There has been a systematic attack on the Holy Bible that has been growing exponentially, without hindrance and with greater destructiveness upon this nation than ever before.
Not only has the Bible been rooted out of our public schools and squares, but it has been repeatedly discredited as a viable source of truth – even by our president. Yet, this nation was founded by the Scriptures and this little message is going to cite the various scriptural references we used to build this nation, America – the greatest nation the world has ever known.
Israel gave birth to the Bible, but the Bible gave birth to America.
EYE FOR AN EYE
But before we go there, I’d like to address an example where Christians themselves don’t know enough of the scriptures in order to properly defend them. We’re all heard the moral equivalency argument between Islam and Christianity, in particular when it comes to the eye for an eye principle. It is an attempt to apparently show how barbaric the Bible is. How many of us believe that the Holy Scriptures say that if someone cuts off one’s arm, the assailant’s arm has to be cut off too?
Many people believe that’s what the Bible says, but does it?
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe (Exodus 21:24-25 KJV).
Just looking at that scripture alone, you might think that’s exactly what it says. But it doesn’t. Context is everything. And in the context it explains that the eye for an eye principle is simply promoting a just weight and balance standard for any crime committed, ie, what is the financial recompense to the crime?
Deuteronomy 25:15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.
Proverbs 16:11 A just weight and balance are the LORD’S: all the weights of the bag are his work.
For instance, a few verses above it says,
If men fight, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist and he does not die, but must remain in bed, and then if he gets up and walks about outside on his staff, then the one who struck him is innocent, except he must pay for the injured person’s loss of time and see to it that he is fully healed. (Exodus 21:18-19 NET)
So, you see, it’s all a matter of recompense that eye for an eye signifies, and not of reciprocal punishment, as opponents of the Scriptures contend.
Another example will be sufficient: If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth (Exodus 21:26-27 NET).
There is nothing more integral to the defense of the Scriptures than to have a knowledge of the Scriptures.
A CITY ON A HILL
The Pilgrims saw America, from the beginning, as a type of New Israel and Promised Land – a refuge from Europe’s religious persecution. Pilgrim John Winthrop, who would later become Massachusetts’s first governor, admonished his compatriots, while still aboard the ship Arbella, that the land they were arriving at would be as a city upon a hill and that all eyes would be upon her, a reference to Jesus’ sermon on the mount.
FOUNDING SCRIPTURES
There was a time in America where Christian ministers influenced the thinking of the forming nation. It can be said that the origin of the famous phrase in the Declaration of Independence
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.
can be attributed to the writings of Philosopher/Theologian John Locke, who wrote the famous Two Treatises of Government.
The impact of John Locke’s writings cannot be overestimated in its influence on American thinking and behavior in both the religious and the civil realms.
Richard Henry Lee, one of the signers of the Declaration, affirmed that the Declaration was “copied from Locke’s Treatise on Government” – volumes which referenced scripture about 1,500 times!
Our Founding Fathers knew the validity of the Scriptures and they knew the laws in the Old Testament were valuable as a guideline for a nation’s laws and bylaws.
Other biblical principles contained in the Declaration are 1) Creator; 2) moral code; 3) absolute truth; 4) sanctity of life.
LIBERTY
… where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Corinthians 3:17 KJV)
One of the most important aspects of America – even to this day – is the quest for liberty. Liberty and freedom are hallmarks of the United States. Once the fight for independence from Great Britain was affirmed and the reading of the Declaration given, the Liberty Bell rang its announcement throughout the land in 1776.
And upon that bell is inscribed the words from Leviticus 25:10: Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
THREE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT
In forming the new government, the founding fathers knew that the human heart was prone to evil (The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9 KJV). Therefore every precaution was made to prevent a man from becoming president and then turning into a tyrant/dictator.
Devising three branches of government – Executive, Legislative, Judicial – created a means of “checks and balances” that prevented a dictator from lording it over the masses.
Executive is the Presidential powers; legislative is the Congressional powers of the Senate and House of Representative; and Judicial is the Supreme Court.
