Wednesday, August 4, 2010

GOD AND COUNTRY - or is it gods and country

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Is America’s national religion becoming polytheistic,( the worship of or belief in more than one deity, especially several deities) Can you go back, as I can, to a place in time where political speeches, public schools, ball games and civic organizations openly included scriptural passages and prayer into their public and private functions. In some places at certain times this is still true, but for the most part, “Today, Christianity is not only being eliminated and done away with from the public square, but there looks like a new social religion seems to be emerging to take its place. People with spiritual eyes can truly see this. How did this come to be? How can it be? The main reason is the hatred of the deliberately unrepentant and unashamed people to the gospel, they have no remorse. They just do not want to hear anything about Christ. They are in complete darkness.
Our civil institutions and our society, our culture grew out of Biblical views that came straight from God’s Word. Our nation was founded on Christianity and now we are being told that we are no longer a Christian nation, but a nation of many religions. We do have many religions in this country but our laws, and our way of life are based on Christianity. We were a people that was saved by faith then and we still are today. I’m not only talking about eternal life which is the goal of every Christian but also the temporal things such as God’s blessings on us and our nation. I’m talking about the faith that the pilgrims had in our savior as they landed at Plymouth Rock. Faith for a better life. I’m talking the about the faith of our fore fathers as they framed the constitution and sought the Lords guidance as they did it. These founding fathers looked to Jesus Christ for guidance in everything that they did. What happen between then and now?
Anthropologists ( that deal with parts of Christian doctrine that are concerned with the nature, origin, and destiny of humankind) say that society tends to create a cultural religion, that is enlightening, artistic, educational and social in order to give its institutions a sacred authority.”; legitimizing that society’s demand for obedience. Yet Christianity does not do this – our religious heritage is important to our perception of who we are and how we behave but never demanding we agree with all the policies and programs of a government or that we give complete allegiance to any particular political entity. Christianity does teach that God works through civic institutions, calling on believers to be good citizens. (Romans 13) Most other world religions being distinctly related to a specific culture, at times imposing their will by force, (we see that now in most Muslim countries) whereas Christianity works to change cultures from within by the gospel and love. As such, “Christians can accordingly be both patriotic and spiritual, as long as they do not confuse the two domains, and keep their commitments straight.”
It has become very alarming to me and for most christians, now, that clearly and plainly we see Christian elements that have made their way into America’s civil religion… are being eliminated and removed. The reasons given for this are not so much secularism or the belief that religion and religious bodies should have no part in political or civic affairs or in running public institutions, that religion has no place in the public square, but of a religious mixture.” We are told that It’s not fair to show a preference or partiality to a particular religion, all are worthy of respect and should be equally embraced; so they say. (Or equally ignored as superstition) The question Is that really true or wise?
“As government officials and, certain elements of, the public insist on recognizing the authority and equal representation of all religions,” (explained by the government as diversity) “what this may amount to is a new civil religion. This one will result, in a polytheistic religion, that will recognize and paying homage to many gods.” For instance, to commemorate the terrorist attacks of 9/11, an issue was made for interfaith involvement; Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Catholics and Protestants all having a place at the podium. Most legislatures still open with prayer; now often led by a Muslim Imam or Buddhist monk. Prison chaplains are represented by a number of faiths and cults (including Wicca), while schools attempt to, “celebrate all religions while restricting Christian faith principles and use of their facilities by believers.” What is wrong with this picture? If you are a avid Bible reader like I am you will read over and over again where God wanted all the people of the conquered lands to be destroyed because if they were not they and their religion would be a thorn in the side of His people. Saul lost his kingship because he disobeyed God about this very thing. I’m not advocating the destruction of anybody but I wanted you to see just how serious god thought this problem was.
At first glance, when we look at this, the switching of our memorial, dedicatory and commemorative services from inter-denominational to interfaith participation may seem appropriate and an advance of civilized behavior. But that is not so! In reality it is nothing more than a return to being culturally and social conquered” to the Pagan ways of long ago. Rome was religiously wide-ranging, working all the cultural religions into a single civil religion, and it was famously tolerant of all religions. It’s tolerance ended, though, when it came to Christianity, which condemned the other gods as idols and insisted that Christ was the only way to salvation.” As a result, many Christians paid for their supposed intolerance with their livelihoods and their lives. I believe that this will happen again if we are not on our guard. We do not need another altar to an unknown God, for we know our God!
We must stand firm and hold fast to our faith in Christ and the legacy of our founding fathers. Pray like we never have before, seek Christ always and remember it is faith that moves mountains!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a great article. It is right on target!!

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