DO WE HAVE RELEVANT PULPITS?
By
Pastor Roger Anghis
October 5, 2014
NewsWithViews.com
Over the last year I have written columns that broke down the political sermons of pastors during the Founding Era. One thing that was prevalent with those pastors was they continually reminded the people in authority of what their job was, an agent of God!
They were to disperse justice according to the Word of God and His principles and commandments. Those pastors would remind those in authority several times during the sermon. The thee sermons I covered were all given directly to the House of Representatives of the Colony of Massachusetts. I did not plan that, they were the most poignant messages concerning the actions of those in authority that I found. I will say this and that is the pastors would have been just as direct with a normal congregation as with the members of the Massachusetts House because the pastors believed, rightfully so, that they were, on a weekly basis, educating those that would eventually run for office and with that in mind they wanted to make sure that those running for office would be knowledgeable concerning their true mandates as an elected official.
I bring this up because the day this article is released is what is called Pulpit Initiative Sunday or Pulpit Freedom Sunday. What that is is a Sunday during an election when the pastor stands in the pulpit and endorses a candidate. Some will be shocked, but this is exactly what a preacher is supposed to do. There may be some that cry “Separation of Church and State”. Well, too bad! Our Founders did not believe in a separation of church and state, at least not what we have today, and we shouldn’t either. They believed in an institutional separation not an influential separation.
Let’s look at the 1st Amendment: 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 of the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Notice that it says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”? If Congress can make no law that prohibits the free exercise thereof then why are their laws against praying at government meetings, praying at school events, reading your Bible in school, wearing a cross at work and the list goes on and on? All of this began in 1947 with the Everson vs The Board of Education Supreme Court decision which completely reversed the true meaning of the 1st Amendment. That Court completely ignored ALL previous cases concerning how the 1st Amendment was defined. In fact it was the first time the Court gave no presidencies for their decision!
From the beginning of America the pastor always preached politics from the pulpit. This is why we always had, for the most part, God fearing men in political office. It is also the reason why we had the Declaration of Independence. Most of what was in that document concerning the grievances with Britain had been preached from the pulpits of America since Jamestown. The majority of our Founders were men of character, above reproach. We need a return to that type of person today. God told us what type of man to put in authority: 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:"[1] (emphasis added) The Hebrew word used for ‘able’ is chayil and it means ability, efficiency, often involving moral worth. God intended for us to have men and women of high moral character in power over us.[1] (Emphasis mine throughout)
Pastors used to address issues of the day from a biblical point of view. Not many do that today. Many of the preachers I’ve heard over the years don’t even preach out of the bible. One well known TV preacher had his son take over the pulpit but ended up firing him because he preached out of the Bible. The condition that America is in can be directly related to the fact that we have wusses in the pulpit. They have become so politically correct they are of no use to the Body of Christ. I used to attend a church that during the halloween season for the youth group they would have what is called a ‘Hell House’. There would be several ‘skits’ that depicted alcoholism and other things that kids get drawn into but the senior pastor would not allow us to do one for abortion or homosexuality because they were ‘too political’. They may have been but they are a moral issue first and that needs to be addressed by the church.
The fear of offending anyone today has gone viral. The preachers of the Founding Era weren’t afraid of offending anyone. Today the preachers worry more about their precious 501(c)3 than about their mandate from God to preach in season and out of season. It may not be popular but it is what the people need to hear.
Today there will be many preachers that are willing to stand in their pulpit and endorse a candidate by name. All should. But those candidates should also be godly men and women. With the many churches today that have embraced homosexuality they will surely endorse a candidate that will support the homosexual agenda. It is sad that these preachers are willing to risk their eternity and the eternity of their congregation for a short time of fun here on earth. The preachers that will endorse a godly candidate are the ones that are willing to take a stand for what is right. The government pulled the church out of the political arena for political reasons. They were not afraid to expose the corruption that was seeping through our political system and those involved, Lyndon Johnson, did not want to be exposed.
The church should have stood their ground then instead of waiting for sixty years to finally say No More! But it is a timely stand. This election is important and the preachers should have been preparing their congregations for it by explaining who the candidates are and where they stand on biblical issues. If they haven’t been, they are failing their congregation and they are failing their nation.
By not preaching the true Word of God they are putting themselves in a position against God. They sway a congregation away from the truth into a lie. Scripture says in Jeremiah 23:1 states, "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" As I stated earlier many denominations have embraced homosexuality. God has never condoned that behavior and for a preacher to call it good is calling God a liar. Isaiah-5:20 states “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” When we as preachers do not adhere to scriptural teachings we risk eternal damnation. I do a lot of in-depth study before I give a message because I want to make sure that I really know what the scripture is saying. Scripture does not contradict itself, at least in the original languages. Some translations are questionable but that is why study is needed. Too many preachers add so much to scripture that is not even there in the remotest sense such as God accepts homosexuality. He doesn’t and never has. Every time it is brought up in scripture it is an abomination in His eyes.
Those that practice it will not enter into His kingdom and I will add that those who promote it won’t enter either. We have to stay true to His principles and not make up our own. We can’t add things that are not there. Revelation 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: (19) And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
|
|
They are fools that ignore this command. Today’s pulpits are full of fools. Not just fools but cowards. True compassion is telling the truth to a sinner. True compassion is telling a person what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Our leaders have to come out of the church and when they don’t, we have chaos. John Jay, our first Chief Justice if the Supreme Court stated: "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."[2] Until we start doing this again we will continue to have ungodly men and women in office that will keep America on a path to destruction and the blame is solely on the shoulders of the preachers in America.
Footnotes:
1.
Defining America's Exceptionalism, Roger Anghis, {Westbow Press, 2012),
p. 84.
2.
William Jay, The Life of John Jay (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1833),
Vol. II, p. 376, to John Murray Jr. on October 12, 1816.
� 2014 Roger Anghis - All Rights Reserved
Share
This Article
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: BuildingTheTruth.org
E-Mail: editor@restorefreespeech.org