These three branches come from the scriptures:
“For the Lord is our JUDGE; the Lord is our LAWGIVER; the Lord is our KING; He will save us” (Isaiah 33:22).
Only the Lord could be fair and just comprising all three branches of government within Himself; all others though, please keep them separate as checks and balances for the benefit of the nation.
A REPUBLIC, NOT A DEMOCRACY
America is quite often referred to as a democracy — we are not; or rather, we weren’t from the beginning of the nation.
If you recall your history, Benjamin Franklin was asked, after the Constitutional Convention, “Well, Doctor, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A Republic – if you can keep it.”
And just as Franklin predicted, America seems to be moving away from a republic — most don’t even know what the difference between them is!
A Republic is representative government ruled by law (the Constitution). A democracy is direct government ruled by the majority (mob rule). A Republic recognizes the inalienable rights of individuals while democracies are only concerned with group wants or needs (the public good). Source.
This is an important distinction, one which modern Americans have failed to understand. While the nation began as a republic, there are glaring signs that the nation is veering away from its republic roots, favoring majority rule and the rejection of the Constitution on issues from granting amnesty to illegal aliens to imposing unconstitutional dictates to churches.
Ancient Israel more closely followed a Republic model, where the law was paramount and officials across the land followed the scriptures when representing the people.
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens (Exo 18:21 KJV)
EDUCATION
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6 KJV).
From America’s earliest days, the Pilgrims understood that in order to follow the scriptures and to preach the gospel to obtain converts, you needed to have an educated population. Thus our very first public schools were Christian. Our earliest readers were all based on Christian teachings. Our very first colleges: Harvard, Yale, Princeton – all began as Christian universities.
Let’s pause for a moment to reflect on just how much ground Christianity in America has lost out to encroaching secularism, revisionist history and antichrist dogma.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7 KJV).
FREEDOM OF SPEECH & RELIGION
The Church’s freedom to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ was enshrined within the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution with the words: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Our forefathers, reflecting on the religious bigotry and intolerance in Europe, did not want to replicate that environment here. Therefore every other religion can benefit from America’s Christian foundation, granting the right to free speech to all and the freedom of religion.
This amendment, in essence, says that the Church is exempt from state control (including taxation!, ie Ezra 7:24). But the amendment implies that the church can speak out against the state!
BASIC LAWS CAME FROM THE SCRIPTURES
Private property rights
Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s (Exodus 20:15, 17 KJV).
Perjury
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (Exodus 20:16 KJV).
Traditional Family (against sodomy, divorce)
And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it (Matthew 19:1-12 KJV).
Blue Laws
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it (Exodus 20:8-11 KJV).
Fair Trial
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established (Deuteronomy 19:15 KJV).
Be not a witness against thy neighbor without cause; and deceive not with thy lips (Proverbs 24:28 KJV).
There are more, but I just wanted to give a smattering.
THE HEIGHTS WE’VE FALLEN
Having seen American history from a vantage point that extolled Godly principles, formulated laws based on those principles, and established governance based on those principles, can you see from what heights the United States has fallen?
Can you see the hour the land is in?
I believe that America is at the tipping point, from whence it may not recover without divine intervention. We need a return to God like never before, lest the marvelous blessings He has bestowed upon us are removed and judgment comes upon us – which the nation so rightly deserves.
We need to reestablish once more in the town squares the principles of sin and consequences; with the message of the cross of Jesus, which grants grace and mercy.
Concluding Scriptures about a nation:
A nation without God’s guidance is a nation without order. Happy are those who keep God’s law! (Proverbs 29:18, Today’s English Version).
When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily; but with honest, sensible leaders there is stability (Proverbs 28:2 The Living Bible).
Without wise leadership, a nation falls; with many counselors, there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14 New Living Translation).
Good leaders abhor wrongdoing of all kinds; sound leadership has a moral foundation (Proverbs 16:12 The Message Translation).
When good people run things, everyone is glad (Proverbs 29:2 The Message Translation).
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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles. 7:14 New International Version).
