HOW AMERICA CAN HAVE A REBIRTH OF FAITH AND FREEDOM

Speaking at an interfaith gathering, New York City's Muslim mayor, Zohran Mumdani, affirmed all faiths present, but gave special attention to the Koran and Islam's prophet, Mohammed, as he condemned America's immigration policy and presented Mohammed as a model for immigration policy in America. 

What we are seeing in New York City and other cities in America is a radical departure from the America in which I was reared and the America of 1776. Mamdani has a vision for America but it is not the vision of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton and Lincoln. This is a critical moment in time when America must have a rebirth of Faith and Freedom. 

A Nation Dedicated to Jesus Christ

America was NOT founded as a secularist, multicultural, interfaith nation. America was founded by people who were passionate about their faith in Jesus Christ. When the British Major Pitcairn ordered the minutemen at Lexington to "lay down your arms in the name of George the Sovereign King of England," Rev. Jonas Clarke, pastor of the First Parish Church in Lexington, was standing with the minutemen and shouted back, “We recognize no Sovereign but God and no king but Jesus!” 

That cry caught the imagination of American patriots everywhere and soon rang throughout the colonies. This cry became so prominent throughout the colonies that a British-appointed official wrote back to England, “If you ask an American who is his master, he will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ” (Hyatt, America’s Reawakening, 81).

This could happen because Jesus had held preeminence in America from the very beginning. Beginning with the first permanent settlement in 1607, continuing with the Pilgrims 13 years later and right on up to the time of the nation’s founding, America was dedicated to Jesus Christ and the spread of His gospel. 

When the Jamestown settlers landed at Cape Henry, VA on April 30, 1607, their first act was to erect a seven-foot oak cross they had brought from England and then gather around it and dedicate the land of their new home to God. In his dedicatory prayer, their chaplain, Rev. Robert Hunt, declared, “From these very shores the gospel shall go forth, not only to this new world, but to all the world.”

Thirteen years later, the Pilgrims landed further north at Cape Cod with a similar vision. Before disembarking, they formulated the Mayflower Compact in which they stated their two-fold reason for coming to America: (1) for the glory of God and (2) for the advancement of the Christian faith.

As succeeding immigrants poured onto these shores, they came with similar visions to honor God and advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. When the United Colonies of New England was formed in 1643, their constitution clearly stated why they had all come to this New World. It reads,

Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the Liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace (Hyatt, America’s Reawakening, 32-33).

It is thus not surprising that the First Continental Congress, which met for the first time in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, opened with Bible reading and prayer in the name of Jesus. Rev. Jacob Duche read the entire 35th Psalm and then began praying for the delegates and for the liberation of the colonies from the tyranny of Great Britain.

All 56 delegates including, including George Washington, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry and others, joined him in prayer, with many of them kneeling. Duche ended his prayer, saying, “All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ Thy Son and our Savior. Amen.”

Every succeeding session of this Congress was opened with Bible reading and prayer in the name of Jesus. No one complained for Jesus Christ was held in the highest esteem and given ultimate honor throughout the Colonies. Thomas Jefferson spoke for all Americans when he said,

The philosophy of Jesus is the most sublime and benevolent code of morals ever offered to man. A more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never seen.

A prayer journal kept by George Washington is filled with prayers centered in Jesus Christ and making Him known. For example, one prayer reads, “Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind, and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy Son, Jesus Christ (Hyatt, America’sReawakening, 161).

It is, therefore, not surprising that after the publication of the Declaration of Independence and the defeat of the British, Washington called on all Americans to make Jesus their role model and emulate His example. In a letter to the governors of the various states, he exhorted,

 I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens . . .   to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of His example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation (Hyatt, America’s Reawakening, 138).

Washington was not shy about sharing his faith in Jesus. In a meeting with chiefs from the Delaware tribe, Washington encouraged them to learn “above all the religion of Jesus Christ.” The chiefs had brought some of their youth to be educated in American schools. Washington addressed them as “brothers” and said,

You do well to wish to learn our arts and our ways of life and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention (Hyatt,1726:The Year that Defined America, 172).

John Hancock was one of the most prominent of the founding fathers, serving as president of the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. While serving as governor of Massachusetts, he proclaimed a Day of Prayer in 1793 in which he exhorted the people,

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 . . . and finally, to overrule all the commotion in the world, to the spreading of the true religion of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, in its purity and power, among all the people of the earth (Hyatt, America’s Reawakening, 39).

America’s founders considered Jesus Christ and the New Testament to be the foundation of the Constitutional Republic they brought into existence. Samuel Adams was a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and also served as governor of Massachusetts. He based the right for political freedom on the Bible and its revelation of Jesus Christ. He wrote,

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 (Hyatt, America’s Reawakening, 63-64)

Founded as a Christian Nation

That America was founded as a Christian nation characterized by faith in Jesus Christ was generally understood for the first 150 years of her existence. In giving an account of his 1831 visit to America and his study of her institutions, the French sociologist, Alexis de Tocqueville, exclaimed, "The religious atmosphere of the country was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States."

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” (Hyatt, America’s Reawakening, 189).

That America was founded on Christian values and principles was stated by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1892 in the case of Church of the Holy Trinity vs The United States. After examining thousands of historical documents, the nation’s highest Court declared,

From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation, this is a religious people. The churches and church organizations which abound in every city, town, and hamlet; the multitude of charitable organizations existing everywhere under Christian auspices; the gigantic missionary associations, with general support, and aiming to establish Christian missions in every quarter of the globe. 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.

The Key to Our Blessing

It was faith in Jesus and adherence to His teachings that made this nation great and prospered her as no other nation in history. This is borne out by Psalm 33:12, which reads, Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. A careful study of this passage shows that “LORD” applies to the New Testament revelation of Jesus Christ.

In this passage the word “LORD” is in all caps, which lets us know that it is translated from the Hebrew word Yahweh. The old KJV translates Yahweh as “Jehovah.” In the Old Testament, Yahweh was the personal name of the God of Israel, and it distinguished Him from the false gods of the pagan nations.

The word “God” in this passage is translated from the Hebrew, Elhoim, which was a generic designation for a deity or god. All the pagan nations surrounding Israel had their Elohim. However, the Elohim of Israel had a specific identity and name—Yahweh. This passage literally reads; Blessed is the nation whose Elohim is Yahweh.

Therefore, the promise of Psalm 33:12 is not to the nation that merely believers there is a god or a higher power. The promise is to the nation who believes in a specific God who has a specific personal name, and that name is Yahweh, which is the Hebrew verb “to be” and literally translated as “I Am.”

In John 8:58 Jesus clearly identified Himself with Yahweh (I Am) in a conversation with certain Jews. When the name of Abraham came up, who had been dead for 1800 years, Jesus said, Before Abraham was, I Am. The Jews immediately took up stones to stone Him because in their thinking He had committed blasphemy by identifying Himself with the LORD of the Old Testament.

Since Jesus Christ clearly identified Himself with Yahweh (LORD) on more than one occasion, Psalm 33:12 can read, Blessed is the nation whose God is Jesus Christ. I declare to you that this is the reason America has been blessed as no other nation. 

This is also why this generation must have a rebirth of Faith and Freedom by awakening to our national roots that run deep in faith in Jesus Christ.

This article was derived primarily from Dr. Eddie Hyatt's latest book, America's Reawakening, available from Amazon and his website at https://eddiehyatt.com.