PART 22
By
Pastor Roger Anghis
November 28, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
Discovering America’s Christian Heritage
Christian Values Attacked, Part 1
Foundation Scripture:
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Our nation has gone from being a people of strong religious values that governed every aspect of our lives, personal, political and business, to a nation where our Christianity has the least influence in society that it ever has. The only way that we will restore the culture that made us the greatest and most prosperous nation is for Christians to take a stand and not allow our religious heritage to be eliminated from the public arena any further AND demand that the rights and freedoms that our Founders enjoyed be reinstated, i.e. Christian prayers at school and school events, Christian prayers at government meetings, public displays of our Christian heritage and the teaching of how Christianity was the foundation of the lives of our Founding Fathers.
Many will declare that religion has no place but within the four walls of the church and in our personal homes. Our Founders, as we have discovered in this series, did not agree with that mindset. The deep held Christian beliefs held by our Founding Fathers brought about the abolition of slavery, it brought forth the Civil Rights movement, brought an end to the child labor movement, opened education for all people and has been the most positive influence in American society. That influence is under attack like no other influence in America. Pornography is not under attack like Christianity is. Socialism, which will cause all that our Founders established to be taken away from us, is not under attack like Christianity is today.
Christianity used to be the foundation of our government, our educational system, media and the source of true spirituality. Our government through the judiciary has regulated Christianity to within the four walls of the church, even though our 1st Amendment states that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ Our educational system has ‘revised’ how and what we teach so that Christianity is no longer taught or if taught done so in a positive light. Islam is now portrayed as peaceful where Christianity is portrayed as aggressive and barbaric. Hollywood typically portrays Christians as lunatics and crazies. And the people in the pulpits today no longer preach the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for fear of offending someone. Truth offends, period. We have let the IRS control what we can and cannot preach for the sake of tax deductions. Pastors have less free speech rights than the average person does because of government control over the church.
Up until 1954 a preacher was allowed to stand in the pulpit and mention candidates by name and party’s by name and declare that as Christians, they should or should not vote for that candidate or support a particular party. Today many would cry foul that the church should not be involved in politics, but that declaration is unbiblical. Nathan confronted David concerning many things including his affair with Bathsheba. Gad confronted David concerning the census. Elijah dealt with Ahab and Jezebel, Saul was confronted by Samuel. All through scripture we see that a man of God was always there to influence a king or a person in authority. It is no different today.
Advertisement
We are to choose those who are to rule over us and it is the job of the pastor to help direct the people to choose the man/woman that best supports the things of God. Remember that no man is perfect and will not follow God’s laws 100%. Saul didn’t and neither did David. God warned Israel what a king would do and they wanted a king anyway. Any man is going to be imperfect. God has always used a preacher to inform the people about those who will be in authority over us, but pastors today do not want to take on that responsibility. Many even believe that the churches role is to stay completely out of politics. There are no Biblical examples where God has had men of God remain silent about civil issues.
Thomas Jefferson, the one that the revisionists always refer to for the separation of church and state, was instrumental in lifting a ban on ministers from being elected to the state legislature or to the federal positions of Representatives and Senators. He stated: “I observe in the Virginia Constitution an abridgment of a right that I do not approve. It is the incapacitation of a clergyman from being elected.”
There is a misconception that the church is not supposed to confrontational. When was Jesus NOT confrontational? Did not Jesus confront the Pharisees and the Sadducees and call them snakes? Matthew 23:33 “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Did He not refer to the people as an evil generation? Matthew 12:39 “But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:” Did He not call the people a perverse generation? Matthew 17:17 “Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, . . .” What is wrong with the church today? It won’t call alcoholism a sin. It won’t call adultery a sin. It won’t call abortion a sin. It won’t call fornication sin. How can a church that ignores most of the commandments of God have any kind of positive influence on a society? The church is afraid to offend anyone when it is understood that truth always offends someone. Why can’t the church stand up for what is right? Very few do.
We have lost our culture and don’t seem to want to get it back. We have backed away from government because there are too many corrupt people in government, which is the very reason Christians should be involved. We have backed away from our education system and let the secular professors indoctrinate our children into ungodly secular humanism. We’ve abandoned the entertainment industry and let it turn into a cesspool of filth and debauchery that is polluting the minds of our children. We have stood back and let our places of so-called higher education teach our kids whatever they want. One of the current college textbooks is written by Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore titled Our Godless Constitution.
Our children are taught that our Founders were deists and atheists. None were atheists and only one could be called a deist, but his words at the Constitutional Convention puts that theory on shaky ground. He cited several Bible verses in calling for the establishment of chaplains and daily prayer at the Constitutional Convention. That man was Benjamin Franklin. He called for prayer stating that if a bird could not fall from its nest without God knowing about it, how could a nation rise without His help. He also worked to get Christianity taught in the public schools in Pennsylvania and worked to raise church attendance. These actions by Franklin are all documented.
| Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts! |
Thomas Jefferson, the other least religious of our Founders, recommended that the Great Seal of the United States include a Bible story and the word ‘God’ be in our national motto, and as President negotiated treaties with the Indians that includes using federal funds to send Christian missionaries to evangelize the Indians. These treaties were authorized by the US Congress. As President he signed all documents with the phrase “in the year of our Lord Christ.”
If studied, you will find that both of these men were more religious than most Christians today.
Click here for part -----> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22,
� 2010 Roger Anghis - All Rights Reserved
Share
This ArticleSign Up For Free E-Mail Alerts
Pastor Roger Anghis is the Founder of RestoreFreeSpeech.org, an organization designed to draw attention to the need of returning free speech rights to churches that was restricted in 1954.
President of The Damascus Project, TheDamascusProject.org, which has a stated purpose of teaching pastors and lay people the need of the churches involvement in the political arena and to teach the historical role of Christianity in the politics of the United States. Married-37 years, 3 children, three grandchildren.
Web site: RestoreFreeSpeech.org
E-Mail: editor@restorefreespeech.org
