Secularism
and the decline of the culture was the topic of a recent symposium at Biola
University. Featured speakers were Ravi Zacharias, a Christian Apologist
and Dennis Prager, a prominent Jew who embraces the ideals of America's Founding
Fathers. Read the Suicide of Christianity in America by LaMay. This book
emphasizes America's decline resulting from forsaking her foundational Christian
virtues. According to President Abraham Lincoln, no foreign power could
defeat America ... America's demise would not come from the mighty hand of
a foreign despot, rather her death could be inflicted only by her own
hand. The threat to the union is not from without, but from within. Jesus
said that there would be gnashing of teeth outside of the door during the last
days.
Matthew
25:29-30 ‘For to
everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him
who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the
unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.’
American
Christianity is weakening. In Matthew 13, Jesus spoke a parable
about the Sower who went out and sowed
good seed in his field. While the workers were asleep, an enemy came
into the field and planted weeds among the wheat. The master did not send
workers into the field to pull weeds however. Rather he called his workers to
gather in the harvest. Leave the separation of the wheat from the weeds to
the Master after the harvest. He will separate the wheat from the weeds
and the grain from the chaff. God has called us to live among the weeds and the
chaff of this world. As God's harvest, our mission is to plant and to water, so
that God can give the increase.
God
did not call us to be influenced by the world but rather to influence the
world. The greatness of America is that our Founders valued the truth of the
Word of God. The United States was not founded like other nations on a
common heritage or a common geographic land area. Rather it was founded
upon virtuous ideals based on the Holy Scripture of the Bible. The Founding
fathers understood that good men and women, whom God called to defend their
God-given unalienable rights, would stand in the gap to uphold the virtues of
these United States as “one nation under God”. They understood that laws were
not for the righteous, but for the unlawful. They believed that righteous
men and women, in whom the Spirit of The Lord abides, could "stand in the
gap" to bless the nation in spite of the unbelieving lawlessness of ungodly
people.
The
distinction of the United States was that this "experiment of
self-government" was founded on the ideal that free men and women would ,
aligned with God’s holy Word, Will and Way, govern themselves according to
unalienable God given rights. According to the American Declaration of
Independence, 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 rights are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (virtue.) To these ends the Signers
of the Declaration pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor
in firm reliance upon almighty God.
Let's continue with Part 2 of Michael's message on the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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