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THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR NATION'S FOUNDERS AND OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM

In recent years we have heard a great deal about the deeds of our for-fathers, it seems that there a some folks that want to prove that our founders were all a bunch of scoundrels. The truth of the matter is, those men that were involved in the founding and firmly establishing of this nation as a republic were men like evryone else. Indeed these men all had their likes and dislikes, they all had bad days and good days, they all had the emotions and desires that every person is blessed with at birth but they also were men who trusted in God and revered the Bible as a book that came from God. I live in the great state of Ohio and have found that the drafters of the Ohio Constitution were believers in God and the Bible, Note the  following:

"We the people of the State of Ohio, grateful to almighty God for our freedom, to secure its blessings and promote our common welfare, do establish this constitution."

... Premble to the Ohio Constitution of 1851 ...

"With God all things are possible"

... Motto of the Ohio State University ...

Not only did the framers of our national constutution believe in God and the Bible but they stated their conviction about this matter in a public way, note the following statements:

"It is impossible to govern the world without the Bible"

... George Washington ...

"I hold the preceipts of Jesus as delivered by himself, to be the most oure, benevolent, and sublime which have ever been preached to man. I adhere to the principaal of the

age."

... Thomas Jefferson ...

"Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of achievement which the race is proud, almost every such man has based his work largely upon the teaching of the Bible."

... Theodore Rosevelt ...

May we stand up and defend the right of all men to speak of God and to always defend the right of all men everywhere to read the Book of God and to live by its precepts.

May God always bless us in our endevours as we choose to serve Him in our life and in our work.

Psalms 33:11-14,

"11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD: and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.

14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth" (KJV),

Editorial: Garreth L. Clair—3/15/2005

glclair@sbcglobal.net

WILL GOD ALWAYS BLESS AMERICA?

[Article from 22 years ago]

INTRODUCTION

In 1918 Irving Berlin wrote and produced an all-soldiers show at an obscure camp named Yaphank. He wrote a closing number for that show, but it did not seem appropriate, so he replaced it with another song and laid the original aside. Twenty years later Kate Smith planned a patriotic program for her radio show. She asked Berlin to write an appropriate number for her to sing. After several failures, he remembered the song written in 1918. He made a few minor changes and delivered it to the popular singer. On November 10, 1938, Kate Smith stepped to the microphone and sang:

        “God bless America, Land that I love, Stand beside her and guide her thru 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.”

The rest is history. The song became the most popular patriotic song in America during World War II. It is on the list of the 16 all-time most popular songs in America. The suggestion has often been made that it should be our national anthem. Berlin, who emigrated from Russia in 1893, said that the song was "an expression of [his] gratitude to the country that inspired it."

I.  WILL GOD ALWAYS BLESS AMERICA? -

    1. Has God blessed America? Let me suggest that no nation in history has ever been more blessed in more ways than our own country! It is a country of unbounded beauty and almost unlimited natural resources. Joe Barnett suggests that the way to appreciate how blessed we have been is to compare what we have with what other nations have--and then he makes this comparison with Russia:

        To bring our resources to the level of Russia, we would have to abandon half of our steel capacity, half of our petroleum

    capacity, destroy three of every five hydroelectric plants, and get along on a third of our volume of natural gas. We would have

    to rip up thirteen of every fourteen miles of our paved highways, and scrap nineteen of every twenty cars and trucks.

        We would have to destroy over two thousand colleges and universities and burn 85 percent of our museums.

        We would have to cut our living standard by two-thirds, destroy 50 million television sets and ten out of every eleven

    telephones.

And in addition to our material blessings, we can add our many freedoms, including freedom of religion. Indeed, God has blessed America abundantly!

    2.  But the question of the hour is, will God always Bless America? Just because God has once blessed a people is no assurance that He will always do so. The pages of history are filled with the records of nations and people who once prospered, but who then forgot the source of their blessings; from which God then removed His care and protection.

    In Romans 1, time and time again the statement is made, "God gave them up". But the text emphasizes that God did not give them up until first of all they gave God up! The wise man said, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Prov. 14:34). The strength of a nation lies not in the size of its armies, the wealth of its citizens, the splendor of its civilization, or the up-to-date state of its science, but rather in the goodness of its people.

