By
Pastor Roger Anghis
March 11, 2012
NewsWithViews.com
Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”
Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.”
For 54 years we have been told that the church is not supposed to be involved in the political arena. Some have even attempted to convince us that the church has NEVER been involved in the political arena. Both concepts are wrong. Historically and Biblically. It was the church’s involvement in the political arena that brought about the 1954 LBJ gag order that took the church partially out of the political arena. If you are a student of history, you will find that God has ALWAYS had a man of God advising a nation’s leader. Bill Graham has been an advisor to 11 presidents. All US presidents have had godly advisors. In the Old Testament all kings, godly and ungodly, had a man or woman of God advising them.
Today’s culture tells us that a Christian should not be in politics. It’s as if the political arena is off limits to anyone who has Christian moral values. One political party, the Democrats, resists the influence of moral values, claiming separation of church and state, and calls the attempt to establish a moral foundation in our laws the forcing of our religious beliefs on the people, yet that very political party has no problem forcing their immoral beliefs of same-sex marriage and abortion on demand for any reason and the teaching of our children from grade school on about so-called safe-sex perfectly acceptable.
Because of fear of losing their 501 (c) 3 status, the church has backed away from its responsibilities in teaching true biblical values. Political correctness has changed the way the church addresses sin. Most sins are diseases now. Alcoholism, sex addiction, drug addiction and even overeating are considered something that we cannot control.
Some denominations allow homosexuals to be ordained as ministers even though they refuse to live a celibate life.
We have allowed ourselves to be fed the beliefs of man instead of the truth of God’s Word. It is our individual responsibility to know the Word of God. 2 Timmothy 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” We have politicians that distort the Word of God to justify their perverted morals. The former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has stated that the Catholic church has never been able to determine exactly when life begins. She made this statement to defend her stance and the stance of Barrak Obama and Joe Biden on abortion. She has been refuted by several members of Congress as well as 32 Bishops, but she has basically called them liars. We need to question the so-called wisdom of man. We must ALWAYS judge the wisdom of man according to the Word of God. Jesus is the head of the church, not a man. His Word is explicit about moral standards. Ephesians 1:22 “And hath put all things under his (Jesus) feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,”
Our Founding Fathers understood this and directed not just their everyday lives, but our government according to these standards. They lived by the integrity of their word and they lived according to the values set forth in scripture.
“In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate - look to his character...” —Noah Webster
What has happened is the church has allowed the secular world to determine the doctrines of the church. Little by little we have let government take the rights of the church away from it. In 1947 the Supreme Court of the US coined the phrase “separation of church and state” in a decision that took the right to commingle a person’s personal faith with their government job. This decision led to many other decisions that have taken religion out of the public square by not allowing anything religious, the Ten Commandments, pictures of Jesus and even copies of the Declaration of Independence out of the public eye. That Supreme Court decision of 1947 by liberal judges, completely redefined the 1st Amendment. In that day 97% of the people of this nation declared and allegiance to God and in a nation where the majority rules, the 3% of our nation that did not believe in God ruled over the 97%.
Why has the church not defended its rights? Public opinion, at times seems more important than the truth of the Word of God. Too many ministers refuse to do anything political for fear of offending someone or losing their 501 (c) 3. The church should be more afraid of offending God than the IRS!
There was a point in time in this nation when you couldn’t get elected UNLESS you confessed Jesus as Lord, and had a record of attending church regularly! Religion was very important during the days of our Founding Fathers.
We are seeing the Democrat Party bound and determined to see the US become a socialist nation. They are supporting the forcing of religious organizations to hire homosexuals. They support hate crimes legislation that would make preaching the gospel concerning the Biblical view of homosexuality against the law. They have supported over the years, the removal of religion from the public view. They will not allow the true history of this great nation be taught because it is wrought with Christianity. Today is has become illegal to pray in the Name of Jesus in the public square, at a government function, a football game, graduation exercise.
Most people believe that the “separation of church” and state are in the Constitution. It is not in ANY of our founding documents. Some use the First Amendment as the source of that. The 1st Amendment states: ‘Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ Not being able to pray at a football game is ’prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ Not being able to pray to start a town council meeting is ’prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’
The churches responsibility has always been to inform the public as to the qualifications required of our leaders. Exodus 18:21 “Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:”. That addendum that Congress passed in 1954 prohibited the church from properly informing the people of the character of a political candidate. That addendum prohibited the free exercise of religion and violates the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Most pastors believe that the church shouldn’t be involved in politics at all. What you read in this article today will be unfamiliar information to many pulpits. Revisionist historians have taught what THEY want you to believe instead of what the real history actually is. They are trying to rewrite history saying that most of our Founding Fathers were deists.
