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Bringing America Back To Her Roots, Part 3 by Pastor Roger Anghis, August 2010
Last week we began to look at how the people in the early years of this nation intertwined not just religion, but Christianity in particular into their daily lives. They believed that everyone should be able to read so that our government officials could not pass laws that were contrary to God's Word. Today the public is better educated than any generation before us, but we still allow laws to be passed that are contrary to God's Word.
When the pilgrims came to America they brought with them text books, but in 1690 the first American textbook was printed. It was called the New England Primer. This textbook was the beginning textbook for all students in America from 1690 to 1900 in public, private, semiprivate, home, parochial and all other types of schooling.
All of our Founding Fathers learned how to read using the New England Primer and the Bible. Over the 200+ years that it was used, there were very few changes made to the book. This book did not change in that 200+ years period of time except more reading and vocabulary words were added but the core of the Primer - its rhyming alphabet, the Bible alphabet, its Bible questions and Shorter Catechism remained intact from reprint to reprint.
This book was so important to our Founding Fathers that they endorsed this book and had it reprinted so that their children would be educated with the same book. Noah Webster who wrote part of the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Samuel Adams, the Father of the American Revolution, were all responsible for reprints of the N.E. Primer so it would be available to children in their generation.
When our nation attained freedom from Britain, we can see all of the Biblical teachings come into play in the developing of our Constitution and the laws of our land. The Declaration of Independence is the most successful document in the world.
No other nation has been governed by a document longer than we have by the Declaration of Independence. Political scientists tell us that our Constitution was based on a book that was used to write the Declaration of Independence and that book was The Two Treatises of Civil Government by John Locke.
The revisionist historians of today say that he was a deist, but he was actually a theologian. He wrote the first topical Bible. He did a book on a verse by verse study of the Bible. He wrote a book titled "The Reasonableness of Christianity, he helped write the constitution of Carolina. John Locke's book, The Two Treatises of Civil Government, was the basis for the most successful government document ever written, the Constitution of the United States. Is it any wonder that our government has been the most successful in the world? John Adams - "The general principles for which we achieved independence are the general principles of Christianity."
After we won our independence we began to print Bibles in the English language, something that we were not allowed to do while under the rule of Britain. The British government told us what Bible we could use and what could be taught and how it would be taught. This is why the government was to stay out of the church.
The very first act of Congress was a 4 hour prayer meeting followed by a sermon that John Adams mentioned to his wife, Abigail, as to how moving it was for him and other members of Congress. One of the other items that Congress did was apportion money for the printing of Bibles. The record of Congress states that this printing will be "A meet addition to the Holy Scriptures for use in our public schools." This was a printing of the Bible under the supervision of Congress for use in our public schools. "Resolved that the United States and Congress assembled recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the Unites States."
What we have seen so far has been a total dedication to Christianity by our Founding Fathers AND the majority of the population of America. Revisionists have demanded that a new history be told that never happened. Because of their hatred for, not just religion, but Christianity in particular, we have seen our nation go from God lovers to God haters. They have no problem with our children dressing up on Halloween, a high holy day in satanism, they have no problem with our children saying prayers to allah in our public schools, but our schools can't even have a picture of Jesus hanging in the hallway. We can't say a pray at graduation of at a sporting event. We can't sing Christmas carols at Christmas programs and in many states we can't even call Christmas, Christmas.
Some of the court rulings in recent years show the bias of our liberal judges. Court Ruling: Freedom of speech is guaranteed to students and teachers unless it is religion at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional. Court Ruling: It is unconstitutional for students to see the Ten Commandments as they may read them, meditate on them, respect them and obey them. Court Ruling: The Ten Commandments, despite the fact that they are the basis of our civil law, and depicted in engraved stone in the Supreme Court building on the wall behind the seats of the justices of the Supreme Court; it is against the law to display the Ten Commandments in any government building. Court Ruling: It is unconstitutional for any school library to contain books on Christianity. Books on witchcraft are OK. Books on occults are OK. Books on Islam are OK or Buddhism or Hinduism is OK. It is unconstitutional for a teacher to have a copy of the Bible in his/her desk. Not on it, but in it. Court Ruling: It is unconstitutional for school officials to be praised publicly or to be recognized from a podium at a community meeting if the meeting is sponsored by a religious organization.
