WAS AMERICA FOUNDED AS A CHRISTIAN NATION?

 

Was America founded as a Christian nation? Those on the Left, including the entire Democrat Party, would respond to this question with an emphatic “No.” But this is because in their embrace of Marxist ideology they think only in terms of “power.”

When they hear the term “Christian nation” they think of a Christian counterpart to a Marxist or Islamic regime where the power of the state is used to impose its ideology on the masses. This, however, was not the Christianity of the Founders.

The Founders had rejected a Constantinian form of Christianity in which the government uses the power of the state to sanction, uphold and defend a particular church. This ungodly merger of church and state had begun with Constantine in the fourth century and was a clear departure from the teachings of Jesus and the New Testament.

The Founders were influenced by those elements of the Reformation that rejected Constantinian Christianity and insisted on a return to Jesus and to the center role of faith and freedom inherent in the Gospel Message. In their thinking, there was no place for governmental force in matters of conscience and faith.

But although the Founders refused to sanction a particular sect or denomination, they all agreed that only Christianity provided the spiritual and moral underpinnings for a free and happy society. This is obvious from their speeches, letters and other writings. Consider the following random quotes. 

“Look down in mercy we beseech thee on these our American states who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ Thy Son and our Savior. Amen. – From the opening prayer at the First Continental Congress

“You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ.” – George Washington to a group Delaware Chiefs

“That with true contrition of heart we may confess our sins, resolve to forsake them, and implore the Divine forgiveness through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior.” – John Hancock in a Prayer Proclamation issued while serving as governor of Massachusetts

 “Of all the systems of morality that have come under my observations, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus.” – Thomas Jefferson

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious [Christian] people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams

“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.” – John Jay, America’s first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

“The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, the rights of the Colonists as Christians may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutions of the Great Lawgiver and the Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.” – Samuel Adams

“It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.” – Benjamin Franklin describing the impact of the 1739 Awakening on his hometown of Philadelphia

 “If you ask an American who is his master, he will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.” –  A letter from a British-appointed governor in America to his superiors back in England and recorded in the British Parliamentary Records on April 22, 1774

“The highest glory of the American Revolution is this; it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
– John Quincy Adams

“These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.”
– U.S. Supreme Court, 1892

America was founded as a Christian nation, not by government legislation or judicial decree, but through the influence of the Great Awakening wherein entire communities were transformed as the masses were awakened to faith in Jesus Christ. All segments of society were impacted.

This meant that the Christianity of the founding generation was not an outward, formal, or legal Christianity. Theirs was a Christianity of the heart, centered on faith in Jesus and what He had accomplished for the human race. Such Christianity cannot be legally imposed; it must be experienced by faith. 

The late Catholic scholar, Dr. Michael Novak, understood this and stated that when political and cultural decay have gripped American society, “only periodic awakenings have been known to offer a cure.” He went on to say,

Far from having a hostility toward religion, the Founders counted on religion [Christianity] for the underlying philosophy of the republic, its supporting ethic, and its reliable source of rejuvenation (Hyatt, America's Reawakening, 215).

This means that if America is to maintain its unique rights and  freedoms from one generation to the next, she must see periodic Awakenings that reignite the fires of a living faith in the hearts of her citizens. When this happens, Christians become salt and light impacting every segment of society and preserving our Christian heritage and freedoms for the next generation.

Pray for another National Awakening across America!!

This article is derived from books by Dr. Eddie Hyatt, particularly America's Revival Heritage (Second Edition) and America's Reawakening. His books and those by his wife, Dr. Susan Hyatt, are available from Amazon and their website at http://eddiehyatt.com.

REMEMBERING 50 YEARS OF GOD'S FAITHFULNESS, PART 9

FOUR HARD LESSONS THE PILGRIMS LEARNED ABOUT THE DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF SOCIALISM

  

Winston Churchill said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” With the rising popularity of socialist/communist ideology, Americans would do well to learn from history and not have to learn the hard way, by experience, the destructive fruit of socialism.

