Shoulder To Shoulder #1319 -- 11-28-22 ---- "Ancient Paths -- The Pathway of Revival D -- Culture Motivates Awakenings" (part 27)
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER is a weekly letter of encouragement Bob has written since 1997, covering many topics selected to
motivate people to be strong students of the Word and courageous witnesses of Jesus Christ. It is a personal letter of
encouragement to you, written solely to help "lift up hands that hang down".
"The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." -- Albert Einstein
“There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have -- a cheap Christianity which offends nobody,
and requires no sacrifice, which costs nothing, -- and is worth nothing.” – J. C. Ryle
Shoulder To Shoulder #1319 -- 11-28-22
Title: "Ancient Paths -- The Pathway of Revival D -- Culture Motivates Awakenings" (part 27)
My Dear Friend and Fellow Kingdom Seeker:
When I began preaching the series, "Restoring The Ancient Pathways" upon which this current "Shoulders" series is also built, I didn't intend to write about them in these letters, -- and most certainly didn't intend this series to last so much longer than the sermon series. While there were only seventeen in the sermon series, here we are today with 27 of them in the folder.
Yet, there are still so many more we could have considered. Never in my lifetime have I been convinced of a greater need for America to return to those "ancient paths" that led to our founding. They sustained us in the past, and made us a great nation. So, why we have chosen in the past 80+ years to stray from and then entirely abandon them is unthinkable. But it has happened -- and here we are . . . .
Unlike most other nations with no Judeo-Christian roots of any kind, God has invested so very much in us. And, like Israel of old, we have strayed far, far away from Him. I fear that we, like Israel, lost our greatness when we lost our way. God is not obliged to rescue us again. We have often stood at those crossroads of which Jeremiah wrote (Jer 6:16-17), and God has chided us over our wanderings, and has implored us to return. In days past we have heeded His warnings -- even after ignoring his signposts -- and ashamedly returned to Him.
That seems to no longer be the case. The trumpeters of old have disappeared and the replacements have become either distracted or wearied of sounding the warnings. Rather than the rotting culture around us being a warning call back to God, it has become in the hearts of too many trumpeters a comfortable place to hide and "adapt". "Adapting" is merely another word for "conforming" -- "consenting to be shaped by and shaped to".
"If you can't beat them, join them."
This is not the heart of God in the matter. Far from it, the heart of God is to use our current cultural condition to stir our hearts to once again cry out desperately for a fresh touch from His throne of mercy. He has promised that there will always be "grace to help in time of need", but we must approach the throne, not withdraw into the throng.
There is always an odd chemistry on how God operates. One the one hand, it is awakenings that change culture while, at the same time, it is culture that motivates us toward awakenings. And, that is the topic I'd like to address in this final look at the ancient path of revival before moving on to the final ancient path we will consider in my next letter.
But, before we get to the task at hand, please take time to consider . . . .
QUOTES FOR THE WEEK:
> "God is taking His hands off of America. We've had so much light and we've rejected it." -- Leonard Ravenhill
> "Study the history of revival. God has always sent revival in the darkest days. Oh, for a mighty, sweeping revival today!" -- Adrian Rogers
> "Revivals begin with God's own people; the Holy Spirit touches their heart anew, and gives them new fervor and compassion, and zeal, new light and life, and when He has thus come to you, He next goes forth to the valley of dry bonesOh, what responsibility this lays on the Church of God! If you grieve Him away from yourselves, or hinder His visit, then the poor perishing world suffers sorely!" -- Andrew Bonar
> "God's time for revival is the very darkest hour, when everything seems hopeless. It is always the Lord's way to go to the very worst cases to manifest His glory." -- Andrew Gih
> "David had one of the most blessed experiences in the world, and the blessedness was that he was miserable about his sin." -- Leonard Ravenhill
> "Revival is a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God. It is giving up one's will to God in deep humility." -- Charles Finney
> "Revival awakens in our hearts an increased awareness of the presence of God, a new love for God, a new hatred for sin, and a hunger for His Word." -- Del Fehsenfeld Jr.
