Newsletter: 2010-08 In GOD We Trust

Independence Day Greetings from HomeWorship 101™

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.
It has been found difficult and left untried."
-G.K. Chesterton

Since the days of Noah, humanity has been instructed by our CREATOR to form a government to handle the affairs of the community, and the United States of America was the end result of that 5,000 plus years experiment. On July 4, 1776 we declared independence from European rule and put our trust in a new King not of this world. The Europeans laughed at us saying our grand experiment would not work. It did work, exceptionally well, but Satan has been busy. Fast forward to our present time after a couple of generations of “teaching” our children false information, we are in danger of losing our “exceptional” heritage and slipping backward into European style socialism. Oy vey, the mishegoss of politics. Let’s start at the beginning.

“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this;
it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government
with the principles of Christianity.
From the day of the Declaration...
they (the American people) were bound by the laws of God,
which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel, which they nearly all,
acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.”
-John Quincy Adams, July 4th, 1821

On our Independence Day, we publicly celebrate our founding belief, “In GOD we trust.” It is a day to give thanks to GOD and remember our founders’ unselfish sacrifices for our national heritage, reaffirm our country’s founding principles, and celebrate what makes America unique in the world. Unfortunately what made America unique is rarely thought and many have forgotten our founding principles.

“Truth will always be truth,
regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.”
- W. Clement Stone

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 community governments deal with evil that lives amongst us (Gen.9:5-6). Some 800 years later, after the Hebrews lost most their knowledge in their Egyptian captivity, our CREATOR restated these principles to Moses and added a little more information on making the community government operate honestly and fairly (Lev.ch.12-15, 18-20; Deu.ch.16-22). A few more centuries later YHWH gives us one final warning concerning the governments of men that ignore their CREATOR (1Sam.8:11-18). And approximately 1500 years later, Yahshua-Jesus taught us to add grace (which is the advanced trait of mercy), to our community compacts. Basically it means that no man is an island, we give up our right of personal or tribal revenge to the police powers of the community-compact that apply to all citizens - equally. Developing the best working community-compact has been evolving since the time of Noah, and America’s founding declarations and constitution was the pinnacle of that evolution.

“Facts are stubborn things;
and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations,
or the dictates of our passions,
they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
- John Adams

Throughout the centuries, mankind has experimented with many types of governments. Hellenism, Romanism, fascism, communism, communalism, socialism, capitalism, etc., there has been many ‘isms in the political world. What made our United States government unique is that only a short while before its founding, the Bible was finally being translated into the language of the common people and copies were being mass produced so everyone could read GOD’S Words for themselves. Our founders knew their Bibles well, and they were keenly aware of the Bible’s warning about ignoring GOD’S principles in their community compacts, 1Sam.8:11-18. For more info log on: http://www.homeworship101.com/cultural_issues.htm

“Governments will always do what is right,
after they have exhausted all other possibilities.”

Our Founders went back to the future and boldly answered the GOD question (does GOD exist). America’s founding fathers learned from the bad examples in history. They knew that regarding basic human rights and freedom it was still the same old community-compact since ancient times: What the ruler gives, the ruler can take away. Our founding fathers, being Protestant Bible readers, put forth the ‘bizarre’ notion that the community should put their trust in GOD, just like ancient Israel did before they rejected GOD and chose the rulership of kings (Book of 1Samuel). Our founders 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. Europe, along with much of the world body, laughed at the “great American experiment,” and criticized America’s founders as being backward. Today they still wonder, quietly fear, and criticize our so-called backward trust in GOD. And do not think that such a public proclamation would go unnoticed by Satan and his dark minions, they were also laughing in the background. (Many do not see that our backward trust in GOD looks to the future when the Messiah returns and once again all people will put their trust in CREATOR/GOD-YHWH.)

“The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.
In what light soever we regard the Bible,
whether with reference to revelation, to history, or to morality,
it is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.”
- John Quincy Adams

Make-no-mistake, no other nation or religious nation-state, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, or otherwise, has ever made such a bold 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 and exceptional! It’s a miracle that it even happened. And this concept has been under attack from the outside and from within ever since. Log on: http://www.homeworship101.com/cultural_issues.htm

"Cowards never won heaven.
Do not claim that you are begotten of God
and have His royal blood running in your veins
unless you can prove your lineage by this heroic spirit:
to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils."
- William Gurnall.

In the opening paragraph I mentioned the phrase “our exceptional heritage.” There has always been much debate on what is called “American exceptionalism.” Do an internet search of the term and you will find millions of mind-numbing articles on it, pro and con, but they all dance around the real issue of our exceptionalism. Let me make it easy for you and share with you the core truth. American exceptionalism is grounded in the founding of our country as an idea, rather than upon the ambitions of men. That idea is that we put our trust in GOD instead of a mere mortal, and by making that bold commitment GOD will bless our nation – and HE did. Unfortunately, today our national leadership shy’s away from the Bible and the GOD question. Last year, while attending the European summit of the Group of 20 major economic countries, our president was asked if he believed in American exceptionalism. He replied, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism, and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." He has reduced America’s exceptionalism to mere national pride – he doesn’t get it. And if our political leadership doesn’t get it, how will we teach our children?

