“What’s the Big Deal About America?”
10/13/24
“Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.”
There is an anti-American movement out there that has infiltrated our schools—from elementary level all the way to universities…
And also major American corporations, the military, and politics.
The message of the movement is that America is not good.
That is was founded to protect the institution of slavery,
that it unjustly stole land from native Indians,
that the founders were not good men, and many were slave holders,
and that they did not found America on Christianity.
_____________
Someone wisely said that A MAN WHO WON’T USE HIS FREEDOM TO DEFEND HIS FREEDOM DOESN’T DESERVE HIS FREEDOM.
True!
So today, with the most important presidential election of my lifetime just weeks ahead, I want to DEFEND the founding of America from some of these claims.
Then next week I want to talk about why every Christian should vote, and what (not who) they should pull the lever for.
________________
So first, let’s look at the historical, abundantly documented truth of How America came to be.
The birth of America began with a group of people called the Pilgrims.
If you had asked a pilgrim in the 1600’s what the word “pilgrim” meant, they would have said it’s a person on a journey of faith—which begins at the Cross and concludes in heaven.
__________________
The Pilgrims were thoroughly committed Christians.
The first Pilgrims came from England, and were led by two men—William Brewster and William Bradford.
The reason they looked for a new land to call home was to find religious freedom.
The Pilgrims of England had found themselves, as Christians, in an increasingly hostile environment under King George.
English law had mandated that those who missed Anglican worship or attended “unlawful” services (anything NOT Anglican) would be severely punished.
The “established” Church of England was the only church England allowed, and it was full of empty ritual and dead as a doornail spiritually.
The situation finally worsened to the point that the only option for the Pilgrim’s was to flee the country.
Many who were the first to attempt to escape were arrested and lost all their possessions.
But gradually, small groups made it as far as Amsterdam, and from there to Holland.
_____________
In Holland the growing Pilgrim community banded together, found employment, and began to pray for God’s guidance.
After eleven years in Holland they began making plans to sail to America.
There were two ships available to sail in—the one they chose was famously called the Mayflower.
After many delays, the Mayflower set sail on August 5, 1620–a little over 400 years ago!
After 66 trying days at sea in cramped quarters and terrible conditions, they finally came in sight of Cape Cod.
Just like God’s people who had journeyed to the Promised Land, the Pilgrims arrived at a new country, trusting God to help them establish a new way of life.
Before disembarking, William Bradford drew up an agreement known as the Mayflower Compact, which stated that everyone had equal rights and responsibility for the success of this new colony.
The Compact outlined a democratic form of government that later helped to inspire the men that framed our Constitution.
It was signed on November 11, 1620, and it said:
“In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten. . . Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these present, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid.”
Note! The Pilgrim’s stated purpose for coming to America was for the glory of God, and to advance the Christian faith!
_____________
Now, let’s jump ahead about a century and a half to 1776.
America has grown to 13 colonies, and around 2 million people call it home.
In that historic year of 1776, the Declaration of our Independence from England’s tyranny was signed.
Then eleven years later in 1787, fifty-five delegates drew up the most brilliant, ingenious document to ever govern a nation—the United States Constitution.
The Constitution was ratified On June 21, 1788 where it became the official framework of the government of the United States.
______________
Three years later the Bill of Rights was written and signed into law.
The Bill of Rights is what gives us the freedom to assemble like this today, and gives me the right to preach Biblical truth without fear of arrest or governmental censure.
The Bill of Rights “prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, of impeding the free exercise of religion, grants freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to peaceably assemble.”
So the overwhelming uniqueness of America, it’s irresistible attraction to people from around the world, the reason it stands alone in the history of the world is the FREEDOMS it makes available to mankind!
______________
Now, that said, it was not and is not perfect.
Unfortunately, the stain of slavery was practiced by many of the early American colonists, as well as some of the founding fathers.
—But since America’s critics frame the argument as if slavery were a sin totally unique to America, let’s be clear that it was not!
