Posted on 07/07/2002 12:46:00 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
During this week when America observed her 226th birthday, our nation is at a crucial crossroads. We are at war with bloodthirsty terrorists. We are hearing the voices of ungodly jurists who tell us that the term "under God" is no longer appropriate for this nation that was founded in reverence for and adoration of Almighty God. Abortion is the law of the land. Pornography fills the airwaves. God, for many, is an afterthought, if thought of at all. And few of our leaders seem willing to engage the culture from a Judeo-Christian platform
Yes, we are a nation at a crossroads.
That is why I am praying that a man – or men – like Patrick Henry will arrive on the scene to intrepidly call America back to God and to the patriotic spirit of our Forefathers.
Patrick Henry (1736-99) was my beloved Virginia's first governor after the commonwealth declared independence from Great Britain. He was, in fact, "the Voice of the Revolution." He was a man of unquestioned character and leadership, and a man who could mesmerize audiences with his oration.
Thomas Jefferson said of him: "He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote."
Following the passage of the unjust Stamp Act in 1765, Patrick Henry – only nine days into his service in the Virginia House of Burgesses – boldly pressed a succession of resolutions defining the rights of the colony and pronouncing the Stamp Act subversive of liberty. To that point, no man had had the audacity to lead such an insurrection against powerful Britain. However, four of Henry's resolutions passed, while all seven were widely discussed throughout the colonies.
At the Second Virginia Convention (1775), Henry lead the effort for Virginia to form a standing army, concluding the call to arms with his moving words: "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
In that glorious speech, he noted "the holy cause of liberty."
That cause remains holy today!
Patrick Henry was God's prophet. Whenever God has a great task to be performed, He raises up a man of equal greatness for that task. When this nation was being founded, there were strong voices calling for America to remain as colonies joined to Great Britain. But there were voices on the other side calling for independence. These voices called for revolution, and the leading voice was that of Patrick Henry.
Ezekiel 22:30 tells us: "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."
Henry was God's man to stand in the gap, rallying this nation to become a separate republic. He understood the need for God to remain the focal point. The modern concept that "religion and politics don't mix" was completely foreign to Patrick Henry and our Founders.
Henry said, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faith have been afforded asylum, prosperity and freedom of worship here."
In his speeches against tyranny, Henry said he believed God governed the affairs of men and would intervene on behalf of the colonies. He advocated a federal government with internal checks and balances with a written Bill of Rights that would protect the freedom of each man before God.
Henry believed in absolute morality. He taught "the eternal difference between right and wrong does not fluctuate." (Needless to say, Bill Clinton is the antithesis of Patrick Henry.)
Patrick Henry believed in the authority of the Bible. He held that "eternal law was reflected in nature and written in the Bible" as the surest foundation of social and political life. He also believed, as does President Bush, that authority comes from God.
We do not have Patrick Henrys leading us today because Christians have been careless. Even though we say "God Bless America" with our lips, we often reject God by our actions. We have elected men and women who have ousted prayer from our schools. We have elected men and women who adhere to the "right" to abort unborn babies. We have elected men and women who uphold homosexual lifestyles that God calls abomination.
We must become prudent with our votes, supporting only candidates who – like Patrick Henry – adhere to biblical values. It's time to get serious. We must pray that God will again send us leaders like Patrick Henry who will fearlessly hold God's hand while leading this nation. And we must be willing to wholeheartedly support them.
God Bless America!
The LEAD shield/protection between state and religion(evolution/atheism) is gone---this is chernobyl---radiation poisoning---NUCLEAR SOCIAL ANTARTICA/AMERICA!!
Presto...the liberal-evo-ATHEIST-taliban---poisoning of America!
Have paid Falwell very little attention since.
Falwell should have answered: God made several covenants with Israel, some of them required a human response (e.g., the Palestinian Covenant enunciated under Moses), and which the Israelites failed to keep.
Other covenants, however, e.g., the Abrahamic Covenant (first enunciated in Genesis 12:1-3, but later reaffirmed and enlarged upon in later passages in Genesis), as well as the New Covenant, first prophetically foretold in Jeremiah 31, were Divinely unilateral covenants that did not depend in any way on man's (i.e., Israel's) response. Those unilateral Covenants will not and cannot be broken.
The New Covenant is first (prophetically) enunciated in the Old Testament, when Jeremiah writes,
"31Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD."
Your weak attempt at humor falls flat here.
Your statement imputes a point of view to Falwell that is absurd. Falwell knows that many Christians even today drink beer and wine. Even though he disapproves of that practice, he nowhere calls for anyone's hanging.
Perhaps you resent Falwell's exercising his Constitutionally recognized freedom to preach his conscience on the use of alcohol.
Can you not separate this particular doctrine (with which you may disagree) from the other things that Falwell says and stands for?
Or, are you to smallhearted to see that the man truly loves God and his country.
The idea that somehow we, not the terrorists, not OBL, not the other bad guys, but we are responsible for the horror of 9/11 is just plain obscene.
Sure, I have no problem with him teaching that one ought to not use alcohol, even if do not agree.
I have a very large problem with his sanctimonious stupidity that blames us for 9/11.
ditto that.
Of course I can. But based on his smug moralistic statements, I doubt Falwell would be happy with a constitutionally-limited government which is precluded from sending tax dollars to Israel or decreeing what people can and cannot do with their own bodies. He is an authoritarian, not a lover of liberty.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.