"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued,
when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd.
On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders."
--Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, 1775

Over the years 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. They didn’t want a priest to run the store – so to speak, but they did want to run it by Biblical principles. Our founders did not trust religions and made sure we have religious freedom, but they did put their trust in GOD and 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?

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/ ). The dark minions finally brought this to a halt in October 1961 when 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 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 of 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.

US President Theodore Roosevelt was quoted saying, "a thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” How times have changed, in a recent news story titled “Florida school district bans Bibles on Religious Freedom Day,” states that “school officials claim that Bibles do not provide any educational benefit to the students.” Oy vey, the mishegoss of education.

"[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man....
It is therefore highly important
that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous."
--George Washington

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. Sadly we are once again culturally devolving by ignoring our CREATOR’s wisdom and into putting our trust in the dusty statute books of man.

Unfortunately, today our nation is slouching towards agnostic socialism and the choking laws of man. Over the last two generations we have lost our way. Our downward slide accelerated in the 1960’s when prayer in our schools was banned. Then prayer was replaced with the multiculturalism mindset of not offending other religions and that marginalized our Protestant founding principles. Under God was removed from America’s Pledge of Allegiance. The Ten Commandments, no longer allowed in the public square, have been removed out of sight. The Bible is called hate speech. And the result is that today, our country’s founding fathers would be considered radical right-wingers and the mostly liberal media would destroy them. The result is that in our last presidential elections the country has voted in an administration with a radical liberal agenda. The media touts it as “progressive” change for the future, but in reality we are devolving, and the tragedy is nobody seems to care – it is a testament to the poor education system of this country brainwashing the populace for the last 40+ years.

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ.”
- Colossians 2:8

The spiritual battle between the traditionalists and the secularists’ rages on, unfortunately many do not see it. For example, many say the US brings freedom and “democracy,” but they are wrong. America’s founders knew their history, and they were well aware that “democracy” has been around since the Greeks and that it’s basically mob rule, doomed to failure. Another glaring example is that in our Bible based country the Bible is outlawed in our schools, but it’s okay to read from the Muslim Koran – go figure. I can’t help but wonder, if a Koran based government is so good, where or when, has it ever built a successful, thriving, free community? The atheists and sexually perverted want any mention of GOD removed from our society, but again I remember the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.19:1-29) and I can’t help but wonder where or when have the atheists or sexual perverts ever built a successful community? And there they go again, if the atheists will not acknowledge GOD as a guarantor of human rights then we have to rely on mere mortals and the fickle whims of politics – been there, done that. Unfortunately we are backsliding and history proves it. Historically some of the last signs of a decaying and dying nation are when there is a decline in education, weakening of cultural foundations, decay of religious beliefs, and rising immorality. (Ref. author Jim Nelson Black PhD in his book When Nations Die.)

“If you obey them carefully,
you will display your wisdom and intelligence to the surrounding nations.
When they hear about these laws, they will exclaim,
'What other nation (people) is as wise and prudent as this!'
...Do not let these things escape from your mind as long as you live!
And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren.”
- Deuteronomy 4:6, 9 (NLT)

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, to 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.

So how is our lighthouse of freedom doing? How is it shinning on the world stage? America keeps the peace in many places throughout the world. From protecting the shipping lanes, to providing worldwide access to information in the Internet, much of the good is seldom mentioned. The Bibles says that Abraham, with 318 well-trained men who trusted in GOD, accomplished what the much larger pagan armies couldn’t (Gen.ch.14). Today, the image of this Bible verse is seen in America’s armed forces. They trust in GOD, and compared to the world’s population, America’s small volunteer armed forces are the giants keeping the light of peace and freedom shining around the world.

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

Unfortunately, over time, America have grown some evil warts, and today it seems our “light” has been given over to liberal educators, corporate sponsorship, and political correctness, which has been dulling it over the years. Many have forgotten exactly what are - or were - our founding principles, and just exactly, what “light,” and what “freedoms,” are we promoting throughout the world. Beginning near the end of last year it seems the light we shine is greed. The current economic crisis that began within our banking and housing mortgage sectors has spread around the world. It began a few years ago with the lowering of lending standards creating what is now called the sub-prime bubble. Basically unethical politicians and lenders relaxed standard lending practices and loaned money to people would not be able to repay the home loans, and via creative bookkeeping they created a mortgage securitization scheme and sold the assets all over the world. It was a house of cards built by greed that fell apart. There were people sounding alarm bells but the political and corporate powers that were reaping profits didn’t want anybody raining on their parade – so to speak. Now we all suffer, and the government bureaucrats always ready to take advantage of a crisis, will further empower themselves by creating more controlling regulatory agencies. Eventually they will create more law and layers of bureaucracies to avoid something like this from happening again - sic. Unfortunately, what the powers to be have forgotten is that it is “honest” capitalism that is part of our founding principles, not predatory, dishonest capitalism. It means doing what is right, not with what you can legally get away with, and maybe we should get back to basics of honesty then creating more burdensome government.

