PART 3
By
Pastor Roger Anghis
May 22, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
In the last chapter we began to look at what defined America. It was the principles of Christianity that grounded America in honesty, integrity and their faithfulness to their God that brought America up as the greatest nation on earth. America’s principles created the most powerful, most prosperous and most respected nation this world has ever seen. I do not believe that there will ever be a nation as great as America again. This is it. As the world ekes its way towards a one world government, the pressure to be part of that may become too great to stay separated. If that government was what our Founders established, that is one thing, but what we are seeing is a socialistic government which is the source from cradle to the grave, false religion stupidity that will bring mankind to its knees. The only government that has proven, for longer than any other government, to be successful is what was laid out in the Declaration of Independence and in the United States Constitution. It has no rivals. All others have failed. The principles set out in the Constitution are unmatched on any continent in any period of time. It is simply THE best government ever devised by man. Even then the foundation of it was derived from Scripture which is why it has been so successful.
From the 1600’s the principles that were set out in the Constitution had been preached from the pulpit. The principles of property ownership were preached from the pulpit. The idea of the people limiting government and having a government of the people, by the people, and for the people was preached from the pulpit. All of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence were preached from the pulpit as factions of a society that was detrimental to society. The pastors were the leaders of towns and villages. The church was the center of activity. Education was attained and taught in churches and the Bible was the center of it all. All this history has been removed from our history books and ignored. We are in danger of forgetting who we are. This is being done in a calculated move to make the founding of America no better than any other nation. In a book written by Alexis De Toqueville, “Democracy in America,” the original text is over 900 pages but the new abridged version ‘written for the modern reader’ is only about 300 pages. Why? The ‘abridged’ version has all references to religion and family removed. The purpose? To keep America’s true history from modern generations. If we forget where we came from, we will not know where we are going. And then any form of government will be acceptable. President Reagan declared the truth about what our Founders believed: “Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few. It is the universal right of all God’s children.”[1] We have lived free for 235 years and in those 235 years we have proven that man can have a government of the people, by the people and for the people and be the most powerful and wealthiest nation with the most generous people in the world without demanding world dominion.
The
people of the United States give more money to national disasters, such
as the tsunami in Indonesia, the earthquakes in Pakistan and Haiti than
the rest of the world combined! That is not just a sign of wealth, but
of Christian principles in operation. Psalm 82: 3 “Defend
the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.”[2]
Luke 6: 38 “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure,
pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give
into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall
be measured to you again.”[3]
God has blessed this nation exponentially above any other nation because
our values are based on His principles. Is everyone in our nation totally
dedicated to His principles? No, but because the vast majority of the
people believe that adherence to Biblical principles is for the betterment
of society and the world as a whole we are still The place the world
wants to come to. Nobody in America is jumping in a rowboat and making
their way to Venezuela, or Cuba or any other nation to find a better
life. The world still does everything they can to get to America because
America is the best place to live.
America would not be what it is without the religious liberties demanded
by the Founders. This liberty was not just for the Christian religion
but all religions. Our religious liberty and religious culture is what
still defines America today just as much as our political and economical
system.[4]
In “Democracy in America”, Alexis de Tocqueville explains
the importance of religious liberty: “Freedom sees in religion
the companion of its struggles and its triumphs, the cradle of its infancy,
the divine source of its rights. It considers religion as the safeguard
of mores; and mores as the guarantee of laws and the pledge of its duration.”
He also stated: “Religion is no less the companion of liberty
in all its battles and its triumphs; the cradle of its infancy, and
the divine source of its claims. The safeguard of morality is religion
and morality is the best security of law and the surest pledge of freedom.”[5]
Virtually all of the Founders believed that religious freedom was paramount
to the success of America.
George Washington stated what his belief was on the subject: “The Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.” All believed that mankind had a duty to acknowledge God and hold reverence to the Creator. James Madison wrote in his 1786 Memorial and Remonstrance. “This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society.” On October 16, 1778 Samuel Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Father of the American Revolution; Ratifier of the Constitution; Governor of Massachusetts declared: “Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.”
