Newsletter: 2006-08 US Independence Day “In GOD we trust”

4^th of July Greetings from HomeWorship 101™

"We base all our experiments
on the capacity of mankind for self-government." --James Madison

The concept of peoples to join together and form governments to handle the needs of the community is a Covenant responsibility that YHWH, our CREATOR, commands of us. It was first mentioned in the Rainbow Covenant given to Noah, where our CREATOR commanded humanity to form communities to deal with evil that lives amongst us (Gen.9:5-6). Later in time, through Moses, YHWH gave us more information on social laws (Deu.ch.16-25), and a few more centuries later HE gives us one final warning concerning the governments of men that ignore their CREATOR (1Sam.8:11-18). Basically it means that no man is an island, and we give up our right of personal or tribal revenge to the police powers of the community-compact. Developing the best working community-compact has been evolving since the time of Noah, and America founding declarations and constitution was the pinnacle of that evolution. Today, on our Independence Day, we publicly celebrate our founding belief “in GOD we trust.”

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves,
and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” - 2Chr.7:14

America’s founding fathers knew that mans governmental experiments throughout history were community-compacts that were basically ruling partnerships of three power groups: The politicians, the priests, and the merchants. Each group is in a constant struggle for increased power or market share, with the people always struggling to be the wise consumer. Our founders learned from the bad examples in history, throughout the ages the governments might have had different names and leaders, but they knew that regarding basic human rights and freedom it was still the same old community-compact since ancient (Babylonian) pagan times: What the ruler gives, the ruler can take away. So our founding fathers, being Protestant (protesting) Bible readers, put forth the ‘bizarre’ notion that the community should put their trust in GOD. They took the bold step in a new direction and stated, that in place of some undependable mere mortal to grant people their rights, they chose our CREATOR to be the grantor of basic human rights, and what GOD gives no mere mortal can take it away. Do not be fooled this bold declaration would not go unnoticed by the minions of dark-side.

Make-no-mistake, no other nation, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, or otherwise, has ever made such a daring declaration. The foundational documents that formed America are the greatest documents ever penned by man. It is the Protestant concept that GOD grants rights ‘directly to every human’ and no man can take them away. Even if you don’t believe in GOD, you still have the same rights. That is what made America great! It’s a miracle that it even happened. And this concept has been under attack ever since. Log on: http://www.homeworship101.com/wp_americans_who_risked.htm

The dark-side has been slowly chipping away at our founding beliefs and today many have forgotten that the Bible was the political textbook of the founding fathers. Our founders did not trust religions and made sure we have religious freedom, but they did put their trust in the guiding wisdom of the Bible. It was our first congress, that immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence, formed the American Bible Society and voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of the Bible for the people of this new nation. And now look what has become of us, could you imagine the legal and political chaos today if Congress would order Bible’s to be printed and distributed to our school systems?

Of the first 108 universities founded in America, 106 were distinctly Christian, including the first, Harvard University, which was chartered in 1636. In the original Harvard Student Handbook, rule number 1 was that students seeking entrance must know Latin and Greek so that they could study the Scriptures: "Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments". The dark-side has been busy, today our universities think Bible teaching is an antiquated concept. And we dare not even think of displaying the Ten Commandments in our public squares lest we suffer the wrath of the anti-GOD lawyers and judges.

The U.S. Constitution outlines the government, but the power of the government is in the virtue of the people. The virtue desired of the people was to be guided by the Biblical principles. In 1782, the United States Congress voted this resolution: "The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools," and it was taught in public schools until the early 1960's. Government officials were required to declare their belief in God even to be allowed to hold a public office until a case in the U.S. Supreme Court called Torcaso v. Watkins (Oct. 1960). God was seen as the author of natural law and morality. It was believed, that if one did not believe in God, then one could not operate from a proper moral base, and by not having a foundation from which to work, one would destroy the community. Today we can clearly see truth of our founder’s beliefs, because since 1960’s when the Bible was removed from our society’s education system our country has been morally and culturally devolving.