> "Someone asked me, 'Do you pray for the dead?' I said, 'No, I preach to them!' I think every pew in every church is death row. Think about that! They're dead! They sing about God; they talk about God, but they're dead! They have no living relationship (with God)." -- Leonard Ravenhill
> "Does it grieve you my friends, that the name of God is being taken in vain and desecrated? Does it grieve you that we are living in a godless age...But, we are living in such an age and the main reason we should be praying about revival is that we are anxious to see God's name vindicated and His glory manifested. We should be anxious to see something happening that will arrest the nations, all the peoples, and cause them to stop and to think again. -- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
> "If revival is being withheld from us it is because some idol remains still enthroned; because we still insist in placing our reliance in human schemes; because we still refuse to face the unchangeable truth that, 'It is not by might, but by My Spirit'." -- Jonathan Goforth
AWAKENING IMPACTS MORE THAN THE CHURCH:
I have repeatedly stated that the idea promoted by the late Andrew Brietbart -- that politics is always downstream from culture -- is pretty much on target. The more I study current events and the state of most past and current political systems, the more clear that becomes to me. In past letters I have also advanced the idea that, since politics is downstream from culture, culture is also downstream from moral values, and moral values are always downstream from religious beliefs. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to accurately understand our political and cultural collapse without taking a hard look at our earlier moral and spiritual collapse -- for they all flow from the same spring. Moral and spiritual collapse always precede cultural and political collapses.
By now you surely know that I believe, based on the historical records of our founding fathers and the many early historians who researched and wrote up to the middle of the Twentieth Century, that America has both undeniable Judeo-Christian roots that run deep into the past, and was born as a nation in the incubator of the First Great Awakening. Hopefully you are not one of those who shrugs those facts off as either being irrelevant to the message of the Gospel or being of no particular consequence to where we are today. It is, in fact, relevant to both. There has always been a biblical pattern . . . even within totally secular cultures . . . where the economy and safety of a nation is dependent on its ethical standards, its ethics flow from its moral values, its morality emanates from its spiritual roots, and its spiritual foundations either strengthen or weaken based on the condition of its religious institutions.
So, when it comes to the current condition of any nation, you need to first look at its religious roots. The religious roots of America are unmistakable ---- totally and exclusively Christian in nature with its values, goals, and character all streaming directly out of the principles of life found in the Old and New Testaments. The thing that gives any culture its basic strengths or weaknesses is the presence or absence of its "religious rebar". If its "rebar" is either weak, inferior, or absent, then it is merely a matter of time before that culture collapses. It ceases to be a question of "if", and becomes merely a question of "when".
In his book mentioned previously, America's Revival Heritage, Dr. Eddie Hyatt writes, . . .
"Religious awakenings have been a part of the American experience from the nation’s inception. It would seem that Spiritual awakening is in our national DNA. This should not be surprising since many of the first pilgrims to this land were Christian revivalists and reformists. Dissatisfied with the state of Christianity in their own country, they came to America hoping to forge a more vital and Biblical form of Christianity. The Pilgrims, for example, who landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620, were Separatist Puritans who were seeking, not only a reform of the old churches of Europe, but also the formation of a new church and social order based on the New Testament” (Chapter One, "America, the Original Vision").
Not only does America trace its origins to its departure from England in search of freedom and prosperity, but this search was triggered by the tyranny of the British Crown and the suffocating legalistic religion of European state churches. Even a cursory look at just who first came to the shores of this new world will show that, the presence of economics and exploratory spirit notwithstanding, a primary driving force in colonizing the land was the presence of the Pilgrims, Puritans, and Separatists who were driven from their parishes, churches, and homes by wicked kings and corrupt churches trying to silence their voices of doctrinal purity and religious freedom.