    Will God always bless America? The key lies in America's recognition of God and His will! When the great king of Babylon refused to give God the glory for his accomplishments (Dan. 4:30), he became as a wild beast and ate grass in the field (Dan. 4:29-37). If America does not acknowledge God, the consequences are too terrible to contemplate!

    This brings us to these questions: How does America stand today? In what direction is she traveling? If she continues on as she presently is, will God be able to continue to bless her?

II.  LESSONS FROM THE PAST

    Questions like these are always hard for contemporaries to answer; we are so involved that it is hard for us to be objective. There might be value then in going to the past, to learn lessons from other people once blessed by God.  Perhaps seeing the direction they took--and the results--might be of some benefit to us.

    Specifically, I would like for us to see what parallels might be drawn between the Rome of yesterday and the America of today. Perhaps we can profit from her mistakes. The Roman Empire was large, powerful and abundantly blessed. But that civilization is in ruins.  Why?  What happened?  History has the answer.

    Most of us are acquainted to some extent with that monumental work by Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire--one of the great historical works in the English language. Gibbon gave five basic reasons for the collapse and fall of the empire of Rome:

        (1) The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home which is the basis of human

            society.

        (2)  Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.

        (3)  The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.

        (4)  The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people.

        (5)  The decay of religion--faith fading into mere form losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people.

    Frankly, these five points should make every nation in western civilization stop and think! But for the moment, our concern is about America. Is it possible that America is taking the very pathway that led to Rome's fall? Let us see if a parallel can be drawn between Rome and America, using these five points as a checklist:

    1.  The breakdown of the home.  The first reason given for Rome's fall was "the rapid increase of divorce, the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of modern society".

    God's first institution--before human government, before His kingdom--was the home. It was established because it was not good that man should be alone (Gen. 2:18-24)--to establish a dwelling place of the affections, a place where children could be born and raised "in the. . .admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4). When the home fails, society must fall.

    In America, 1,182,000 divorces were reported for 1980, as opposed to 2,413,000 marriages, thus averaging almost one divorce for every two marriages. It is estimated that about 40% of new marriages will end in divorce. In many major cities each year, there are as many divorces as there are marriages. The total number of divorces in 1983 was twice that of ten years before. And for every broken home, there is at least one badly bent. Several years ago, Dr. Clifford Adams, professor emeritus of Penn State University, estimated that only about 25% of marriages are really happy.

    There are a thousand factors undermining the dignity and sanctity of the American home: rampant adultery, premarital sex, wife-swapping, live-in arrangements, "easy" divorces, a growing acceptance of homosexuality and perverted sex, etc. We have too many people marrying the wrong people for the wrong reasons--without any real understanding of what their responsibilities are and without any real commitment to each other and to God!!

    2.  Higher taxes--and free bread.  But to pass to the second reason given by Gibbon, there were "higher and higher taxes and the spending of the public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace".

    Jesus taught that secular government has the right to levy taxes to pay its expenses (Mat. 22:15-21) and certainly the Bible teaches that we should always be ready to help those less fortunate than ourselves (Gal. 6:10; Jms. 1:27). But the same book notes that the excessive taxation imposed by Solomon was a factor in the fall of the united kingdom of Israel (2 Kgs. 12:4, 14, 16)--and it specifically condemns the encouragement of slothfulness. "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat" (2 Thes. 3:10).

    Although from time to time there have been efforts to give the American citizen some tax relief, the overall trend through the years has been bigger and bigger government and higher and higher taxes. In addition to the income tax and such obvious things as property tax, there are hundreds of "hidden" taxes eating away at our pay checks. In 1929, the average person worked 52 minutes of the eight-hour day to earn enough to pay his taxes. Today the working time to fulfill tax obligations is up to two hours and 40 minutes a day!

    And much of this tax money goes for "free bread". While no one resents help given to those truly deserving and in need, would any deny that we have developed a generation where a great many have their hands out, asking, "What can you do for me?"

    3.  The mad craze for pleasure.  The third factor listed by Gibbon strikes even closer to home: "The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal".

    Every person sometimes feels the need for rest and re-creation; even Jesus did (Mark 6:31). But when the search for pleasure becomes and end within itself, there is something drastically wrong. Paul spoke of those who were "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:4) and said that the individual "who lives in pleasure is dead while s [he] lives" (1 Tim. 5:6)--dead in sin with emptiness within.

