What is America? February 04, 2006

Saturday, February 04, 2006

What is America?

This Week:
What is America: by David & Julie
Oswald Chambers quote: from My Utmost for His Highest

"What is America?"


What is America?
I heard a sermon this week that had a profound impact upon my life. The
minister used the text from II Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

He dealt with the subject of what we are as Christians, a fundamental truth I had given little thought to. But I began to see that without an understanding of such, our Christian life would suffer greatly from it’s intended purpose.
Almost immediately my heart began to meditate upon the thought of “what is America?” For without this understanding, we not only will be greatly misdirected in our purpose, but could miss it entirely. The context that follows will attempt to define that question to some extent. Time and space here will not allow an exhaustive exploration, if one could even accomplish such a feat in its entirety.

Our Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

We must assume these are not mere words, but in fact a description of the creation of this nation. Created upon truths, not reasoning’s of men that change from one ideology to the next, but truths that are self-evident (self-ev·i·dent (slfv-dnt) evident without proof or argument; "an axiomatic truth")
A nation that acknowledges these truths, which establishes that all men are created by their Creator and are equal in their existence. And by this Creator are endowed with certain unalienable (un·al·ien·a·ble - Not to be separated, given away, or taken away) Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

One can agree with this or disagree, but until this document is changed, this is America, and anything that does not accept or acknowledge this Declaration is not America, but something else.

The last stanza of our National Anthem which few ever hear, reads:

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
In our National Anthem America is described as a heaven rescued land and calls for us the praise the Power that has preserved us a nation. On July 30th 1956, the United States Congress adopted motto “In God We Trust.” We must assume that these are not mere words, but truths of this nation and anything else makes us something else.

WE THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, GRATEFUL TO ALMIGHTY GOD, THE SOVEREIGN RULER OF NATIONS, FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE AMERICAN UNION AND THE EXISTENCE OF OUR CIVIL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTIES, AND ACKNOWLEDGING OUR DEPENDENCE UPON HIM FOR THE CONTINUANCE OF THOSE BLESSINGS TO US AND OUR POSTERITY, DO, FOR THE MORE CERTAIN SECURITY THEROF AND FOR THE BETTER GOVERNMENT OF THIS STATE, ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION.

WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, GRATEFUL TO ALMIGHTY GOD FOR THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY WHICH HE HATH SO LONG PERMITTED US TO ENJOY, AND LOOKING TO HIM FOR A BLESSING UPON OUR ENDEAVORS TO SECURE AND TRANSMIT THE SAME UNIMPAIRED TO SECCEEDING GENERATIONS, DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION

WE, THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, GRATEFUL TO ALMIGHTY GOD FOR THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY WHICH HE HATH SO LONG PERMITTED US TO ENJOY, AND LOOKING TO HIM FOR A BLESSING UPON OUR ENDEAVORS TO SECURE AND TO TRANSMIT THE SAME UNIMPAIRED TO SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS, DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT
But if America is a nation that trust in God, one needs to know what God to understand what America is.

Since 1824, walls of the Rotunda of the U.S. Capital Building have been adorned with eight massive oil paintings, four on the east side, four on the west, each measuring 14 feet by 20 feet and depicting important historical events. On the east side are paintings of two prayer sessions and a baptism.

One is of Columbus landing in the Western World in 1492 and the prayer service held following his landing; another is the baptism of Pocahontas at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1613. Pocahontas was one of America’s first converts to Christianity.

A third picture is of the Pilgrims in 1620, praying before departing Holland for America. Upon arrival, while still anchored offshore, the Pilgrims wrote the "Mayflower Compact," the first government document written on this continent. The Compact declared that the Pilgrims had come to the new land for the purpose of evangelizing the nation to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. It also established governing principles based on God’s Word, principles that 150 years later would form the basis for the Declaration of Independence.

The four paintings on the west side of the Rotunda, which include the Signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, were painted by "The Painter of the Revolution," Founding Father John Trumbull. Not only did John Trumball come from a family of outspoken Christian leaders, the figures in his Capitol pictures were predominantly Christian, including the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Consider just a few of some lesser known, but influential signers. John Witherspoon was an ordained minister of the Gospel and Charles Thomson, a Bible translator. Charles Carroll, honored with a statue in the Capitol, built and founded a Christian house of worship.