What was it that was the real impetus behind the political, economic, and religious upheaval in Europe? If we take time to seriously analyze the factors and trends lying behind the events, I think it could be summarized in a word ---- REVIVAL. It was a moral and spiritual movement that began as early as the late Thirteenth Century and finally erupted as what we know as the Protestant Reformation. New life was beginning to fight its way out of the cocoon of the Dark Ages that had held it in its clutches of death for centuries.
While it may not fit our current understanding of the term, "Revival", it was nonetheless a powerful move of God that impacted the religious climate of all of Europe. It was a mighty battle between the institutionalized state-controlled church in its various paradigms and the biblical church as seen and understood by people like Calvin, Zinzendorf, Zwingli, Hus, Luther, and others. We are derelict in expressing our gratitude to God for our existence as a nation if we do not recognize and thank Him for what happened spiritually in western Europe during what is called the Protestant Reformation. While the institutionalized form generally remained, the return of doctrinal truth, the message of salvation, and the work of the Holy Spirit brought new life to an otherwise dead Christian religion.
This spiritual reformation or revival in the European Church clearly impacted the European culture as a whole -- it always does -- and that motivated the development of numerous cultural and social reforms. Hence, revival birthed awakening. Therefore, it is equally impossible to understand the spiritual fiber of Colonial America and the First Great Awakening that fanned the flames of its independence like no other factor without connecting the dots back to what was happening in the Church in western Europe. If we do not see the connection, then a totally secular and materialistic America is an easy picture to paint. And this is exactly what deconstructionists and revisionists try to do.
If you want a true and accurate portrait of our own national founding, you must include the background of a European state-owned Church in the throes of a spiritual renovation ---- a revival in actuality ---- breaking free from the bondage of perverted doctrine, institutionalized atrophy, and politically shackled ownership. It is these people . . . explorers, laborers, businessmen, ministers, educators, farmers, financiers, . . . who first came to these shores, likely not looking to form a new nation, but simply to enjoy a new way of life where they could live in freedom and with opportunity.
Just who, then, were the first settlers to actually arrive on these shores? Along with colonization in the southeastern coastal areas primarily by Spanish explorers such as Ponce de Leon (1513), De Narvaez (1528), and Hernando de Soto (1535–1542) who brought Christianity in the form of Roman Catholicism with them, --vand the Scandinavian, French, and British explorers who came first to the northeast, --vthe more permanent settlements ultimately took root in the areas of the Central Atlantic Seaboard, namely between Massachusetts in the north and Virginia in the south. These were people primarily from England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and other European countries where Christians had either been trying to reform the Christian Church or were being driven from it to begin a new life in a new world where a vibrant Christian faith could be practiced. Therefore, the overwhelming influence of a European Church in the throes of revival cannot be denied in the founding and shaping of America.
Parenthetical: (If you happen to be interested in North America's European colonization, there is an excellent timeline, beginning as early as the Tenth Century with the Norsemen colonization of Greenland and Newfoundland, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_European_colonization_of_North_America. There's also a nice collection of maps relating particularly to the colonization from New England to Florida, accessed at http://etc.usf.edu/maps/galleries/us/earlyamerica14001800/index.php?pageNum . A third source of colonial maps is http://dcc.newberry.org/collections/maps-and-the-beginnings-of-colonial-north-america.) End Parenthetical.
These settlements . . . Roanoke, Jamestown, Rhode Island, Plymouth, Providence, etc. . . . were overwhelmingly established by colonists many of whom actively practiced the teachings of their Christian faith. Many of them had already come as colonial leaders, or became leaders, establishing principles and charters that were grounded in the moral and spiritual principles of the Bible. Since I've already written many times about this in the past, suffice it to say that by the early 1700's, practicing the Christian faith was as common to the average citizenry as is the practice of accessing the internet is to us today. Recognition of, respect for, and adherence to basic Judeo-Christian values was the norm, even for those who professed no serious faith in God or practiced genuine Christian piety and life.