Planned Parenthood can do that, but a Christian cannot do that. Court Ruling: It is unconstitutional for a kindergarten class to ask whose birthday is celebrated at Christmas. A student in Illinois was arrested, threatened with mace and handcuffed and removed from the school for participating in the See You at the Pole event. In Texas a student was warned that if she prayed she would be disciplined the same as if she used profanity. A group of individuals were threatened with arrest and prosecution by the US Capitol police for bowing their heads during a silent prayer.
The influence of the Bible was so instilled into the hearts and the minds of the Founding Fathers as well as the people that it is no wonder that when drafting the Constitution, we find its influence all through the document. An independent study was done by the University of Houston and they wanted to determine what was the biggest influence in drafting the Constitution?
They gathered documents from the founding era, 1760-1805, documents that led to the establishing of our DI and what gave us our Constitution. They wanted to see who our Founding Fathers read, quoted and who they were influenced by. They collected 15,000 documents and from those documents they found 3,154 quotes. It took them 10 years to document these quotes as to where they came from and they discovered that the most quoted source was quoted four times more than the second most quoted source.
The most quoted source was the Bible. Found in the original writings of our Founding Fathers we find that they discovered in Isaiah 33:22 the three branches of government: Isaiah 33:22 "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us." Here we see the judicial, the legislative and the executive branches. In Ezra 7:24 we see where they established the tax exempt status of the church: Ezra 7:24 "Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them."
When we look at our Constitution we see in Article 4 Section 4 that we are guaranteed a Republican form of government, that was found in 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:" This indicates that we are to choose, or elect God fearing men and women. Looking at Article 3 Section 3 we see almost word for word Deuteronomy 17:6. The next paragraph in Article 3 Section 3 refers to who should pay the price for treason. In England, they could punish the sons for the trespasses of the father, if the father died. Our Constitution states that only the one guilty of the crime pays for the crime.
In 1791 Benjamin Rush, who served for 3 different Presidents, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, started the Sunday School movement in America to deal with the uneducated in the inner cities. It was this same year that 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.
Where did he get that concept? Proverbs 4:7 "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." Proverbs 14:8 "The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit." Wisdom is the ability to correctly use the knowledge that you have. Our colleges today fill you with knowledge, but without wisdom, all of that knowledge is useless.
How else can a student spend 10 years in school learning to be a doctor and then spend his career performing abortions? How else can a student spend years in school learning history, yet not understanding the history he learned? Benjamin Rush was the author of a paper that was literally distributed all across the nation for years, even after his death that was titled "The Use of the Bible In Schools" In that paper he 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."
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. Our Founding Fathers lived by this scripture: "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 3:11
Without the Great Awakening in the 1730s and the political thinking it generated, we would have had no American Revolution a generation later. Without the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century and the abolitionist movement that it spawned, we would not have seen the end of slavery a generation later. Similarly, without the courage of many pastors and of groups like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference we would not have seen the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Without the prolife movement Ronald Reagan would not have been elected in 1980, and the Cold War might have gone on.
Bill Clinton put a person in charge of Voice of America that broadcast world events, Christian programs and other programs that would give people hope and he stopped all of that and broadcast Britney Spears and other so-called musicians and even made the statement that the reason the Iron Curtain came down was because of MTV. That is the epitome of stupidity. This person, and so many more in government, have no wisdom because their foundation is not is Jesus Christ.
Our Founding Fathers proved what could be done when we base our lives on Jesus and His Word and those people then are placed in government in places of authority. We have gone so far from that belief and to survive as a nation we must return. That is our mandate. We have allowed unrighteous men and women to rule over us.
Solomon warned about the type of people that rule over us. Proverbs 29:2 "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." Bill Clinton vetoed a ban on partial birth abortion twice. He disgraced the office of the presidency in the Oval Office with immoral acts. People may not like the Bible but they love the results of obeying its precepts. Prosperity, good health and peace. We have been called. Let us answer the call.
Pastor Anghis is the President of RestorefreeSpeech.org - Organization designed to help reverse the 1954 Johnson gag order and restore free speech back to the pulpit. He is also the President of TheDamascusProject.org - Organization designed to re-educate pastors and lay people on the churches true role in the political arena.
© Pastor Roger Anghis
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