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There have been many people that have tried to convince modern America that our Founders were not Christians and they even used quotes from them to prove their point. The problem is all of the quotes have been taken out of context and when seen in the full context, it is actually comical that these revisionists used these comments. I feel that some time should be spent on this to clarify these lies. One statement is from John Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Judge; Diplomat; Signer of the Bill of Rights; Second President of the United States.
He is purported to say “This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it.” The truth is, Adams did say that, but what was left out was the real meaning of that statement. The story is as follows: This statement was taken from a letter that he wrote to Thomas Jefferson on April 19,1817, where Adams illustrated the intolerance that sometimes rears between Christians in denominational disputes. Adams recounted a conversation between two ministers that he knew: “Seventy years ago Lemuel Bryant was my parish priest and Joseph Cleverly was my Latin schoolmaster. Lemuel was a humorous and liberal scholar and divine. Joseph a scholar and a gentleman. . . .That parson and the pedagogue lived much together, but were eternally disputing about government and religion. One day when the schoolmaster (Cleverly) had been more than commonly fanatical and declared “if he were a monarch, he would have but one religion in his dominions;” the parson [Lemuel] cooly replied, “Cleverly, you would be the best man in the world if you had no religion.”[6] Lamenting these types of petty disputes, Adams declared to Jefferson: “Twenty times in the course of my late reading have I been on the point of breaking out, “This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it!!!” But in this exclamation I would have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean hell.”[7] (Emphasis added) As it can be easily seen, the quote pulled out of context was to make it appear as if John Adams was an atheist when in reality he is a strong Christian. This can be proven again and again in his own writings of which this is one: “The idea of infidelity [a disbelief in the inspiration of Scriptures or the divine origin of Chritianity[8] cannot be treated with too much resentment or too much horror. The man who can think of it with patience is a traitor in his heart and ought to be execrated [denounced] as one who adds the deepest hypocrisy to the blackest treason”[9] This type of ‘journalism’ is unethical at best. Outright lies and inaccuracies seem to be the norm for revisionist historians.
Thomas Jefferson has been credited by many for writing the First Amendment, even the Supreme Court Justice in the 1947 Everson vs Board of Education case that reinterpreted the First Amendment, stated that Jefferson’s intent was to erect a wall of separation that could not be tore down. The big problem there is Jefferson didn’t write the First Amendment. He never saw it until after it was ratified as he was an ambassador to France at the time. There were about forty people that worked on that Amendment but the actual wording came from Fisher Ames.
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Congressional records show that Ames was the one who provided the final wording for the First Amendment and it was passed by the House of Representatives on August 20, 1789.[10] This being the case it would be logical if Fisher Ames felt that there should be a ‘separation of church and state’ that he would have stated so or it would show up in his writings at some point. Records do show his writing about religion and school books: “If these [new] books ... must be retained, as they will be, should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book?”[11] (Emphasis added)
Click here for part -----> 1, 2, 3,
End Notes
1-
Ronald Reagan - July 15, 1991
2-
The Holy Bible: King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769
edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.) (Ps 82:2-3). Bellingham WA:
Logos Research Systems, Inc.
3-
The Holy Bible: King James Version. 1995 (electronic ed. of the 1769
edition of the 1611 Authorized Version.) (Lk 6:38). Bellingham WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc.
4-
Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (New York:Madison
Books, 1991), p. 16.
5-
Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York:Bantam Books,
2005), p. 48
6-
John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United
States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown and Company,
1856) Vol. X, p. 254, to Thomas Jefferson on April 19, 1817.
7-
Ibid.
8-
Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English language (1828),s.v.
“infidelity.”
9-
John Adams, Papers, Vol. VI, p. 348, to James Warren on August 4, 1778
10-
Debates and Proceedings (1834), Vol. I, p. 796, August 20, 1789.
11-
Fisher Ames, Works of Fisher Ames (Boston: T.B. Wait & Co., 1809).
p. 134-135
� 2011 Roger Anghis - All Rights Reserved
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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
