Posted on 10/22/2001 8:58:52 PM PDT by Mercuria
In 1830 Alexis de Tocqueville toured the United States, and stated that he had found the secret of American greatness and strength. It was not in the textile mills, the shipyards, anything we had built, in fact, he didn't even mention our precious founding documents, although those documents permitted the activity that de Tocqueville discovered.
He found that America's greatness lay in the fiery preaching of the Gospel in America's churches. Simplicity of life, humbleness of mind, and a pervading sense of the presence of Almighty God and the accountability of His creation, mankind, to obedience to the faith, gave America her character and her strength.
Once the land was noted for her many churches, preaching the Bible as truth. We still have churches, but what are they preaching? Tolerance? Diversity? Something bland and inoffensive? The Gospel is offensive to sinners. All men are born sinners until they are reborn, so says our Gospel. Forgiveness of sins, absolution from guilt, accountability to the Creator of the Universe, keeps man from becoming proud, self-sufficient, rebellious toward God to the point of denying Him and desecrating His standards by flaunting man's achievements and sinfulness.
Before we try to rebuild America, or the Twin Towers site, perhaps we should first rethink America.
Isn't it time to reject the theories of the evolutionist, the babble of the secular humanists who offer no hope, and the globalists with their planetary village?
Americans aren't educated in spite of billions of taxpayer dollars spent on education by the federal government. Government itself dictates education, and the people have become stupid. That may be the point of government education, but it is not the goal of education itself. It should not be the goal of parents to bring up blathering nitwit children.
Americans are a particularly proud people, but God says that pride goes before destruction. Have we seen the beginning of the humiliation of America because of pride? Let the evidence speak for itself.
A once-honest people who could name its criminals ... Capone, Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde ... now have overcrowded prisons and folks who could care less about human life, whether they abort it before birth or shoot a teen/adult in a driveby. We've become a people with "relative" morality, which is no morality at all. And we're told these miscreants had a bad childhood. If they weren't told about God and His standards, imbued with a sense of personal responsibility and the relationship of cause and effect, they had a bad childhood. That applies whether they grew up in the ghetto or in an upper middle class home without values.
We were able to put fifty thousand workers in twin towers but we cannot fill a church on Sunday morning. We could draw fifty or sixty thousand to a ballgame, but couldn't get the family together around the dinner table.
It's time to rethink America.
We were founded on Christian principles, we were settled by Bible-believing Puritans and Pilgrims, we were established as a nation by God-fearing men who believed in the liberty that is proclaimed by our religion: ours was the liberty to be what God wants, not license to do as everyone pleases. We've forgotten what was once our original understanding of liberty.
We can't haul people to church at sword's point or baptize them at the point of a gun. That doesn't make character, it makes intimidated subjects. Christianity is a religion of freedom, of liberty, but within the boundaries of the "thou shalt nots" set down by the Almighty for our good.
It's time to rethink America.
American greatness was built on solid character, universities established for the education of students of theology (Harvard, Yale and Princeton weren't always wildly liberal, they were chiefly seminaries), and a belief in our founding documents. We were to permit others to worship as they pleased without harassment, but we were also to proclaim the Gospel at every opportunity in the faith that many would hear and understand.
Now we build monuments to man's achievements. We build towers, automobiles, resorts, great theaters, mansions, amusement parks and stadiums. We build, but to the glory of man and not to the glory of God, whose Name we desecrate.
To be sure, Christianity has suffered dark moments at the hands of politically-minded men who hid behind religious fervor. There were the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition, and the Salem Witch Trials on our own soil. But our faith also produced St. Augustine, John Newton, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, David Livingstone and D. L. Moody. One Supreme Court, in the 19th century, proclaimed that the United States is a Christian nation.
At present, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Supreme Court, we're trying to prove it is not Christian. The trash on media, the burgeoning of topheavy, oppressive government and the moral decline (particularly in women's liberties to do as they please from sexual freedom to active combat roles in war) all testify to the fact that if we were once a Christian nation, we no longer can claim to be such.
It is time to rethink America.
Why would what once made us a great nation ... belief in the Bible and our accountability to God ... not make us great once again? It depends on whether one believes that man is accountable only to himself (humanism) that produces a vacuous sense of morality and endless tributes to self, or whether one believes man is created in God's image.
The churches are always full after a great disaster. Man's need for God was put there by God so that we would always have a great void until we came to rest in Him. But after we resign ourselves to the fact of tragedy, the churches are seldom full. That isn't Christianity ... it is bombshelter religion.
The Bible as God's written word was what was once preached from America's pulpits. Now we hear trivia. It is time to speak of sin and judgment lest they come upon us unawares, as did the events of September 11, 2001. It is time to speak of redemption and why we need it, every one, lest we step off into eternity suddenly and without remission of sins.
We must rethink America. While it is still here.
Dorothy Anne Seese was born in Southern California where she obtained her degree in political science. For the past forty years, she has made her home in Arizona where her primary career was a business systems analyst. Dottie is now retired and makes her home in an Arizona retirement city. She is the editor of The Flagship Log. Her e-mail address is dottie@politicalusa.com.
That's because you approach the evidence of the fossil record the same way the Taliban approaches the evidence of bin Laden's guilt.
Good kill!
That is not the conclusion I come to with an ongoing study of these documents and in light of what they hold forth, that is a very bold statement. Or do you mean that the fulfillment of all it's prophesies are near?