So, what is the bottom line? When the religious uprising took place in Europe leading up to and including the Protestant Reformation, it impacted the lives of European citizens, many of whom were themselves spiritually transformed. Thousands were motivated to seek out a new world where economic opportunity, political liberties, and the exercise and expression of religious faith could be openly and fearlessly practiced. They were people who recognized the necessity of those values being practiced in the marketplace, homes, neighborhoods, and halls of government, and not just within church walls. These are those who laid the groundwork and poured the foundations that led to the eventual establishment of our nation. That cannot be denied.
Europe, however, would not easily release its control over its various settlements and enterprises . . . especially England, who had almost a total monopoly on the colonies. The Crown's tenacious grip increasingly tightened through import taxes, governmental domination, and harassing military presence, so much so that life was almost unbearable. And, with each ensuing complaint or resistance by the colonists, Britain's oppressive domination increased.
However, there was an often unnoticed (at least for a time) influence stirring in the shadows of colonial life ---- the clergy. The minister and his message were faithfully urging the citizenry toward genuine repentance and salvation, strong Christian piety, . . . and true liberty and freedom. It was the emergence of what was coined by the British King as "The Black Robe Regiment". Christopher Hamner, historian and professor at George Mason University described these ministers in this way: . . .
"The term 'Black Robe Regiment' referred not to a literal regiment of soldiers that wore black robes into battle but rather to the influential clergymen who promoted American independence and supported the military struggle against Britain. . . . the Black Robe Regiment was not an actual detachment in the Continental Army but rather a British epithet for the influence preachers exerted in support of the Patriot cause. Advocates of the British crown found preachers’ support of the Patriot cause particularly detrimental to their efforts to maintain loyalty among the colonists. Such clergymen provided sanction for the cause of independence as well as formal support for the military effort.
"In the 1770s, most colonists still considered themselves aligned with England; many parishioners questioned the fundamental legitimacy of revolution, and of separating from Britain and consequently the Church of England. From their pulpits, these members of the Black Robe Regiment reassured their audiences that their revolution was justified in the eyes of God. Winning and maintaining the support of the population was critical in the American War for Independence, which relied heavily on the support of volunteers and the general population."
Hamner asserts that the clergy of the day were vital to the success of the coming revolution. I could not agree more.
WHAT MOTIVATED THE MEN IN THE BLACK ROBES?
If the clergymen, most of them either official ministers of the Church of England, Congregationalist pastors, or Catholic priests, were to put their lives on the line by promoting freedom from Britain, what was it that drove them to such extreme preaching and action? Many of them, such as Peter Muhlenberg and his brother, even became major military officers in the Revolutionary Army. In my opinion, we need look no further than the revival that began under the preaching of pastor Jonathan Edwards and others like him.
Known as "The Forgotten Founding Father", Edwards (1703-1758) of Connecticut was a Calvinist preacher, theologian and missionary. His father and grandfather before him were ministers. At age 13, he enrolled at Yale University and immersed himself in studying both philosophy and theology. He was ordained to the Gospel ministry in 1727 and quickly became one of the most famous preachers of his day throughout the Colonies. The revival began with this Puritan preacher with Calvinist roots, in Northampton, Massachusetts.
In 1731 he gave a public lecture in Boston in which he said, "The great power of God appears in bringing a sinner from his low state, from the depths of sin and misery, to such an exalted state of holiness and happiness." In spite of his focus on the depravity of man and the righteousness of God, his popularity grew to the point that he was preaching to thousands. In spite of the fact that he preached in a monotone voice and read his sermons from fully prepared manuscripts, the crowds grew. On July 8, 1741, he preached his most famous sermon of all, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Perhaps the most recognized statement of the sermon is the one in which he said, . . .
"There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up."
