Newsletter: 2011-06 "In GOD We Trust"

Independence Day Greetings from HomeWorship 101™

“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, July 4th, we publicly celebrate our founding belief, “In GOD we trust.” It is a day to give thanks to GOD for our freedoms 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, today, 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 communities to deal with evil that lives amongst us (Gen.9:5-6). Some 800 years later, after the Hebrews lost most of their knowledge in their Egyptian captivity, our CREATOR restated these principles to Moses and added a little more information on how to make the community government operate honestly and fairly (Lev.ch.12-15, 18-20; Deu.ch.16-22). A few centuries later HE 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, and 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 in my humble opinion America founding declarations and constitution were the pinnacle of that evolution. See a nice short video on history of our Constitution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr3wg7Abw3o .

“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 are have been many ‘isms in the political world. But what made our United States government different is that only a short while before it’s 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.

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

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 HIM and voted for the rulership of earthly kings (Book of Samuel). America’s founders took the bold step in a new direction and stated, that in place of some undependable mere mortal (king or pope) 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 still criticize our so-called backward trust in GOD.

“The first and almost the only Book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.
In what light so ever 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

Our founders knew the spiritual/moral answers for the community and as a testament to their humility, they also 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’ community leaders to answer the much-dreaded “GOD question” (GOD?), meaning: does GOD exist? They boldly went where no man went before and acknowledged the existence of our CREATOR. After much wrangling, they formed the US 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.

Make-no-mistake, no other nation, 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! It’s a miracle that it even happened. And this concept has been under attack from the dark forces, from within and outside or borders ever since. Log on: http://www.homeworship101.com/cultural_issues.htm

“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 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 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 more info click for my newsletter Belief in GOD is Not a Religion.

Unfortunately, today our nation is slouching towards socialism. During the last two generations we have been slowly loosing 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 moved 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 - “progressive movement” - 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 going backwards, 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.

Some recent headlines:

"Pledge of Allegiance has no place at City Hall"

"Oregon town's City Council voted down a proposal to say the Pledge of Allegiance before every council meeting, but later passed a compromise that seemed to make no one happy. The approved measure allows the pledge to be recited at just four Eugene City Council meetings a year.

Councilman George Brown voted against the compromise, saying the Pledge of Allegiance had no place at City Hall. “People can say it in their front yard or backyard,” Brown says. “It really doesn’t help move the city business forward. It does not unite us.”

Another pledge opponent, Councilwoman Betty Taylor compared saying the Pledge of Allegiance to reading from "The Communist Manifesto." (Click for news story.)

Harvard University study: July 4th Parades Are Right-Wing

"Democratic political candidates can skip this weekend's July 4th parades. A new Harvard University study finds that July 4th parades energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day.

"Fourth of July celebrations in the United States shape the nation's political landscape by forming beliefs and increasing participation, primarily in favor of the Republican Party," said the report from Harvard." (Click for news story)

The assault on our CREATOR continues by the social progressives for example, our current president likes to drop the reference to our CREATOR when quoting the opening line in our Declaration of Independence. NBC's opening of the U.S. Open Golf Championship included two readings of the Pledge of Allegiance, but omitted the phrase "under God" both times. And on it goes, 50 years ago these people would be run out of town, let alone be elected into leadership positions.

How times have changed. 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 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 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 were 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.

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

Our United States government was never meant to be the master 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.

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

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 okay to read from the Muslim Koran. I can’t help but wonder, if a Koran / Sharia law based government is so good, where or when, has it ever built a successful, thriving, freedom-loving 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? One question I always ask the Atheists, if they will not acknowledge GOD as a guarantor of human rights then what mere mortal will you trust to guarantee our rights? Been there, done that read your history, relying on kings, popes, and the fickle whims of politics never really works out well for the community, unless you like the boot of a dictator at your throat. 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.)

“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

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

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 were I was born, I could just as easily been born in Germany. Half of my parents 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 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)

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 History of our constitution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr3wg7Abw3o

Wishing you a happy holiday with your friends and family. 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
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WSC Newsletter 2011-06, posted 07/03/11.

Copyright © 2011 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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