    The pursuit of new thrills is readily seen all about us. A case in point is the increasing use of alcohol--with its attendant evils. Nearly three-fourths (71%) of the adult population in America drink in varying degrees and greater numbers of our teens are turning to alcohol. Problem drinking increased 50% among children between 1966 and 1978. The largest increase was in the 7th and 8th grades. Among 13-year-olds, one of every four drinks moderately. The result? Over 25,000 traffic deaths each year from drinking drivers plus an increase in social problems of every kind. Sociologists tell us that drinking is a major factor in almost every social problem facing us today: Child abuse, rape, child molestation, divorce, wife beating, and so one.

    The great British historian Arnold Toynbee, wrote: "Out of 21 civilizations preceding this one, 19 of them have been destroyed by a mixture of atheism, materialism, and alcoholism". When asked recently if he had changed his mind about western civilization, he replied:

    Only this, that it looks now as if the number one enemy of the American way of life is drunkenness.  If your people

continue the present increase of drunkenness, nothing can save you from destruction.  History is altogether against you.

    And when alcohol no longer gives the thrill desired, we do not hesitate to turn to stronger measures. Drug abuse has become a national scandal. Interest in gambling is increasing daily. Pornography is a $5 billion a year business. But of course this "mad craze for pleasure" has nothing to do with us as we enjoy our complex audio and video systems, sit in our boats anchored near our holiday homes, spend every spare moment on our hobbies, and spend lavish amounts on vacations--often spending far more on pleasure than we do on the support of the Lord's work. And the words "sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal" could not possibly relate to those of us who watch with morbid fascination as cars careen out of control on the racetrack, as two men try to hit each other to unconsciousness, and as a linebacker comes flying through the line with the single intention of trying to destroy a man half his size.

    4.  Military spending--and decadence.  To refresh your mind about the fourth factor, it was "the building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people".

    A turned cheek (Mat. 5:39) can be a greater protection than a clenched fist--if it assures that God is on our side (Rom. 8:31). The civil government has the right to bear the sword (Rom. 13:4), but again we say, the real strength of a nation lies in its relationship with God (Prov. 14:34).

    Is America engaged in "the building of gigantic armaments"? The yearly military expenditure in the U.S. is now over $120,000,000,000.00! In his book Preparing for the Next War, Michael Shery says:

        U.S. peacetime military manpower increased from an average 275,000 men in pre-war years to more than 2 million

men after the war. Peacetime spending soared from pre-war levels of no more than $650 million a year to more than $80 billion by the early 70's. It reached a staggering $120 billion in 1979.

    Almost 5% of America's per capita income is expended in military spending--and every time someone suggests that Russia is ahead of us again, that percentage increases.

But where is the real enemy? The historian said "the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people". America has been noted in the past for being a land of brave people, ready to fight for freedom. But now America must become noted for being a land of good people, ready to stand up for those things that are right!

    It would be easy (and tempting) to hide our heads in the sand and to say that nothing is amiss in America, to cry, "Peace, peace, when there is no peace" (Jere. 6:14), but we must face the fact that America is rapidly becoming a decadent society.

    Social philosopher Will Harberg notes that it is not so much that people are going against moral norms and standards today, as it is that those norms and standards are being cast aside. He says, "Today's culture comes very close to becoming a non-moral normal-less culture". In the book Is the New Morality Destroying America?, noted essayist Clare Booth Luce notes that "Forty-five percent [of our college students] say that they do not think it is necessary to lead a moral life in order to be happy or successful". She points to many evidences of moral decline, including dishonesty in business, in law, in medicine, in politics, in law enforcement. She says that a society unable to bring such under control "is a society in the process of moral disintegration". When Russian novelist and social critic Alexander Solzhenitsyn addressed the Harvard University's graduating class in June, 1978, he declared:

        A decline in courage may be the most striking feature an outsider notices in the West. . . . .Should one point out that from most ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the beginning of the end?

    Let us face facts: when nudity is no longer shocking, when the corner convenience store has become a seller of pornographic literature, when sex is used to sell everything from toothpaste to lawnmowers, when "an alternate lifestyle", when one and one--half million unborn babies are legally killed each year, and when any attempt to sound a warning is called "Puritan" . . . the foundations are beginning to crumble (Rom. 1:20-32)!

