The history of the world is a continuous record of hardship, oppression and distress. It is a record of tyrants, dictators, monarchies that repressed the human spirit and promoted the self-interest of the powerful.
Individual rights were subservient to the needs of the collective, whose existence was only tolerated in order that the elite thrive. No country in the world truly valued civil rights or individual liberties. It was time for a change.
From this dark environment God saw fit to establish a light to obliterate the darkness and for the first time, allow man to breathe free air. His inspiration took root in the hearts of great men, the likes of which the world had never seen before. From this Divine Inspiration was born the United States of America and mankind, and humanity, would never be the same.
The citizens of Malborough, Massachusetts aptly proclaimed, "A free-born people are not required to submit to tyranny!" and for all the generations that followed America's first generation, we have proudly claimed to be free people.
As it often does, prosperity and good fortune finds an enemy. Our first Americans found their enemy in the person of King George III who set out to control this new land and keep it under his unjust rule. And as will happen once people taste what it is to be free, these early Americans refused to live under the thumb of a tyrant across the ocean.
In 1764, only four years after assuming the throne, his likeness of King George was burned in effigy from a tree in Boston, later named the "Liberty Tree". Decree by decree, Great Britain's hand became too heavy for men who wanted to be free to tolerate. The American Revolution was the outcome of their resolve and every generation since has proudly proclaimed the title of American.
Today, the passion of the men we revere as our Founding Fathers that birthed this nation, is under attack once again. The Liberal Progressive mindset seeks to erase their contribution to our nation's beginning. It is time we remembered who they were and what they gave us.
One recent study found that 86% of our children's school texts had deliberately omitted the Godly influence that guided these men to separate us from the government Samuel Adams described as having "lost all sense and feeling of morality" and was "governed by passion, cruelty and revenge".
Re-writing of history is the Liberal's only way to deny the influence of "Divine Providence" in our nation's founding. Ignore the truth, refuse to tell the real story, and in a generation or two no one will even know that our Founding Fathers valued the hand of God in all they did.
As James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers in 1787, "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm". He knew the dangers that come with the establishing of any new government. With added power comes the opportunity for corruption, and it will only be held in check by men of conscious and morality. Efforts for us to return to an form of government that recognizes God and a standard morality, in the eyes of some, must be diminished and discredited. Movement toward that goal is fully underway today.
A teacher asked the children to draw what they thought Christmas was. While Santa Claus, Christmas trees and elves were permitted, one child soon learned that the manger scene she drew was not acceptable. What is Christmas if not a manger scene?
As a young student I remember when the Gideons would come yearly to our school and see that every child who wanted a pocket New Testament would get one, free of charge. Don't expect to ever see that gift being made available in today's federally funded school system.
A declaration of love of God is now seen as bigoted against anyone who doesn't hold that view. It is permissible to be proud of being Gay, for example, but to proclaim that you are a Christian believing in Biblical principles, or an organization who gives freely to traditional marriage groups, often gets you labeled as a hater. The God of Love is now the God of hate.
Cries for the "Separation of Church and State" assault us from coast to coast, but is that what our Founding Fathers' really believed? Setting the record straight requires we understand that such an idea is found nowhere in the Constitution of the United States.
The "wall of separation" Thomas Jefferson spoke of in a personal letter was about keeping government out of religion, not religion out of government.
The First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
This amendment was designed to tie the hands of the government from setting religious guidelines, a job best left up to the people themselves. It was rather, designed to tie the hands of government, not the hands of the people.
Today, freedom "of" religion is being promoted as a freedom "from" religion. It is time we remembered the truth.
During the first observed national Thanksgiving Ceremony in 1791, John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts said, "In consideration of the many undeserved Blessings conferred upon us by God, the Father of all Mercies; it becomes us not only in our private and usual devotion, to express our obligations to Him, as well as our dependence upon Him; but also specially to set apart a Day to be employed for this great and important Purpose. . . . And above all, not only to continue to us the enjoyment of our civil Rights and Liberties; but the great and most important Blessing, the Gospel of Jesus Christ: . . . . that all may bow to the Scepter of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole Earth be filled with his Glory."
That proclamation hardly sounds like a leader who wanted God left out of our government or society. Hancock and John Adams, the second president, together stated, "We recognize no sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus."
"The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence," wrote Adams, "were the general principles of Christianity... I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."
Patrick Henry put it this way, "It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."
Noah Webster, acclaimed as the Father of American Education, would not recognize today's school system, one so determined to keep God off school property and out of the classroom. He wrote, "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed ... No truth is more evident in my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
I wonder just how free Webster would see us today based on his belief thus expressed. As our freedom to even speak the name of Jesus or to mention God is being restricted with ever-increasing frequency, so is our overall freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment. There is a reason that freedom was listed at the very first of the very First Amendment. It was considered that important.
Benjamin Rush, founder of Dickinson College wrote, "By removing the Bible from the schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime." After a generation without the Bible being honored in our schools, Rush has been proven correct in his prediction.
George Washington, our first president stated, "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States." He felt that we, above all other peoples, should clearly recognize the hand of God upon this nation. His message is being silenced today. It is time we remembered.
Washington's first official act as president was to lead a small group of people to a tiny church that still stands today near New York City's Ground Zero, to pray for the future of America. Does that sound like a president who wished for God to remain nameless and unmentioned? It is time we remembered.
And what of the tendency to deny that prayer has a place in public arena? Washington's own personal prayer book, written in his own handwriting, is full of prayers he prayed morning and evening, incidentally in the name of Jesus Christ. To quote him exactly as he concluded one Sunday evening prayer, "These weak petitions, I humbly implore Thee to hear, accept and answer for the sake of Thy Dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."
Countless quotes and examples could be cited to remind us that the demands for silence about God and Jesus in the public square are without merit, except in the minds of godless men who deny His Divine influence in the creation of the very country that allows them the right to demand that silence.
God ordained the establishment of the government of the nation of Israel and I believe he ordained the creation of the United States of America. What man has done with that gift must sadden Him as we have lost respect for the treasure we were blessed with.
God is not anti-government and government need not be anti-God. People today are itching to remove the phrase "under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance. Some wish to remove the pledge to our nation all together and replace it with a Pledge to the World, to further dismiss the recognition of both God and America. Those words were placed there to remind us that this wonder we call the United States of America was not an accident, and neither was it made by the hand of man alone.
The motto "In God We Trust" is constantly being attacked as having no place in anything remotely related to America by atheist groups, as are crosses marking the graves of fallen soldiers who died defending the right to honor God opening.
As Jesus Himself said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." Gratitude for the hand of God in the creation of America, as well as the acknowledgement of the sacrifice of devout, believing men He inspired, should come easily to us. It will, when we remember the truth. It is time we remembered.
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