For 185 years prayer was allowed in public and the Constitutional Convention itself was opened with prayer. Directly or indirectly, 94% of all their quotes were based on the Bible. Donald Lutz and Charles Hyneman reviewed an estimated 15,000 items with explicit political content printed between 1760 and 1805, from these items, they identified 3,154 references to other sources. The source most often quoted was the Bible, accounting for 34% of all citations. Sixty percent of all other quotes were from men who themselves used the Bible to form their conclusions (log on for historical documents: http://patriotpost.us/histdocs/ ). Unfortunately, in October 1961 the Supreme Court of the United States removed prayer from schools in a case called Engel v. Vitale. The case said that because the U.S. Constitution prohibits any law respecting an establishment of religion, officials of public schools may not compose public prayer even if the prayer is denominationally neutral, and that pupils may choose to remain silent or be excused while the prayer is being recited. What I question is when was it decreed that organized religion or not, just a general belief in an ALMIGHTY is now considered a religion? See my web page belief in GOD is not a religion: http://www.homeworship101.com/NL_2003_11.htm

The 1961 prayer in question was a short non-denominational prayer. It was this: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country." What has happened to our society since prayer was removed from our public square? The statistics do not lie, increased the birth rates for unwed girls 0f 15-19 year olds, and sexually transmitted diseases among 10-14 year olds. Our moral character has plummeted resulting in a much higher divorce rate, tens of millions of abortions, and a suicide rate among teenagers that is one of the leading causes of death. The Bible, before 1961, was used extensively in curriculum. After the Bible and the prayer was removed from the schools, scholastic aptitude test scores dropped considerably. Isn’t it ironic that thanks to our so-called progressive educational leadership we are actually devolving.

Our United States government was never meant to be the master as in a ruthless monarchy or dictatorship. Instead, it was to be the servant. The founding fathers believed that the people have full power to govern themselves and that people chose to give up some of their rights for the general good and the protection of rights. People should be self-governed and this is why virtue is so important, because then less government is needed to govern them. This was not a new concept, as I often say, in ancient China, Confucius also distrusted written laws. He knew of the ancient wisdom handed down from Noah, and he felt that a dusty statute book was too inflexible to handle the infinite variety of human experience. He chose to trust people, not laws, and taught a philosophy of personal virtue, devotion to family and social justice, and to rely on innate human goodness as the best guarantee of a civil society. Unfortunately we are once again culturally devolving by ignoring our CREATOR’s wisdom and into putting our trust in the dusty statute books of man.

There are some religious groups (the Jehovah Witnesses come to mind first), who hold the notion ‘that true believers are in this world, but not of this world,’ so they do not participate in government celebrations or activities. I think believers are in this world, but are not part of the dark corruption of this world. Believers are encouraged to trust in GOD and let their light shine (Mat.5:16). Scriptures also say, that the true believers are the salt of the earth (Mat.5:13). If the salt stays all bottled up (if the believers never participate in their community), then how does the salt spread around the Earth?

How does America let its light shine around the world? Do we promote the rulership of a king or queen to solve all our problems? No! Do we force some – unaccountable - religious cleric on the world to solve our problems? No! We promote the concept of personal freedom and commerce based on honest free enterprise. From Adam to Noah, from Abraham to Moses, from the Prophets to Yahshua-Jesus, the Divine message has been the same. Our CREATOR wants a-l-l humanity to have the freedom to study and learn, to grow and mature, to work and trade honestly, and to enjoy life with our friends and family. Anyone who would take these freedoms away or restrict knowledge is basically anti-GOD, or, as some say, Antichrist.

"Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."
--Thomas Jefferson

Please remember to pray for our communities’ leadership; pray that they once again will open their eyes to our CREATOR’s light and publicly declare our trust in GOD (Dan.4:25).

Peace and blessings, Errol.
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Errol Mueller, chronicler extraordinaire
e-mail: errol@homeworship101.com
website: www.homeworship101.com
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Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.
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#WSC Newsletter 2006-08, posted 07/03/06.
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"In GOD We Trust"

4th of July Greetings from HomeWorship 101™

4^th of July Greetings from HomeWorship 101™