    5.  The decay of religion.  All of the factors given thus far are merely symptoms of a deeper disorder--symptoms of a sin-sick condition, symptoms of a society straying away from God.  Thus we come to Mr. Gibbon's last reason for the fall of the Roman Empire: "The decay of religion--faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people."

    Paul speaks of some "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" (2 Timothy 3:5, emphasis mine).  Jesus warned us against "vain repetition" in worship (Matthew 6:7)--in other words empty forms, just so much talk. Empty forms are not enough. We must worship "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). And our religion must touch our lives--so that our bodies are given as a "living sacrifice" to the Lord (Romans 12:1). A religion that does not affect a man's life is not the religion of Christ!

    What about religion in America today? Is "faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life?" Most of the polls indicate that church attendance is remaining fairly constant--but there are many indications that the religion of many Americans is not really touching their everyday lives. For instance, a recent Gallup poll showed that only a small percentage of those who claim to be Christians read their Bible daily--or know much about the Bible. Of those who attend church services regularly, only half of them could name the four gospels, less than half knew who delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and less than half could name three of the Ten Commandments.

    Further, the average American today gives about $4.00 a week to the religious institution of his choice--less than the cost of a good meal. One writer has noted that "if every church member in the United States were to suddenly lose his/her job and went on welfare, and yet were willing to [give 10% of] the minimal amount received from public assistance, giving in the nation's churches would immediately increase over 30%!"

    Perhaps, however, pollster George Gallup reported the greatest paradox in American religious life when he recently noted that, while polls show that church membership and attendance have remained consistent, conviction on moral issues has continued to decline. With the exception of 12% that Gallup calls "deeply committed", he reports that he finds little difference in the views of the churched and the un-churched on many moral issues!

    The simple fact is that most churches today are standing for less and less--from the preacher on up and down. Many congregations today would be startled to hear a "thus saith the Lord". The Bible has been replaced by philosophy and personal experience. But still the forms go on. On any given Sunday in thousands of mainstream churches over the country, half-filled buildings give out with a holy echo as the cherished traditions are observed.

    The result has been that hundreds and thousands have turned away from organized religion. Today 41% of our population--61 million Americans--are classified as "the un-churched", not affiliated with any local religious institution. What a need there is to go back--not to just any religion, but to the religion of the Bible, to be real Christians as they were in New Testament times!

III.  A CHALLENGE TO AMERICA -- AND TO EACH ONE OF US

    1.  If we are honest with ourselves we must admit that America's course is presently away from God. . .and if we face the facts, we must admit that if she persists in that course, her fate will be that of other nations that have forgotten God!

    No doubt this will be hard for many to accept. When Lot tried to warn his sons-in-law about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, "he seemed as one that mocked" to those relatives (Genesis 9:14), but destruction came nevertheless. When the Old Testament prophets tried to warn the nations of Israel and Judah, they were ignored and mistreated. Often they were accused of being unpatriotic and unfaithful to their nation. But destruction was still complete!

    Don't you imagine that any warnings to Rome would have been ill received? Can you imagine going to Rome in its "hey-day" and saying, "What you have accomplished is all well and good, but you have forgotten one thing. You have forgotten God.  If you don't change your ways and turn to God, your great civilization will only be a gazing-stock for generations to come?!" Can you imagine the reaction? You would have been laughed out of town! But let them laugh today beneath the crumbling ruins of a lost civilization!

    To quote Harry Emerson Fosdick: "Unless we can learn the supremacy of spiritual forces, the pallbearers that have carried out other dead civilizations wait at our door!"  A fellow evangelist put it this way: "If God lets America go scot-free He will have a lot of apologizing to do to Sodom and Gomorrah!"

    2.  By this time I hope all are asking, "What can be done to help America change her course? What can be done to assure that God will always bless America?" A challenge to America must ultimately be a personal challenge. A nation changes only as it’s citizens change. There are many things we might do to help America: we might get involved with fellow Christians to fight ungodliness and maybe even to affect legislation. But the most important thing we can do is to change our own direction--to be what we should as congregations of the Lord's church and as individual members of the church!

