At this time of the year when we celebrate our national heritage, I am inspired to share what the history books plainly show about the founding of this beloved nation of ours, to reflect on where we have come as a nation since those days, and how Christians should respond to the decline of time-honored values we once held.
Upon the eve of the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonian empire, the Jewish nation was basking in the false assurance that, since they were God's special people, they were immune from the calamities that had befallen other nations. They had developed a kind of hubris which said, "It can't happen here." In Biblical terminology it was the "Peace and Safety" proclaimed often by the false prophets. In many ways this is parallel to our nation's own sense of who we are, somehow singularly immune from the catastrophes that have engulfed other less fortunate peoples. The words of the Lord spoken through the prophet Jeremiah to those people resonate strongly and clearly for us today: "Stand in the crossroads and see. And ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it..." We are also at a crossroads as a nation. Somehow our society has bought into the idea that "old paths" are old-fashioned. We are quickly discarding proven ways in the name of some ill-defined Progress, and in doing so have rejected God's ways. This has resulted in such things as history textbooks that, in trying to accommodate a pluralistic society, have become so value-neutral that they lie about our own past. How many school children are taught the truth about the founders of this nation and the authors of our 210 year-old Constitutional democracy? Do they know that 52 of the 55 people who worked on our Constitution were evangelical Christians? Are they made aware of the writings and beliefs of people like Patrick Henry, who once said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly and too often that this nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Or our second president, John Quincy Adams, who said, "America's Constitution was made for moral and religious people. It will not work for any other people." Or what about Abraham Lincoln, who made the following statement: "...those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord." Or that great statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin, who wrote: "If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that 'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this."
The University of Houston recently did a study on the foundation of our government, examining over 3,000 documents of our founders. They found that 34% of all quotes were from the Bible. The Supreme Court ruled in a certain case in 1897 that "Our laws and institutions must necessarily be based on and include the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. Our laws and institutions are emphatically Christian."
Schoolbooks were once saturated with the teachings of the Bible. One homework question in a reader was as follows: "What is the 5th commandment, what does it forbid, what are the implications of its forbidding it?"
I think it is obvious that our nation has suffered a major change of direction since our founding. Even as late as 1956, we officially accepted the words "In God we trust" as our national motto. The change of direction bore fruit in the cultural revolution of the 1960's. In 1962 prayer was removed from the public schools of our land in a landmark Supreme Court decision. The prayer they ruled on in that specific case was these simple words - "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on you. We beg your blessings upon us, upon our parents, upon our teachers, and upon our nation. Amen." Such a nonsectarian prayer could have been prayed by any of the 97% of our nation who believed in God at the time of that ruling. The First Amendment only intended that there never be one state-sanctioned denomination such as the Church of England. Never in a million years was it intended to throw prayer and the Bible out of schools. In the Bible removal decision in 1963, the Court said - "There is a danger that if the Bible is read with no explanation, it might cause psychological harm." An amazing irony is that in schools in Russia, American missionaries are able now to speak freely, distribute Bibles which are eagerly snatched up, and give their testimony on how Jesus has changed their lives.
What happened when we left the old paths? Prior to 1962, the divorce rate had declined for 15 years. Since that time the divorce rate has skyrocketed until today half of all marriages end in divorce, with untold suffering and havoc wreaked in the lives of millions. We are a nation on antidepressants. Prior to 1963 the SAT scores had never fluctuated but a few percent around a stable average. For the next 18 years, the SAT scores declined every year. Since 1963, America has become the number one Western nation in violent crime, divorce, teenage pregnancy, abortion, illegal drugs, and illiteracy. Chuck Colson asks a very pertinent question: "Can we be good without God?"
How do we begin to turn this nation around? Christians must take an active part in the political process, though in the final analysis no man can deliver us and no party can save us. It is easy to become angry and belligerent, and many have taken that course. Our carnal response is one of self-righteous smugness, an intolerant, unmerciful us-versus-them mentality. What we must realize is that most lost people are not deliberately hostile to God, but are seeking greater fulfillment in their life and do not know where to turn. What are they seeing in us? Although it is our duty to be active in the political process, our commission by Jesus and equipping by the Holy Spirit is to go out and get people delivered by demonstrating God's mercy and love to sinners. Ours is not a ministry of the Moral Law, but of the Spirit. Ours is a ministry not of condemnation, but of reconciliation to God. To be merely crusaders of conservatism, to be self-appointed restorers of morality without ministering spiritual regeneration was precisely the problem with the Pharisees, who received Jesus' harshest words of condemnation. We are to be salt and light, not merely in word, but by the testimony of joyous spirit-filled regenerated lives, full of purpose and hope. We have supernatural weapons to wage this war, and they are to be wielded in the power of holy love.
@ copyright 1993 by Scott H. Northrup. All rights reserved.