"We were founded on Christian principles, we were settled by Bible-believing Puritans and Pilgrims, we were established as a nation by God-fearing men who believed in the liberty that is proclaimed by our religion: ours was the liberty to be what God wants, not license to do as everyone pleases. We've forgotten what was once our original understanding of liberty.
We can't haul people to church at sword's point or baptize them at the point of a gun. That doesn't make character, it makes intimidated subjects. (Think Sudan,Indonesia...) Christianity is a religion of freedom, of liberty, but within the boundaries of the "thou shalt nots" set down by the Almighty for our good."
Thanks Mercuria
While I find myself in agreement with much of what this gal points out?
I also see much of this *relativism* [being] preached from the pulpits of Catholic (Jesuits), Episcopalean, & Methodist churches; to name only three denominations.
We're a nation founded on the Word of God; without the requirement of God. This is a classic paradox, I have to believe.
To force Christianity upon the peoples of our Republic would among others things, eventually require we coin a new, Christian equivalent of the word, Mullah. For we will have a definite need for one given just a few of those I've met here on this forum professing their great, undivided devotion while displaying behaviors that're laughable if not altogether pathetic.
I for one am not comfortable with such a scenario as our having Christian Mullahs; regardless of what we'd call 'em, in any event.
To solve the issue for myself?
I admit to myself my faith & belief in God, Heaven & Hell. ~No doubt; I'm a believer.
As such, I almost always try living the spirit of His Word & while not always succeeding; I do try nonetheless.
Lastly, I have made it a point to not be concerned with my neighbors; where they do not ask for said concern.
My, "religious freedom" stops where their's starts; at our lot line.
America; ain't it great.
That sentence jumped out at me, too.
This underlies the moral relativism of the liberal left. If there is no right or wrong, they are not sinners, they are just "tolerant" and "non-judgmental."
Thanks for posting Miss Seese. Excellent, thought provoking article.
Oh please! First of all, I wouldn't contact that bunch of left-left-wing, anti-Constitutional, smug, self-rightous, and overbearing twerps if my life depended on it! Second, while Christians can go into a bathroom stall and pray silently, if we were to make a habit of meeting in a public area and praying out loud, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone would scream about it, and loudly.
My father teaches high school French during the regular school year at my old alma mater, and is on the education assocation (but he's a Republican, thank God!), and he had to help a group of Christian students who met at the flag pole before school even began in the mornings try to get the right to pray aloud restored after a couple of students' parents whined to the principal and on up the chain! It was plastered all over the news! They had to make a compromise, eventually, but they certainly did not "win." The ACLU never returned any phone calls made to them. They sent my father a fax, though, and said that the non-Christians who took offense had rights too, and they could not participate with infringing on those "rights."
I used to work for the state here, and my office building was above the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and State Museum. We shared a lobby, and all kinds of Christian "trappings" were banned from being placed on the bulletin boards, hung on the inside of the elevators, or displayed anywhere at all in public view. At Christmas time, when Christmas trees were allowed, but nativity displays were banned, the ACLU was contacted by the security guard in the lobby (she is a Christian and a friend of mine), but they were "not interested." They claimed they did not want to offend non-Christians who may work there, or who may visit from "all around the world." It could "give them the wrong impression of Tennessee and America."
So kindly do not tell me what you know better than I do; as you were not present during either of these ridiculous events, and you have no idea what took place, and how intolerant our communities here have become. Thanks to the stupid ACLU!
Since you have no clue as to what I know and make of the incomplete chain of your fossil record, I would suggest that you refrain speaking on how I "approach" it, or anything else for that matter. I have never spoken to you, nor have I even seen your handle before, and you do not know me at all, much less how I "approach" anything -- including a ham and cheese sandwich!
Rhetoric nonsense! And not even humorous, either.
The 'Book' was not available during the Dark Ages. The clerics spoke from the 'ancient writings' to the illiterate masses.
The great majority, including myself, have not yet read nor come to an understanding of the entire Book(66 books--or 71 for Catholics, I believe); but, there are thousands, if not millions, ready to 'trash' it, based on the 'opinions' of others.
At some point, one accepts or rejects something for themselves; that they would not allow other adults the same 'pursuit of happiness' and freedom to choose shows immaturity and a lack of confidence in their own decision, for they could be shown to be wrong. The 'decision for Christ'(or against him) is personal, not corporate. As for me, I believe by my faith.
Thanks for the Ping"
DITTO!!! and Good Morning, Fiddlstix. How do you do that 'smiley' face thing?
Since I'm here, hope you don't mind if I field that? *G* Likely, by the use of the wingdings font! ;-}
Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe.
"That God would choose to play dice with the world is something that I cannot believe for a single moment."
"Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God."
Famous scientists speak about evolution, creation...
In the conclusion of his treatise, Harmony of Worlds, Johannes Kepler wrote:
I thank Thee, my Creator and Lord, that Thou hast given me this joy in Thy creation, this delight in the works of Thy hands; I have shown the excellency of Thy works unto man, so far as my finite mind was able to comprehend Thine infinity; if I have said aught of Thy glory, graciously forgive it.
(see link for more from Faraday, Newton, Kepler, Maxwell)
...and-Galileo Galilei:
I am inclined to think that the authority of Holy Scripture is intended to convince men of those truths which are necessary for their salvation, which, being far above man's understanding, can not be made credible by any learning, or any other means than revelation by the Holy Spirit.
I used the term theories in more of a technical way. I agree that many many things in science are facts. The above is very much the way I see science too.
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