There was a book printed that contained the writings of George Washington on four different areas of life. In the original book it contained comments by his contemporaries. The book is now being printed again however the comment are now by revisionists and have left out almost all of the religious references of the original book and refer to him as a deist.
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These revisionists have claimed that the United States is NOT a Christian nation and never has been. One candidate for president this, John Kerry, stated that we are no longer a Christian nation. The very first document created in the US in 1620 is called the Mayflower Compact. This document states: In the Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, or England, France and Ireland, King defender of the Faith,
Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid;.
John Jay, our first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Court that decides if the laws that are passed are within the parameters set out by the Constitution, stated this: “Providence has given our people the choice of their rulers. It is the duty as well as the privilege and the interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians as their rulers.”
Another of our Founding Fathers was Patrick Henry. His famous statement; ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ Is not being taught in schools any more. It promotes patriotism and self worth and that causes problems with dictating what some people want you to believe. Another statement he is credited with making is: “It can’t be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded NOT by religionist, but by Christians, not on religion but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.” The revisionist historians want you to believe that Patrick Henry was a deist.
There
were 55 signers of the Constitution- 29 were Episcopalians, several
were Methodist, and some were Baptist. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration
of Independence 24 held seminary degrees. There was only one so-called
deist and that was Ben Franklin, but even he has enough sense to know
that Providence should be called upon at times. During the Constitutional
Convention they had spent days debating key provisions of the Constitution
without making any progress. During that time of intense debate he made
this comment: “All of us who were engaged in this struggle must
have observed frequent instances of super intending Providence in our
favor.”
He went on to say: “To that kind Providence we owe this happy
opportunity of consulting, in peace, on the means of establishing our
future nation felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend,
or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived,
sir, a long time and the longer I live the more convincing proofs I
see this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And if a sparrow
can not fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an
empire can rise without His aid?”
If
our Founding Fathers demanded a “separation of church and state”
then why was the first act of Congress a four hour prayer session followed
by a preacher giving a sermon? Why was one of the first acts of Congress
to order the printing of the Bible for distribution among all citizens
of the US?
Why did Samuel Adams write: “We have this day restored the Sovereign
to whom all men ought to be obedient, He reigns in heaven from the rising
to the setting of the sun. Let His kingdom come.” John Adams describes
our government in this way: "We have no government armed with power
capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and
religion. . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious
people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
The education of all of our Founders was based on the morals and values of Christianity and was incorporated in a book called the New England Primer.
Benjamin Rush proposed the idea of public schools. He is actually called the Father of Public Schools in America. If public schools were intended to be the godless institutions that they are today, his writings should exhibit that philosophy. What he does say is far from that idea. He believed that the Bible should be the primary book of learning in the public school. He stated: “Without religion, learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.” His reference to ‘religion’ was not any religion, but Christianity exclusively.
We have to remember that in the days of our Founding Fathers, their reference to ‘religion’ was not a generic reference as we see today. If they asked what religion you were, they were referring to Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist, etc. They almost never considered anything other than Christianity. Benjamin Rush believed that you had to teach the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the morals that are found in the Bible, because he believed, and rightfully so, that to educate without that type of foundation would produce a self centered person that was only concerned about himself. He also stated: stated “If they were ever to take the Bible out of public schools, we would be spending all of our time and all of our money fighting crime when it could be prevented in the classroom.” Our nation has more of its population in prisons than any other nation. He was right!
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This was a very prophetic statement in 1791. In 1963 we saw the Bible and prayer taken out of our public schools. From that day we started to see a rise in crime not just in the school, but in society in general. Divorce rates began to rise after several years of decline. Pre-1963 the trouble in schools was chewing gum in class, cutting in line, talking in class and passing notes. Today we have metal detectors because students are bringing guns and knives to school to kill other students and teachers. The NEA claims that there is no correlation, but it all started when prayer and the Bible were removed from our public schools. "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 3:11
It is time for the church to wake up and resume its role as the leader and role model for the communities they are in. Do they have the courage?
� 2012 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