The revival quickly spread and developed into a colonies-wide spiritual awakening now known as the First Great Awakening (roughly 1730 to 1777). Edwards, along with many other Calvinist-like ministers, saw sinners come to faith in Christ, churches grow, new churches begin, and the general social and cultural climate steadily change, -- sinful practices declining and numerous social improvements developing. However, the initial wave, as is often the case, began to wane and Edwards, having faced much severe opposition himself, began to despair of any long-term impact this move of God might have on the culture.
That dread was to be short-lived, however.
It appears that the young 25-year-old fiery British evangelist, George Whitefield, had heard about Jonathan Edwards and the Northampton meetings, and traveled there in 1740 to meet him and preach in his pulpit. Whitefield's unedited journal posts the following entry ----
"And, when I came to remind them of their former Experiences, and how zealous and lively they were at that Time, both Minister and People wept much; and the Holy Ghost enabled me to speak with a great deal of Power."
So, in this way and after many weeks of Whitefield's preaching at Northampton, these two giants, -- Edwards a theologian and Whitefield an evangelist, -- became lifelong friends and co laborers.
What God had begun through the life and ministry of Jonathan Edwards continued and expanded through the life and ministry of George Whitefield, along with other notables like John and Charles Wesley and Samuel Davies, a Presbyterian minister who became the fourth president of Princeton University, and was a strong influence among African slaves who converted to Christ in countless numbers. Davies is credited with the first sustained evangelization of slaves in Virginia.
I could go on with a myriad of other lesser knowns, little knowns, and unknowns who were used powerfully of God during the First Great Awakening to draw the net on lost souls, speak to specific social issues, and support independence from England. Clearly space doesn't allow even a cursory description of these men -- that will have to be at another time -- but suffice it to say that they were all used powerfully to fuel both the fires of revival and spiritual awakening, as well as the intensifying passion to become a free and independent nation.
Whitefield's influence was so significant at the time, due to his seven different preaching voyages to the Colonies, that he would becmme known as "The Father of the American Revolution". Whitefield knew the heart and motives of the King of England and his inner circle, -- and what they intended to do to the colonies -- and had pleaded since the 1740's with pre-revolutionary leaders to declare independence from England. Often preaching extemporaneously and without manuscript or notes, his preaching style was quite different from the scholarly Edwards. And people came by the throngs to hear a man who "spoke their langauge" with passion -- and with practical application.
When he went to preach in Philadelphia, Whitefield was noticed by a local printer named Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was struck by the power of Whitefield's voice that seemed to carry endlessly through the streets of Philadelphia. While he never openly espoused to Whitefield's theology nor make any kind of public confession of his conversion, he nonetheless printed Whitefield's sermons on the front page of his newspaper, The Gazette, and covered Whitefield's activities and meetings in 45 separate issues.
Much like William Randolph Hearst who instructed his editors to "Puff Graham", meaning to promote him with front-page coverage, Franklin also used "the power of the press" in spreading Whitefield's popularity; and this only further strengthened the impact of the First Great Awakening on colonial culture. He also published all of Whitefield's sermons and journals. Together, all of Franklin's support of Whitefield and his ministry helped promote the evangelical movement in America. In fact, when Franklin was commissioned to travel to England to appear before the King of England with the "Olive Branch" papers, Franklin declined to go unless George Whitefield went with him. They remained close friends and Franklin strongly supported the British evangelist's ministry until Whitefield's death in 1770.
So, . . .
With Jonathan Edwards as "The Father of the Great Awakening" and George Whitefield as "The Father of the American Revolution", and supported and sustained by many other noteworthy preachers who impacted colonial America with comparable persuasion, the colonies were being prepared for something unanticipated, but clearly world-changing. A year or two ago I wrote a lengthy series on a large number of ministers who dared to make a difference from their "thundering pulpits" across the colonies.
