America for God - Part 1

 

Our Wednesday evening small group Bible Study is continuing through our D. James Kennedy series on America's Christian heritage and remaining that heritage. This week, we are watching a video of a Fourth of July speech that Pastor Kennedy made in Washington D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. Kennedy explained that this land has been principally made great because it is the great bastion of Freedom and Liberty. And of all the freedoms that we enjoy, that which was most important (and still remains so), is the Freedom of Religion. In fact, in the Bill of Rights, in the First Amendment, before they guaranteed the Right of the Free Press, or the Right of the Freedom of Assembly, or the Right to Petition the Government, or even the Right of Freedom of Speech, before any of these and first of all, they guaranteed the Freedom of Religion. That was a unique act in the history of the world. On that day, for the first time in the history of the planet, religious freedom became a reality. There had been religious tolerance before, but had never risen to the level of religious freedom.

It was that great faith in God and Christ that brought the Founders of this to these barren shores. The Mayflower Pilgrims declared that they came here to plant a colony for the purpose of the advancement of the Christian faith. When the colonies got together in the New England Confederation, they said: “We all came into these parts of America for one and the same end and aim.” The single end and aim of the early colonies was, namely, to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. That was the reason that they came. According to the United States Supreme Court, they established a Christian Nation and there is no doubt (it is beyond controversy) that the overall and life view held by the Founders of this nation was that which was derived from the Holy Scriptures and, indeed, was enshrined in the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today, that foundation is under considerable attack. There are organizations which their way is for Atheism and ungodliness, dedicated to destroying the Christian foundation of America. We should remember that the Christian nation which was established here allowed more religious freedom for more people of more diverse viewpoints than had ever been known before. Only in America could people worship any kind of god or no God at all. Only in America could they proclaim views in public and voice over radio, television or internet. It is in a land where the teachings of Christ prevails. But, if these secular humanists and atheists succeed in replacing that foundation with a godless one, assuredly, the religious liberties that made this nation great will become a thing of the past.

Matthew 28:18-20 (The Great Commission and Cultural Mandate) And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

We have come to the place where we are today because of two principle causes. The first must be laid at the door of the church itself, and that is: we must confess that a great part of the responsibility rests on us. We have failed to obey the Great Commission. It was not a “Great Suggestion”. We have failed to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of this nation. People have lived here for decades and not heard on thing about Jesus Christ for the church’s body of Believers. We must confess that we have disobeyed that commended Great Commission. We have been called to share the glorious Good News of life eternal as a free gift to the entire world. But, we have left vast millions lost in this nation lost and alone, much less in the nations of this world, in utter darkness and ignorance of the Gospel of Salvation.

In 1606, before the first immigrants left England to come to America, they said that they came that they might bring the knowledge of the true God to those who live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true worship of God. There are tens of millions of people still in this country who live in that same darkness. We have failed to let them know that God offers them eternal life freely; that Jesus Christ died for our sins and offers, to those who will repent and believe, everlasting life in Heaven. How committed are you to share that message? What would happen if every Christian in this country began today to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with every person that they had a chance to talk to? What a tremendous work would be done! This nation could be transformed. There are increasing numbers of Christians witnessing today and that is encouraging. Are you one of them? We have failed in the past and we need to recognize those failures and do something about them. We have not fulfilled the Great Commission.

The Second cause of our dilemma and the reason that we have so much crime, alcoholism, drug addiction, immorality, pornography, homosexuality and abortions that plague this land are because of the fact that the unbelievers have been more than willing to come into the vacuum that the Christian church has left. Christians, under the erroneous concept of Pietism, have withdrawn from the various spheres of society, withdrawn from politics and government, saying that it is dirty business. God’s people have withdrawn from higher education to elementary school, withdrawn from the media, withdrawn from the arts, the sciences and other critical aspects of our culture, and unbelief has moved into this vacuum. We have failed to do what God has told us to do and not brought the teachings of God to bear upon these things. Secular Humanists and Atheists have distorted our vacated culture and used all of these various areas as weapons against the light of the Gospel of Christ. We have not fulfilled the Cultural Mandate.

There has been a twofold cause of our failure because of our own inability, our own failure to evangelize, and our failure to reach out into the various spheres of society, but the solution is just a simple. On one hand, we need to obey the Great Commission to take the Gospel to every person. On the other hand, we need to obey the Cultural Mandate to take the teachings of Christ into every sphere of life. We need to awaken Christians in America to our responsibility to do just that. This would be the beginning of something exciting in America! But, we need to start with reaching people with the Gospel. This is being done to some extent, but a great deal more needs to be done.

Let's continue Pastor Kennedy's message on America for God in the next post.

In Christ, Brian