. I feel so bad for the families of those two teachers that probably died doing all they could to protect their students, and I want you to know that what we see in our nation today is not the America I remember as I was growing up in Unionville, and it is definitely not the America our forefathers envisioned.
Ronald Reagan said this in his farewell address to the nation in 1989, and what a warning it was and so true:
“We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise - and freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection. We've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important: Why the pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant.
If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I am warning of an eradication of that - of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.
Let's start with some basics - more attention to American history and a greater emphasis of civic ritual. And let me offer lesson No. 1 about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table.”
What is wrong with America? Americans have forgotten what made America exceptional. It is not often anymore that I get to teach a US History lesson, but this blog entry is going to do just that.
What once made America great was the realization, the absolute realization, the absolute fact, and belief in, that there was a great, eternal God in charge of the universe. Our earliest documents reveal this.
In 1620, Pilgrims set sail across the Atlantic Ocean in search of, I do not care one iota what a revisionist says, religious freedom. Those Pilgrims signed an agreement called The Mayflower Compact. Do you know what it says?
The Mayflower Compact
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia;
They were sailing for Virginia, but they ended up in Massachusetts at a little place called Plymouth Rock, but it did not change their intended mission which was to advance Christianity. The opening phrase tells why: IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN.
The fact that we owe everything to God was written in our Declaration of Independence.
“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 unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Thomas Jefferson and the 54 other men that signed the Declaration of Independence declared that all men are created equal by their Creator. The founding fathers embraced God and started America on a journey that had as its starting point the acceptance of God Almighty and governmental principles based upon that fact.
People flocked to America because of the freedom that America heralded, a freedom based on the accepted fact that there was a God. America flourished, and God blessed, but that is not the case today.
America is in a terrible shape today because America has forgotten its founding principles. There is a litany of reasons that has caused it, but chief among those, is America no longer believes in the Providence of God. We have gone from IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN to hyphenated Americans. Where once we were a united people, we are now a fragmented people, and the primary reason for that is that as a nation, we have removed and denied God. The history of the American downfall is incredible and rapid. If I were teaching an American history class, I would say that the zenith of American power and influence was reached in 1948.
That is not an arbitrary date that I just picked out of a hat. American ingenuity, dedication, and ferocity had just defeated the evil Adolf Hitler and the evil Japanese empire. Our economy was recovering from the woes of the Great Depression, and along with Great Britain, America had led the movement to reestablish Israel as a nation on May 14, 1948. Through it all, we as a people had relied on God, family, church, and American exceptionalism, but that began to change with the creation of the United Nations.
Launched in October of 1945, the United Nations, in its inception, attacked the very idea of American exceptionalism and independence. Never before had we needed a council of nations to dictate our actions. We knew who we were. We were created by God to be free, and we always relied on that knowledge and the principles upon which our nation was founded to guide our decisions, but that stopped, and America has slipped downward since that point.
In 1962, prayer was removed from school. In 1973, Roe vs. Wade became the law of the land or so some would have you believe. In 1980, the 10 Commandments were removed from the walls of public schools, and thou shalt not kill was suddenly replaced by bullets flying into our classrooms and down our hallways. Suddenly the principles by which we had been guided for over 200 years were no longer important. Because of the neglecting of those principles, our nation has started showing signs of decay.
We have left God totally out of the picture. 62,000,000 babies have been aborted. Families are crumbling. Violence has claimed the streets and the schools, and America’s response is political turmoil. Republicans blame Democrats, and Democrats blame Republicans. Everyone is wanting to argue about the Second Amendment when most do not even know what the Second Amendment says. If you want to know what the Second Amendment says, do some research and read what James Madison said about it because he wrote it into the Bill of Rights. I am sick to my stomach at the political maelstrom in our nation. It is against the principles upon which we were founded, but as Reagan warned, if we ever stopped teaching the principles upon which America was founded, our foundation as a nation would start crumbling.
Can I share a solution? The solution is found in the opening lines of that document signed by those Pilgrims.
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. I believe there is a passage in Isaiah that describes what God is saying to America today.
Isaiah 59 : 1 – 4(NIV)
1 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things. 4 No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
As long as God is on His throne, He has the right to intervene in the affairs of man. He did it when he safely guided the Mayflower across the stormy Atlantic. He did it when Thomas Jefferson penned the words acknowledging the fact of God in the Declaration of Independence. He did it when a loosely organized group of farmers and merchants spread out over 13 colonies defeated the most powerful army in the world, and He will do it today, but sin has separated us from Him, and because of that, He cannot hear our petitions. Isaiah describes us to a tee. Our hands are stained with blood as 62,000,000 babies that have been aborted will attest as will those babies who are the victims of violence in our society. We are a society of liars. No one calls for justice. Isaiah describes our politicians as he says they rely on empty arguments. We conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
But dear friend, there is an answer.
2 Chronicles 7 : 14 (NIV)
14 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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
Dear friend, if we want America to be what America can be, we need to do what the Bible says. If God’s people will humble themselves and pray, seek God, and repent, God promises to hear, and not only hear, but forgive our sin and heal our land, and if you are a Christian, instead of getting caught up in all the vitriolic hate of the political debate today, you need to do as it is written in 2 Chronicles 7 : 14.
Dear friend, I long for the America of yesteryear where freedom reigned, babies were protected, and God was accepted, and dear friend, that is possible if God’s people will do as the Bible says.
As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day, remember those who gave their lives in the defense of freedom. Set aside a special prayer time for the victims of those innocent ones killed in the school this week, and seriously consider what I have said in this blog.
Our VBS will be June 2 – 3 from 6 PM to 8 PM, and June 4 from 11 AM to 1 PM. All children are invited.
If you would like to join us for a service, our worship times are as follows:
Sunday School 10:00 AM
Morning Worship 10:45 AM
Sunday Night 06:00 PM
Wednesday 07:00 PM
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