    It is impossible to estimate the far-reaching consequences of your influence. You may feel small and insignificant. You may ask, "Who am I among so many thousands?" But don't underestimate the force of a single life dedicated to God!  We have referred several times to Sodom and Gomorrah--those infamous cities destroyed by God because of their wickedness--but have you ever considered this: If Lot had only saved all of those of his own family, those cities would probably have been spared! We are not as small as we sometimes think we are, and our influence can be far, far reaching.

    A key passage that teaches this is Matthew 5:13.  Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its flavor, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet". Salt had a variety of uses in those days, but its main use was as a preservative. There were no canning processes, no deep-freezes; unless fresh meat was eaten immediately, it had to be cured with salt to keep it from spoiling.  Jesus is thus saying that we as Christians are that element which can preserve society. He is saying that upon our shoulders rests the fate of the nation. We can be what we should be--and protect society. Or we can "lose our flavor"--and doom America.

    And how did salt lose its "flavor" or saltiness? By losing it’s distinctive quality. Even so, when we as Christians become like the world around us, we have "lost our flavor"! When we are blinded by the old adage "Everybody's doing it," when our standards are set by society instead of by the Savior, we are (in Bible terminology) "good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trampled under people's feet".

    What I'm trying to say is that all of us as Christians need to develop a social conscience. We need to understand that "none of us lives to himself" (Romans 14:7). This will be "a hard saying" to that individual who wants to feel that "what I do is my own business", but this challenge will have real significance to that person who has crucified himself, so that it is now Jesus who lives within him (Galatians 2:20)--that Jesus who gave up all that others might live!

    In the long run it is you--and I--who will determine the answer to the question, "Will God always bless America?"

CONCLUSION

    And now, as we close, let me change the question to this: "Will God always bless you?" Just as God cannot bless America unless this nation acknowledges Him and walks with Him, so God cannot bless you unless you commit your life to Him in faith and obedience.

    Did you know that God wants to bless you? Jesus even died for you that you might enjoy "all spiritual blessings" (Ephesians 1:3). And how do we benefit from His death? In Mark 16:16,

    Do you really believe in Jesus and trust Him? Will you then be baptized in His name for remission of sins (Acts 2:38)? If you will, then you will find yourself in a new relationship with Christ (Galatians 3:26, 27)--"in" Him where all spiritual blessings are found (Ephesians 1:3).

    I hope and pray that God will always bless America, but if worse comes to worse and those blessings are removed from this country, you can still so live and conduct yourself so that God will bless you here and so that someday you can be with God throughout eternity!

    If you need to be baptized--or restored as an erring Christian--don't put it off!

-David Roper * FWL-1985

#1 Bible Based Attitudes and Relationships

IMMORALITY AND DISHONESTY IN WASHINGTON. DC.

By Garreth L. Clair

The news wires are busy knocking the current speaker of the house and seeking his resignation in the matter of one of the members of his party that has committed unnatural and criminal moral acts. Indeed the individual that is proven to be guilty of immoral and criminal actions toward others ought to be fired, Yet does the actions of a person during his tenure in congress mean that the whole party is to blame for his personal choice to act like the devil? I think not, the person guilty ought to pay the price when convicted, not everyone he works with or everyone that he knows!

It seems that everything that happens in washington is the fault of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party - Why not hold the criminal to account for his/her actions and leave other people out of the proceedings unless they are accomplices? I will tell you why; politics is best pracriced {i.e. it seems} when mud can be thrown over everyone in the party that the criminal belongs to. How about practicing some of the following actions that God approves in human relations and interactions with other people:

Matt 22:37-39, “37 And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second like (unto it) is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” ASV

John 13:34-35, “34 A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” ASV

Rom 8:28, “28 And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, (even) to them that are called according to (his) purpose.” ASV

Rom 12:9, “9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” ASV

Rom 12:18-19, “18 If it be possible , as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. 19 Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto the wrath (of God): for it is written, Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense, saith the Lord.” ASV

Luke 18:27, “27 But he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” ASV

1 John 3:18, “18(My) Little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth .” ASV

Eph 4:15, “15 but speaking truth in love , we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, (even) Christ;” ASV

October 21, 2006

Our prayer is that we will be able to aid in the great work of teaching and encouraging people from all walks of life to take a little time and look at the evidence for God’s existence, His love for mankind, and His Holy Book (i.e., the BIBLE).

Go to: http://bible.com

PSALMS 23:1-6

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

NKJV BIBLE

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