Nearly all of these "Men in Black" urged people to repent, turn to Christ, and embrace freedom and liberty found only in Him. Inherent in the ministry of many of them was also the urging to become truly free politically and socially by separating from a godless Britain who espoused merely "a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" (II Tim 3:5).
The USHistory.org website calls The Great Awakening as "The Beginnings of Revolutionary Thinking", clearly giving credence to the idea that The First Great Awakening was almost certainly the seed bed out of which America's independence was fertilized. In fact, the article says, . . .
"Although the Great Awakening was a reaction against the Enlightenment, it was also a long term cause of the Revolution. . . . The Great Awakening was also a 'national' occurrence. It was the first major event that all the colonies could share, helping to break down differences between them. There was no such episode in England, further highlighting variances between Americans and their cousins across the sea. Indeed this religious upheaval had marked political consequences."
Subsequently our Founding Fathers gave us a government which has had unparalleled success—unlike any in history. The United States of America is the world’s longest ongoing constitutional republic in human history. We have maintained the same form of government since 1789 -- 233 amazing years! No other contemporary nation can claim this prestigious status. Other nations, such as France and Italy, went through revolutions about the same time as the American Revolution, but none fared as well then or since.
For example, France has had seven completely different forms of government since its revolution, and countless governmental changes. Italy has had an astounding 51! We, on the other hand, have been under the same constitution since its inception. If we are to see it sustained further, we must protect our constitutional republic and its constitution, turn from our wicked ways back to God, and be diligent to elect political leaders who will protect, preserve, and obey the principles of our Constitution and the laws of our land.
In the meantime, . . .
THE NATIONAL OUTCOME OF THIS POWERFUL PREACHING:
So then, just where did our Founding Fathers get the ideas and principles that produced such an exceptional form of national governance? If you study their lives and read their writings, you will find that they gained much of their moral and political insight from writers such as William Blackstone, John Locke, Baron de Montesquieu, and even Thomas Paine -- and from the preaching of ministers and their annual "election sermons". Unlike the "simpletons" and "uneducated twits" many of our modern historians would like you to believe, our founders were educated, well-versed researchers who did their homework when it came to deliberating America's future.
As I have noted several times in past years, a group of researchers several years ago at the University of Houston went through the hundreds of thousands of personal writings and official documents of many of our founding fathers in an attempt to discover exactly "what made them tick" in terms of their political, moral, and religious beliefs. Out of those documents, the research group pulled out some15,000 writings that were relevant to the period, and, for 10 years studied and evaluated them all.
The researchers surprisingly found 3,154 quotes that were commonly used or repeated by those Founding Fathers. The next step was to locate the actual source of each quote. Amazingly, at least to us though perhaps not to the founders, the research revealed 34% of the Founders’ quotes were taken directly from the Bible, four times more than any other source. Those founders who used biblical quotes included the aforementioned Baron Charles de Montesquieu, Sir William Blackstone, and John Locke. Further, of the remaining sources, an amazing 60% of them had developed their ideas from the principles and teachings of the Bible. What was it that caused so many of our Founding Fathers to so strongly believe in Christianity? A overwhelmingly major explanation can be found in the First Great Awakening that had covered most of the previous fifty years of colonial life. During this time nearly half of America’s two million people were directly and personally influenced by it.
One of the outcomes of the First Great Awakening, is that people began to understand, first, their need of a personal relationship with God that would translate into honest and compassionate citizenship. Second, they understood the biblical role that the Judeo-Christian principles played in government. They also understood the importance of a common religious faith that could draw thirteen separate colonies (most of them with their own state churches) into a single united nation. Finally, the Awakening helped lessen and often dissolve animosity, hatred, and differences existing between both races and classes. As a result, the First Great Awakening clearly had a direct influence on American independence, and it was the persistent clarion calls from America's pulpits that shaped the religious and moral fiber leading to a solid Judeo-Christian culture. To think otherwise is to either be blind to facts or intellectually dishonest.