The sin of slavery was practiced throughout the world by Muslims, the North American Indian tribes that were here before us, African slave holders, and many, many others.
One historian writes, “The history of slavery is a large and untellable story, full of tragedy and cruelty that spans both centuries and continents.
Sadly, some parts of early America practiced it, particularly the south.
As America grew it became strongest in the south due to the cotton industry whose labor force was primarily slaves.
And a majority of southern churches justified it by badly misinterpreting Scripture.
_____________
But let’s be clear: While slavery was practiced on a wide scale, America was NOT founded in order to protect it.
America was founded for the FREEDOMS laid out in the Bill of Rights!
The good news is that it was primarily Christians that began to stand against the evil of slavery, and became instrumental in overthrowing it.
WIKIPEDIA: “It was Christian activists…who initiated and organized an anti-slavery movement.”
Great Christian men like William Wilberforce spent his entire life fighting it.
One of my heroes, London pastor Charles Spurgeon, had some of his sermons literally burned in America due to his condemnation of slavery.
He called it “the foulest blot.”
As the truth of the evil of slavery began to sink in, many Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian members freed their slaves and helped them start their own churches.
____________
And finally, President Lincoln was elected.
One neat fact is that Lincoln’s lifelong habit was to read his Bible each and every morning before the day began.
He once famously said, “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.”
On September 22, 1862, President Lincoln issued an Emancipation Proclamation, freeing more than three million slaves in the Confederate (southern) states as of January 1, 1863.
He was tragically assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, who hated his anti-slavery stance.
______________
But what about the accusation that the founding fathers were evil slave holders, and the majority were not Christian, nor did they intend to found a Christian nation?
Here’s the FACTS—52 of the 55 Founding Fathers who worked on the Constitution were members of orthodox churches.
So not surprisingly, one of the first acts of the new United States Congress was to authorize the printing of 20,000 Bibles for the Indians!
In 1779 after the First Amendment was written, the Supreme Court stated the following:
“By our form the Christian religion is the established religion, and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed under the same equal footing.”
_________________
Christian author Tim Lehaye writes that many of the states had the constitutional requirement that a man must be a Christian in order to hold public office!
While Benjamin Franklin was not a Christian, he wrote:
“God surely was no idle spectator when this great nation was born in His name and with His grace.”
In 1838 the Legislature of New York declared that America was a Christian nation.
Our forefathers never once sought to EXCLUDE God from this great nation.
Rather, they made every effort to INCLUDE God in every great document.
I believe that is one reason why America has stood as long as it has!
___________________
It’s also a fact that before the Civil War, 90% of all of America’s College Presidents were preachers of the Gospel.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, William and Mary, and Columbia were founded by Christian preachers!
John Harvard, after whom Harvard University was named, was a pastor.
He stated that the purpose of the University was that every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main ends of his life and studies, which was to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life!
________________
So, with this little history lesson in mind, are we a Christian nation as many claim?
Well, if being a Christian nation means that:
everyone is a Christian,
or acts like a Christian,
or that all of our national decisions are based on Christian principles,
then no, we are not a Christian nation.
But if it means that Christianity was:
—the overwhelming majority faith of our Founding Fathers, which it was…
—And if its influence is undeniably seen in our nation’s Founding Documents…
—And if it’s true that Christian ethics and moral codes were chosen as the rule for our society…
Then yes, we are a Christian nation!
_______________
In closing, I want you to listen carefully to the words of Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren to Time Magazine in 1954:
“I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country.”
But that statement was made in 1954.
Since then the Christian/Biblical principles and beliefs embedded in the very DNA of our nation have come under sustained attack.
As I stand here today, we are in very real danger of losing the America the founders handed to us.
This is why next week I’ll be speaking on the question, “Would Jesus Vote?”
Give me the benefit of the doubt, hang with me and trust me, I’m not going political on you.
I’ll be coming straight out of Scripture as I always do!