A Nation Gone Bad

"There is no greater evil than anarchy."

Sophocles

 

Anarchy is defined as a state of disorder due to the absence or lack of recognition of authority. After watching the riots break out in Ferguson, Missouri, one gets an idea of what anarchy is like. People are mad because they didn't get their way, so they are rioting, looting, burning police cars, and anything else they can think of. They don't feel that they received justice so, for a time at least, they are refusing to recognize authority.

 

Last Friday, our President did the same thing. He did not like the current laws and did not like the fact that Congress would not pass a law to make things like he wanted. So he broke the very Constitution that he had sworn to defend and changed the law by himself. And Congress, with prominent leaders in both houses calling his acts "lawless", has done nothing. They have done nothing despite the fact that they took an oath to uphold the Constitution, (a part of which is to control the President when he breaks the law) they decided to break their own oath because they were afraid of what people would think of them.

 

And, now, they have sewn the seeds of anarchy because the law makers are now law breakers.

 

So, from the White House to Congress to the streets of America, we are seeing people in a general state of disorder because they are refusing to recognize and abide by the laws of the land. And the America that once boasted of being a nation of laws has become a nation of lawlessness. If we are not careful, we will become a nation gone bad...

 

The older I get, the more I look forward to Heaven! It's not that I expect everyone to be perfect here on earth, but I do think it is reasonable to expect that people will at least try to love one another more and respect the rule of law more.

 

Maybe if we all prayed for one another a little more, we could learn to get along. That's what I intend to do, because the alternative - a nation slouching towards anarchy - is almost unbearable to even consider. The verse below is what God has to say about people who refuse to recognize the law. Does it seem descriptive of what America is looking like to you? If so, maybe you can start praying for America and the millions of souls which make up this great nation that now seems to be fraying a bit at the edges.

 

"The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men."

Psalms 12:8, NIV

How to Restore America's Greatness

"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

George Washington

 

One of George Washington's greatest strengths was his belief in God and in Jesus. Throughout his public life, he never shied away from his faith, nor from his reliance on God. At Valley Forge, his men came upon him on his knees in prayer. His prayer book that he wrote as a twenty-year old revealed a mature and humble reliance on his Lord Jesus Christ. He spoke freely of the Superintending Power that blessed the efforts of the Americans during the Revolutionary War.

 

While he did not flaunt his faith, he didn't hide it either, and he was firmly convinced that this fledgling nation could not be moral without religion. If you want to know why George Washington was loved, admired, and held in the highest respect and esteem - both during his life and for the 200 plus years following his death - you need go no further than his belief in God.

 

Contrast that to today, when our leaders get very, very nervous whenever the topic of religion is raised. So afraid are they of offending those with different religious beliefs, they hide their religious beliefs at all possible costs. And for most it is not a hard thing to do, for the smaller something is, the easier it is to hide.

 

Alexis de Toqueiville was a Frenchman who came to America  in the 1830's, trying to find the secret of America's success. He said, "I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors... in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great, because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great."

 

As we view with sadness the current state of our nation, with the seemingly endless immoralities in everything from forbidden pleasures of the flesh, to the aborting of our next generation, perhaps we should pause for a moment and try to find why we have sunken so low. It is not because we have lost our harbors or fertile fields or boundless forests. It is not because our rich mines and vast world commerce have played out, nor is it because we no longer have a democratic Congress or a Constitution.

 

It is because we thought we could abandon religious principle and still be moral. It is because we thought we could still be good without righteousness, and that we could still be great without goodness.

 

The founders left us an amazing country because they established our country on the religious principles of Jesus Christ contained within the holy Word of God. So, if we want to return to the great nation that our founders left us, we are going to have to return to the religious principles that they founded this nation upon... or do we suppose, contrary to the founders' beliefs, that we can maintain a national morality exclusive of religious principle?

 

If we want to be a great nation again, then we are going to have to return to God and become a good nation, again.

 

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people."

Proverbs 14:34, NIV

 

Return to Washington... and Truth

True or False: The Constitution states there must be a separation of church and state.

Answer: False 

Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion... reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

George Washington (from his farewell address)

Isn't it interesting how people will believe a lie long before they will believe the truth. Most people would be shocked to learn that the words quoted above came from our nation's first president. They would also be shocked to learn that the Constitution does not attempt to "protect" the state from the church. In fact, if the truth be known, the framers of the Constitution were far more concerned about protecting religion from the state.

Did you know that when Thomas Jefferson was President of the school board of the Washington D.C. public schools, that the Bible was used as a text book? This was over a decade after the Constitution. The document that he was so instrumental in creating. The document that is somehow supposed to forbid Bibles in school or prayers in school or any mention of our Lord's name in school, (other than in vain - this, our modern scholars assure us, is protected).  