Several years after having served as the second President of the United States, John Adams pointed out how a change in American thinking and religious sentiments had taken place several years prior to the Revolution when he wrote, “The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations … This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”
THOSE WHO FORGED OUR FRAMEWORK:
Most of our 250+ revolutionaries officially known as our Founding Fathers had strong convictions in the Christian faith. This included people such as those who blazed the trail the previous 150 years (from Jamestown in 1607 up to our founding). So, when it came to the actually signing of the Declaration of Independence, historical record shows us that of the 55 original signers of our U.S. Constitution in 1789, 52 were active members of traditional orthodox Christian churches, believing that Jesus Christ was God's Son and their savior. A significant number of the signers of both the Declaration and the Constitution had seminary degrees, and the overwhelming majority of them had read the Bible through multiple times --often (as in the case of Jefferson and Adams) in other languages.
Among our Founding Fathers, 28 were Episcopalians, 8 were Presbyterians, there were 7 Congregationalists, 2 Lutherans, 2 Dutch Reformed, 2 Methodists, 2 Roman Catholics, 1 unknown, and only 3 self-acknowledged deists (and even that is questionable). This was a time in colonial history when church membership and a public confession of the Christian faith was mandatory in most state constitutions to hold public office. In fact, some states were reluctant to give up those requirements and become part of the new nation for that reason.
When you assimilate all these statistics, you find that almost all of our Founding Fathers embraced Christianity as their faith (93%), and nearly 70% were Calvinists (that is Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, and Episcopalians), who were by many to be the most committed to Biblical teachings.
Thomas Jefferson personally financed the printing of the Bible and the evangelization of a local Indian tribe. He also was the President who began official Sunday worship services in the Capitol building and attended regularly. The American Tract Society was founded in the early 1800's, and a large number of the tracts were actually written by Founding Fathers who had signed the Declaration, the Bill of Rights, and the U.S. Constitution. The first official Bible printed in the United States for the United States was funded by an act of the U.S. Congress.
So, then, what were the core beliefs that characterized the "Faith Of Our Fathers"? Here they are:
1. They believed that the Bible is God’s Word—It is His message to mankind.
2. They believed and understood that man is by nature sinful and unable to save himself from sin’s penalty.
3. They believed that God is holy, loving, merciful and just and that He will thusly deal with man in love and mercy, but will yet justly punish sin.
4. They believed that God sent His only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to redeem those who trust in Him and His death on the cross as full payment for the penalty of their sins.
5. They believed that all who put their faith in Christ shall be saved.
While we cannot with complete honesty even remotely say that all of these founders had a genuine personal relationship with Christ, we can say that these core beliefs, genuinely held by many, were foundational principles that were instrumental in shaping the form of government found both in our system and in our U.S. Constitution.
FINALLY:
I then beg the questions ---- "Can Revival Cause a Spiritual Awakening?" Can Spiritual Awakenings give birth to a new and unique form of national governance?" "Does America Need a Spiritual Awakening?" "Can our nation be healed and restored to it's past spiritual greatness?"
The answer to all four questions is an unequivocal, "YES!"
But, the last question, requires a final one ---- "Will we pay the price?"
How should I answer that one?
That depends primarily on the churches and other believers in our country. "As goes the Church, so goes the nation. As goes the preacher, so goes the church. As goes prayer, so goes the preacher. As goes broken desperation, so goes prayer." -- Donte Neeto Nomee
In His Bond, By His Grace, and for His Kingdom,
Bob Tolliver -- Romans 1:11
"Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness,
examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." -- Dr. Luke (Acts 17:11)
"A fire kept burning on the hearthstone of my heart, and I took up the burden of the day with fresh courage and hope." -- Charles F. McKoy
Life Unlimited Ministries
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Copyright November, 2022
"If Jesus had preached the same message that many ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified." -- Leonard Ravenhill
"The time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the Church will have clowns entertaining the goats." -- Charles H. Spurgeon
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