Wherever socialism has been tried, it has miserably failed, including right here on American soil. The Pilgrims, who established the first English settlement in New England in 1620, at first attempted a socialist/communist style of living in which everyone was equal. They disbanded it, however, when starvation overtook them and it became obvious that their community could not survive with such a system.

I have delineated below four hard lessons the Pilgrims learned from their experience with socialism.

They Learned the Hard Way that Socialism Doesn’t Work

In the New World, members of the Pilgrim community owned no private property. They worked and farmed land owned by the community. Everything earned from farming, fishing and hunting went into a common fund from which each family received an allotment for their sustenance. They were all equal.

They were a socialist commune, and any excess funds were used to pay off the debt they had incurred for the rental of the Mayflower and supplies for the journey.

William Bradford, who served as governor of Plymouth for many years, told of the challenges of this socialist system and how it almost destroyed their community Drawn from Bradford’s own account, here are four important lessons that the contemporary Democratic Socialists would do well to learn.

Lesson #1

Socialism Destroys Initiative

Under this socialist system, everyone received the same compensation for their work. This meant that no matter how hard or how little they worked, all received the same income. With no reward tied to their labor, initiative was destroyed, and everyone put forth their least effort. This socialist system destroyed initiative, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and almost destroyed the Pilgrim community.

Lesson #2

Socialism Fosters Irresponsibility

Young men, Bradford said, resented getting paid the same as older men when they did so much more of the work. As a result, they tended to slouch and be slack since they knew they would receive the same no matter how hard they worked.

For the same reason, the women often refused go to the fields to work, complaining of sickness and headaches. With no individual reward tied to their labor, everyone gave their least effort. Irresponsibility became obvious throughout the community.

Lesson #3

Socialism Extinguishes Hope and Generates Strife

With everyone locked into a closed economic system, there was nothing individuals or families could do to improve their personal lot. Feeling caught in a trap, bickering and strife began to emerge.

The older men, Bradford said, felt they deserved more honor and recompense because of their age and resented getting paid the same as the youngsters in their midst. The young men, on the other hand, resented getting paid the same as the older men when they often did more of the work.

This sense of hopelessness and the ensuing strife drained energy and discouraged innovative thinking,  which led to very serious complications and lack throughout the community.

Lesson #4

Socialism is Incompatible with Human Nature

Bradford believed that socialism did not work because it runs counter to human nature as created by God. In Scripture, God rewards individuals for their labor and good works. Capitalism works because it is compatible with the reality of human nature and the world in which we live.

I will never forget visiting Eastern Europe shortly after the fall of the Soviet Empire. I was struck by the grey, drab environment. Even the buildings seemed so plain, flat and lackluster. Communism/socialism had obviously extinguished the fires of creativity and innovation.

They Experience the Blessing of Free Enterprise

When it became obvious their community could not survive, Bradford and the leaders of the colony decided to dispense with their communistic system, and in its place they implemented a free entrepreneurial system that included private ownership of property. They divided the land giving each family their own plot to work and farm (Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 23-26).

Bradford said there was an immediate change. Everyone now began giving it their best because they now knew they would personally benefit according to their own labors. Even the women were now seen going into the fields to work, taking the children with them, because they knew they and their family would personally benefit.

Each family now grew more food than they needed, and they began to trade with one another for furnishings, clothes and other goods. They also had enough excess to trade with the Natives for furs and other items. And they were able to quickly pay their creditors.

In short, the colony began to prosper when they got rid of their socialist form of government and implemented a free, entrepreneurial system. Of their experience with socialism, Bradford wrote,

This community [socialism] was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort (Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 23-26).  

The Lessons are Clear

The lessons from history about socialism/communism are clear. If we desire the best for the greatest number of people, then we must reject this current naïve fascination with socialism and contend for the free entrepreneurial system that has given America the most powerful economy in the history of the world.

This article was derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt’s books, 1726: The Year that Defined America and The Pilgrims, both available from Amazon and his website at www.eddiehyatt.com. His latest book, just released, is entitled America’s Reawakening.