Why is that, I wonder? Perhaps it's an accident of education... or perhaps it's the purpose of education.

You see, most schools don't even address Washington's Farewell Address, nor do most teach what constitutes the Constitution. So we end up with a student population filled to the brim with the knowledge of political correctness, but totally in the dark when it comes to the truth of the critical role that religion played in the founding of our nation. As a result, most students think that prayer to the Almighty in school is forbidden, while cursing with His holy name is perfectly okay. And we wonder why our nation is in the state that it is in.

So, what are parents to do? Perhaps they should start with teaching the truth. Too many parents think that this is the duty of the teacher, but the fact is that while many of our teachers would love to be able to teach these things, their hands are tied. So the teaching of these important truths will have to be done by parents, if they are to be taught at all. 

"The truth will set you free"

 Jesus (as recorded in John 8:32)

 

 

Happiness Does Not Just Happen

Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.  George Washington

Have you ever known anyone who was waiting for happiness to just "happen"? They wait for their ship to come in or their number to come up or for Mr. or Miss "Right" to just show up on their doorstep one day. The sad fact of the matter is that ships do not usually come in, that most people don't win the lottery and true love does not happen without some virtuous effort.

I heard a father describe a conversation his daughter had with a young man who wanted to take her out. When she declined his offer for a date he asked why. When she told him that she knew that he drank and she did not drink he asked, "Then, what do you do for fun?" Her response was classic: She said, "I get up in the morning and I look at myself in the mirror, unashamed." Now, that's fun!

Years later, that virtuous young lady married a nice young man and they had a wonderful family. They experienced true love and true happiness, because of the truth that George Washington recognized over 200 years ago: Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. Good marriages do not just happen any more than good people just happen. Moral duty is hard! But, have you ever noticed, that it is nearly always easier than the consequences one must eventually pay for ignoring virtue?

Lasting happiness is a byproduct of virtue. This may sound old-fashioned, narrow-minded, and out of touch with reality, but who cares. Personally I like being happy, and if that makes me out of step with modern man then that's okay. We have all made our share of mistakes in our quest for happiness, but we have a Father in Heaven who truly wants us to be happy and He has designed a plan for us to accomplish that goal. It requires effort and sacrifice and an occasional denying ourselves of instant gratification - but it works. Besides, did we think that something as tremendous as eternal happiness would be easy?

I know that there is nothing better than for men to be happy and do good while they live. 

Ecclesiastes 3:12, NIV

 

America Is Still Great

If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

Ronald Reagan

I have been listening to the news of late. We hear of an abortion doctor who has been accused of what all abortion doctors have always done - murder children. We hear of our right to bear arms under attack by the government, as if they really didn't understand that this right was put in place to protect from tyrannical leaders instead as some sort of boon granted by a benevolent dictator. We hear the politically correct passing laws about things that God decided on long ago.

If we are not careful we will think that America is not great anymore - but it is. You see our wicked leaders are not America - they don't even like it. Our abortion doctors are not America - they are killing as many future Americans as possible. The politically correct are not America - they are insignificant human beings vainly trying to be significant.

Real America is a nation that is funded by men and women with the Christian work ethic, not by those who would dare to live off of the generosity of others. Real America is, as our founders suggested, a noble experiment in democracy, not a nation to be ashamed of as many of those in prominent positions would suggest. Real America is a land of decent Christians, not a land of small, hypocritical and self-righteous bigots who fail to see their own hatred toward anyone with different beliefs.

Real America is one nation under God. It is in the process of being hijacked by perverse and hateful persons, but they are no more the rightful heirs to Real America than the terrorists are the rightful owners of the planes they take by force.

Real America will come back because real Americans will eventually do the right thing. We have been temporarily diverted by skillful politicians whose main weapons are to divide and conquer, but real Americans will eventually see through their schemes. The fact is that now, right now, real Americans are getting really sick and really tired of those who pretend to love America but who, in fact, really despise this land.

Ronald Reagan was right when he said we will be a nation "gone under" if we ever cease to be one nation under God, but I don't believe that time has yet come. In fact, I believe that the Real America is still present under the debris left by those who claim to represent us.

One thing may be helpful to keep in mind: Fools always trash their own homes but eventually abandon them when they think they have looted everything of value. In this case, they will only take the money. They will leave behind those things they deem to have no value... virtue, decency and the greatest treasure of all: God.

And when they are through, decent and virtuous people will be left behind to pick up the pieces of this indestructible, noble experiment once again: One Nation Under God!

Happy the people whose God is the Lord.

Psalms 144:14, RSV