Most of us grew up and heard one our elders tell us how hard they had it when they were growing up. You know, the proverbial “walked to school 5 miles, up hill both ways.” In my case, having lived in the Northeast a good bit of my childhood, you had to add “in the snow” to the daily trudge. Inevitably it would end with, “we’ve come a long way since then.”
This weekend, the U.S. celebrates its 233rd anniversary of our legal separation from Great Britain. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the formal document of a resolution of independence. John Adams, the man who would become our second president, wrote to his wife Abigail: “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.”
Our Founding Fathers knew that it would take “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” and pledged their “Lives, Fortunes and sacred Honor” to establish and defend the United States of America.
Adams, as were the overwhelming majority of the signers of Declaration of Independence, was a Christian. For more than 200 years, the laws of our nation were a reflection of the moral laws God set forth in the Bible. As a result, God’s blessing rested on us and we grew and prospered.
However, in recent years, our nation has turned away from God. If the truth be told, the fault lies at the doors of the Church in America. Christians, have become too comfortable and given to the pursuit of wealth, fame, entertainment and personal pleasures. We have relegated the need to watch and speak to issues of government to others that do not reflect biblical standards. As one write recently stated, “We don't carefully examine the candidates before we vote…we select our president and the rest of our representatives the same way a 7-year-old selects her Barbie doll.”
- As a nation we have disregarded the biblical warnings against borrowing and the result is we have become a debtor nation to communist and anti-god nations.
- We no longer trust in God to provide but have replaced God with government.
- We have become numb to the battle of declaring an unborn child a human being, created in God's image, with certain inalienable rights.
- We no longer speak out against immorality but pretend that it’s “not so bad” (possibly because we have allowed ourselves to be infected by it).
- We have permitted out tax dollars to fund abortions and “safe sex” education beginning in kindergarten.
- We have become weary to those that have been pounding the doors that have finally given way to recognizing homosexuality as “proper”.
- Christians, have been silent and allowed good to be called evil and evil to be called good.
The old spiritual hymn says, “We've come a long way, Lord, a mighty long way.” I would have to agree with that statement. But I would have to ask, “Where has it lead us?”
Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
It’s time for the Church to wake up, rise up, speak up and repent! Then and only then will God heal our land!
Comments