It is interesting to note that sometime in the future, almost tomorrow, the anti-Christ will rise to power because the world will be in a financial crisis and he will have the answers to some sort of a new financial system. It has been said that even a drowning man will grab the point of a sword to save himself. The world will see the anti-Christ as brilliant and will embrace his new financial scheme, but we all know it will be short lived and very intolerant of criticism. Is today’s economic problems this the beginning of the end time world economic crisis? It will be interesting watching. Log on: http://www.homeworship101.com/bbc-9_prophecy_trib03A.htm

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

The opening quote of this newsletter says, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried." That is the key, the simple Christian concepts of following the “Golden Rule,” trade honestly, and fairly, be charitable, have faith and trust in YHWH, etc. are easy to say, but seems hard to. The evil concepts of greed, lust for power, feather your own nest at the expense of others overtakes common Christian sense – and the people suffer. 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, and the current financial crisis is a shining example. As I mentioned above, historically more of the last signs of a decaying and dying nation are when there is a loss of economic discipline, increase in materialism, and rising bureaucracy. (Ref. author Jim Nelson Black PhD in his book When Nations Die.)

“Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution
and to the Republic for which it stands.
Miracles do not cluster,
And what has happened once in 6000 years may not happen again.
Hold on to the Constitution,
for if the American Constitution should fail,
there will be anarchy throughout the world.”
--Daniel Webster

Today we honor our founding documents and it is a testament to our founder’s humility, as they publicly questioned the concept of mans granted freedoms vs. our CREATOR’S directly endowed freedoms. Still to this day, it is remarkable that America’s founders were the ‘first and only’ community leaders to proudly answer the much-dreaded GOD question. After much wrangling, they formed the United States as a ‘constitutional, representative republic;’ organized by peoples whose - Protestant (or protesting Christian) - concept is that all people are Divinely and directly Blessed by our CREATOR, along with HIS freedoms and moral guidance – even those who do not believe.

If you ponder the attitude of the EU, the French, the Middle East, etc. for a while, it makes you wonder: If all people are “…equal and endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable human rights…,” what does it matter if you are Muslim, Jew, Christian we all supposedly believe in the same CREATOR. Other religious beliefs notwithstanding, or even if you do not believe, you are still enjoy the same freedoms. And free people, who understand personal self-governance guided by righteous morality, come together to form a community compact based on the most basic of GODLY principles (Noah’s 7 commands for example). It seems so simple, you wonder why everyone doesn’t see it. But therein lays their arrogance, because it’s really all about personal control, power, corruption, and money. And the Muslim community leadership is not much different.

“A wise man will hear and increase learning,”
- Proverbs 1: 5"

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, anti-YHWH, or as some say, Antichrist.

We have our evil warts, but evil is everywhere. One of our founders, Thomas Jefferson, commented we must remain ever vigilant to keep our freedoms. My parents met in Germany, then they immigrated to this country where I was born, I could just as easily been born in Germany. Half of my parent’s family is still in Germany and I know European socialism well, but I pray and give thanks for being in this country, and I pray that we find our way back to the truths and strengths of this Divinely based republic.

“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.”
- 2Chronicles 7:14

Enjoy the journey of learning…
Ø http://www.homeworship101.com/wp_americans_who_risked.htm
Ø http://www.homeworship101.com/cultural_issues.htm
Ø http://www.homeworship101.com/bb-c6_hellenism_romanism.htm
Ø Belief in GOD is NOT a Religion: http://www.homeworship101.com/NL_2003_11.htm

Wishing you all a happy holiday weekend. Please pray for our leadership, pray that their hearts will trust in GOD, and guide them. And please remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem... Ps.122.

Take care. Peace and blessings, Errol.
**********************************************
Errol Mueller, chronicler extraordinaire
e-mail: errol@homeworship101.com
website: www.homeworship101.com
**********************************************
WSC Newsletter 2010-08, posted 07/02/10.

Copyright © 2010 Errol Mueller. All rights reserved. Short quotations, page copying, or redistribution for personal or non-commercial group study is permitted and encouraged, provided they are copied in total with no alterations or deletions. Author’s name, website address, and copyright notice must be included. If any other use is desired, written permission is required.
For information, email or call (334) 678-0913. White Stone Communications (Rev.2:17), Dothan, AL.
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Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.

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In GOD WE Trust