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King David asked a question that we need to ask again –

“If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?” – Ps. 11:3

 In a time of attack upon our Republic from Socialists, Communists, and Progressives, we need to revisit our foundation principles. We have existed for over 200 years as a nation but, what was the foundation that allowed this? One of the earliest documents of those who originally came to found this country was written by John Winthrop, Pilgrim –

Pilgrim landing

“We are a company,” he said, “… professing ourselves fellow members in Christ …. The end is to improve our lives and do more service to the Lord …. that ourselves and our posterity may be better preserved from the common corruptions in this world . … We must love brotherly without dissimulation; we must love one another with pure heart fervently. We shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all the people upon us.” – A Model of Christian Charity, John Winthrop

This was the compact they agreed to as the Pilgrims prepared to disembark the ship onto the shores of America. Their foundation was Christ Jesus and their motivation was brotherly love. As more pilgrims came and finally the Puritans, this same motivation was evident. The first national government was ripe with such declarations. In our first president’s farewell address it is found –

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion (Christianity). Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is impossible to govern rightly without God and the Bible” – George Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796

Samuel Adams, a revolutionary organizer, wrote in his The Rights of the Colonists –

“The right of freedom being a gift of God Almighty, …. the rights of the colonists as Christians …. may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the Great Law Giver … which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.”

Samuel Adams and his writings were one of the main influences that led to the declaration of freedom and the Revolutionary War. He based that drive for freedom squarely on the Bible and Christianity. Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence wrote –

“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are the gift of God?”

There were no Muslims, Buddhists, satanists or witches present at the signing of the Declaration, or 11 years later at the Constitutional Convention – Jefferson was addressing Christians. The whole argument about people having ‘unalienable rights’ was based on the existence of the God of the Bible. There were no socialists or communists or atheists present either. They all believed in the Bible and in the Republic, a form of government that has lasted over 200 years without change. The French have had 7 forms of government and the Italians 48 forms but in 200 years we have had just one form.

If the life of the individual is just a ‘brief flicker in history’, as some would have us believe, then the perpetuation of the state, as socialists would have us believe, or the perpetuation of the empire, as Muslims would have us believe, would become the all important goal. Phrases like’The Motherland‘, ‘the Fatherland’, ‘national purpose‘, ‘one world government’, or some new social theory, such as ‘climate change’ or Green Deal‘ are all calls to desert the biblical foundations upon which we were built.

If the span of civilizations amounts to less than ‘the wink of the eye’ compared to the eternal life of a person, then the protection of God’s most valued creation, the individual, becomes the primary function of government. This was exactly the belief of our founding fathers.

The early French philosopher Alexis de Torqueville examined early America and wrote –

“I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion – for who can know the human heart? But I am certain that they hold it indispensable for the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but belongs to the whole rank of society. America is the place where the Christian religion has kept the greatest power over men’s souls; and nothing better demonstrates how useful and natural it is to man, since the country where it now has the widest sway is both the most enlightened and the freest.”

Today, in opposition to the moral certainties the belief in God and the Christian religion gives, we have new social theories chipping away at our foundation:

1. the agnostic, who does not know if God exists but claims it makes no difference.
2. Pluralism, which claims there are no moral absolutes, everything is OK.
3. the atheists who don’t believe in anything. They claim to be tolerant, relaxed, easygoing, anti-discriminatory, non-confrontational and humane. They accuse Christians of being intolerant and uncaring.
4. Then there are the socialists who claim they want to equalize everyone but they fail to say that they must take from some to give to others. However, this quickly develops into a class society in which they take from the wealthy and give to themselves and the poor still remain poor. They always seem to gain control of every decision that once belonged to the individual.

These philosophies all have the same core belief. They release man from the moral constraints placed upon him by God and substitute a “man as the measure of all things” philosophy. This philosophy leads to one or a few men being in control over the people. It is the philosophy that led to the so-called ‘divine right’ that European kings used to maintain their power and that which modern China, North Korea, Russia, and Turkey presently use to cement their power and subdue the people. They often use religion such as humanism, communism, socialism, or Islam to secure their ‘divine right’ to power.

Proponents of all these philosophies feel compelled to ban religious considerations from public discourse because they know instinctively if not intellectually, that their faith is in direct conflict with the God of the Bible and that in the end the two positions are irreconcilable. Recent humanists on the Supreme Court made their motivations clear to any who would read them –

“A too literal quest for the advise of the founding fathers seems to me futile and misdirected.” – Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, 1963

“I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever fixed at the Philadelphia convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight and sense of justice exhibited by the framers particularly profound. To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start.” – Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, 1987

The slow but steady erosion of our founding principles has led to the current concept of government being the solution and arbiter of all the problems of society. Government’s answer is more entitlement programs, progressive taxes to pay for them, and of course the outlawing of prayer in the schools and the Ten Commandments, which would point to God as the answer to our problems rather than government.

Politicians now look to man for solutions rather than to our Constitution and God. Rather than servants of the people, they have become masters and have you ever seen a poor politician?

So, what is the answer to these problems? As Jesus said to the Church of Ephesus in His Revelation letter –

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” – Rev. 2:5

Repent and turn back to God. Take God at His word –

“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.” – 2 Chron. 7:14