Benjamin Rush started five colleges and universities. He was a medical educator and writer but also founded "The First Day Society", which grew into today’s Sunday Schools. Additionally, Rush started America’s first Bible society and, with an act of Congress, brought about America’s first mass-produced, stereotyped Bible. Francis Hopkinson, church music director and choir leader, produced one of the first hymnals printed in America. Richard Stockton, whose writings were strongly Christian, gave his life for the success of the Revolution and was honored in the Capitol with a statue.

Thomas McKean, another patriot whose writings revealed his dedication to Christianity, was one of America’s leading legal authorities. He helped author the constitutions of Pennsylvania and Delaware and served as governor in each of those states. As Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, he once advised a prisoner to repent and "ask merciful God to forgive your manifold transgressions and sins; to teach you to rely upon the merit and passion of a dear Redeemer ..."
Other paintings on the west side of the Rotunda depict the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and General George Washington resigning his commission in 1783. Although a peace treaty had not been signed, America was essentially free to establish its own laws following the British surrender. Since under British law it had been illegal to print a Bible in the English language, one of Congress’s first acts was to approve in 1781 the printing of the first English language Bible in America. The "Bible of the Revolution" was published with an endorsement in the front of the Bible: "The United States in Congress ... recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States."

The peace treaty with the British was signed in 1783 bearing the signatures of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay. It began with a firm declaration: "In the Name of the most Holy and undivided Trinity." Upon news of the treaty, George Washington first informed military staff and leaders of Congress of his resignation and then notified the 13 governors and state legislatures by letter. General Washington closed his letter with a prayer that God would have them and the state in His holy protection and reminded them that unless all imitated the characteristics of Jesus, "we can never hope to be a happy nation."
Three statues stand in the Small House Rotunda connecting the main Rotunda and the Old House Chamber, including one of the Reverend John Peter Muhlenberg who left his congregation to join the Revolution, taking some 300 men with him. Finishing the Revolution as one of America’s highest ranking military officers, he is also seen in the Rotunda picture of the British surrender.

Reverend Muhlenberg’s brother Frederick – also a minister – joined the battle for liberty when he was driven from his New York church by the British. In 1789 he became America’s first Speaker of the House of Representatives, earning him a large portrait directly behind the current House Chamber, in a room filled with portraits of previous Speakers of the House. His signature is one of only two on the Bill of Rights.

Before relocating to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., the government operated in New York City, then Philadelphia. Upon moving into its permanent home in late November 1800, Congress spent the first weeks getting organized. Then, it did something the enemies of Christianity would rather we didn’t know: Congress decided the Capitol building would also be used for church services. It’s in the Congressional Record of December 4, 1800.

In the current House Chamber, used by Representatives to debate the nation’s laws since 1857, a prominent display above the Speaker’s rostrum declares, "In God We Trust." Around the top of the Chamber’s walls are images of 23 great lawgivers spanning the centuries, but in the middle – the place of honor – the only lawgiver accorded a full face view overlooks the chamber: Moses, the lawgiver of the Bible.

The Congressional Prayer Chapel opened in 1954, the same year "under God" was added to the pledge of allegiance, and features a stained glass window showing George Washington kneeling in prayer. Above him is the declaration, "This Nation Under God"; surrounding him is the Bible verse from Psalm 16:1: "Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust."

Are these indeed just mere words, or is truth engraved in the face of this nation for all the world see? We are told today that if we acknowledge these truths, we are stepping across the lines of the Constitutional principle of Separation of Church and State. I am left to wonder how this can be? Have we forgotten what we are? Is the mere acknowledgement of these truths now considered to be an establishment of a state religion?

I ask you, what is America? Is America the embodiment of the Documents that gave her life, or is America something else? Is America the embodiment of the idea’s and principles that moved men to give of themselves for their posterity, or is America something else? Is America the embodiment of inspiration that moved men toward Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or is America something else? Is America a nation that has a fundamental belief that all men are created by their Creator and endowed with certain unalienable Rights by that Creator, or is America something else? Is America a nation that trust in God, or is America something else?

There is a decision being made in the heart of this nation, there is another defining moment passing before our eyes, I wonder “what is America?”

May God bless each of you,
David & Julie