Two
hundred and thirty-eight years ago America was birthed out of a great Spiritual
awakening that shaped the thinking and attitudes of the Founders. This is what
the late Harvard professor, Perry Miller, was referring to when he said, “The
Declaration of Independence of 1776 was a direct result of the preaching of the
evangelists of the Great Awakening.”
This
is what Patrick Henry, the Founding Father known for his “give me liberty or
give me death” speech, was referring to when he said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great
nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians;
not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
America's Christian Origins Unchallenged
This nation’s Christian origins were unquestioned for the first one-hundred years of her existence. This is why the noted U.S. senator, Daniel Webster, speaking in 1820 at the 200-year anniversary celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, would say;
Finally, let us not forget the religious character of
our
origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high
veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by
its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their
institutions, civil, political, or literary.
This
nation’s Christian character was still in obvious evidence in 1831 when Alexis
de Tocqueville, the French sociologist, came to America to study its
institutions and to discover how it had grown and flourished in such a short
period of time. At the time of his visit, America was still enjoying the fruit
of the First and Second Great Awakenings and Tocqueville wrote, "The religious atmosphere
of the country was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States."
At
this early period, Tocqueville saw no “separation of church and state” (an
expression not found in the Constitution) in America. Instead, he said he observed
that the means of improving the
government were the same means employed
in conversion and the advancement of the Christian faith. He concluded that, in
America, “From the beginning, politics and religion contracted an alliance
which
has never been dissolved.”
The Attempt to Rewrite America's Past
America today is very different from the America Tocqueville saw in 1831. The American church has been asleep at the helm. While we have been preoccupied using our faith to pursue our own personal success and American dream, the secularist progressives have been quietly rewriting our history and changing our nation.
Secularist
progressives not only want to remove Christianity from the modern classroom,
courtroom and every public venue, they also want to expunge it from our past. They
know that if they can rewrite our history they can destroy our identity as a
nation; for a people derive their sense of identity from their past.
This is what Karl Marx was referring to when he
said, “People without a heritage are easily persuaded.” This is why I wrote the
book, America’s Revival Heritage; so
that Christian America would not be so easily persuaded to believe the lie of
the progressive secularist historian. This is why in the near future I will be
presenting “Revive America” events for the purpose of recovering our history
and calling God’s people to prayer and repentance.
There is Hope
America is at a very critical moment in her history. No politician or political party can save us. Another election will not change things. The corruption and deception run too deep on both sides of the aisle. Only another Great Awakening from heaven will make the difference. Another Great Awakening “can” happen but it must begin with Christians recovering the truth about our past.
About four years ago I was surprised by the Holy
Spirit who suddenly began flooding my mind with thoughts of faith and hope that
America “could” see another Great Awakening. This continued during a two hour
drive to a preaching engagement and continued into the night in my hotel room. I
did not receive a guarantee that it “would” happen, but an assurance that it
“could” happen.
I was reminded that the great promise of a
national healing in II Chronicles 7:14 is conditional and begins with If My people . . .. America’s future
does not lie with the Congress or Supreme Court or the Presidency. America’s
future is in the hands of God’s people. What will we do?
Will we step up to the plate in this hour and
meet the conditions for God to change America? Will we as Christian leaders
repent for building our own personal kingdoms rather than seeking His? Will we
repent of our prideful competitiveness with one another? Will we repent for
seeking revival selfishly for our own advancement rather than for the
advancement of the kingdom of God?
America’s future is in our hands.
If My
people . . ..
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