America 250 – a celebration of US
WE will continue chronologically in PART II, looking back toward the foundational Christian principles of most of America’s founding fathers and events leading up to the American Revolution.
In case you missed it — Part One !
Consider this an Op-Ed piece. – RH
(You’re welcome to pass it along, but I’m not really interested in your comment for Brand X, etc..)
Previously …
Many America 250 celebrants will little note or long remember a lyric embedded in my own title today — God mend thine every flaw. – RH
The Pilgrims of the Colony of Massachusetts were notably English and devoutly Christian.
Roger@TalkofJesus.com
“God mend thine every flaw.”
WE THE PEOPLE can not do it, only God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
‘O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years…
Looking back at Half-Centennial History
1826 – from Colonies to Country
Technically, the US had not been a country for fifty years in 1826. Here’s why. The Articles of Confederation (cooperation) of the 13 colonies defined US in 1781 until the Constitution of the United States superceded it in 1789 and all thirteen States ratified it by 1790.
and now … part 2 … the faith of our (founding) fathers
1776 – New ‘England‘ – the Rebellion of Thirteen English Colonies
Americans must remember that other European countries had colonies in the New World as well.
Nothing more was done to colonize what is now New England until a group of Separatists, who believed that the Bible was the only test of faith and revolted against all other creeds, turned to this area. These Pilgrims placed themselves in partnership with a group of merchants and other businessmen who agreed to finance the venture.
Source: Britannica
Africans imported for labor in colonies of the Crown and other European rulers comprised the second highest population of immigrants in the 1700’s.
Native men of several existing nations of the New World hardly counted to European kings with superior technology and ambitious motives to control vast resources discovered in America.
1726 – a New World evangelized
Prior to the American insurrection against the Crown (George III) a Great Awakening touched Christians not only in New England, but in Great Britain and several European countries as well.
1676 – apostles sent out from Europe
The seeds of freedom in Christ continued to be sown by European pilgrims throughout the New World.
Independence would become a protest or Protestant reformation. It was ignighted in large part by movable type — printing presses.
These new American men published NEWSPAPERS throughout the colonies, but most importantly from Europe, BIBLES! — Holy Bibles soon translated into several different languages.
The King James Version (AD 1611 & 1769) traveled to America on most every ship.
When Luther wrote in both Latin and German, he ensured that his works could circulate among theologians as well as the educated lay population.
His decision to translate the Bible into German proved particularly influential, since it allowed ordinary people to read scripture without clerical mediation.
Between 1518 and 1525, printers had produced more than six million copies of his writings, including pamphlets, sermons, essays, and biblical translations, many of which reached people who had never read religious material before.
An American Apostasy
Apostasy APOS’TASY, noun [Gr. a defection, to depart.]
1. An abandonment of what one has professed; a total desertion, or departure from one’s faith or religion.
2. The desertion from a party to which one has adhered.
Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
You’ve likely heard the expression, “Politics and religion don’t mix.”
Politics and Religion do mix.
In fact, politics and religion have always mixed; because Kings, Princes and Popes must bring God into the arenas of their own authority and with a frequent result of war.
Let’s glance a little further back in European history for an even better understanding of English colonists fleeing to the New World for religious freedom and evolving into American Patriots.
AD 1776 — Europe -[minus] 350
Reminder: 1455 Gutenberg BIBLE printed in German
This partial list of European WARS launched many pilgrims westward to the New World:
Source:
AD 1526 – AD 1776
- War of the League of Cognac
- Fought between: France, Venice, Florence, Milan, Papal States, England against Spanish Empire, Holy Roman Empire
- 1562 to 1598 French Wars of Religion
- between: Protestants, Huguenots and England against Catholics, Catholic League, Spain
- 1568 to 1648 The Dutch Revolt (Eighty Years War)
- Fought between: Dutch Republicans, England, France, Nassau
- against Spanish Empire, Holy Roman Empire
Reminder: 1611 King James Bible published in English
- 1618 to May 1648 Thirty Years War
- Fought between: Protestant Forces (Sweden, France, Dutch, German States)
- against Catholic Forces (Holy Roman Empire, Spanish Empire, Hungary, Croatia)
- Location: Germany and its border countries
FACT: The Mayflower Compact, signed by English Pilgrims in Plymouth bay of the Colony of Massachusetts, established the first governance of colonists on 20 November, A.D. 1620.
- 1642 to 1646 First English Civil War
- Fought between: English Royalists against English Parliamentarians Location: England Parliamentarian victory
- 1648 to 1649 Second English Civil War
- Result: Parliamentarian victory, King Charles I executed
- 1649 to 1651 Third English Civil War
- Fought between: English Royalists against English Parliamentarians
- Location: England and Scotland Result: Parliamentarian victory,
- Charles II escaped, Scotland governed by England
- 1756 to 1763 Seven Years War (Third Silesian War)
- Fought between: Great Britain, Prussia, Hanover Brunswick against France, Austria, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Saxony, Mughal Empire
- Location: Europe, Caribbean, North America, India, Philippines
Patriot or Apostate?
Let's dispense with the 'Loyalist' designation for the moment; for it all comes down to one question:
“To whom are you loyal?”
Who held authority over the Pilgrims of the Mayflower? Over the Governors of the Colonies? Over the slaves in their households?
The Crown? Parliament?
Does a Bishop or King govern by some Divine Right of Almighty God?
Patriot – from (the still controversial Latin) for ‘father.’
Is God your Father?
These founding fathers were all patriots.
Some were simply Deists, who like AD first century gnostics believed God had created all men and then left US to govern ourselves as we please. AND Jesus was just a moral man who was not God.
Most Colonial patriots were Protestants, although a remnant of Jews and Roman Catholics also settled in the New World in order to escape the frequent European wars (mentioned above).
And some founding patriots of the Lord Christ Jesus knew well that WE THE PEOPLE of God are commissioned as Ambassadors in any land, since this land is NOT our home, but the field of our evangelistic fervor in which to sow the seed of the Gospel.
The Great Awakening
At a time when patriots of New England and missionaries sent out from Great Britain sought the guidance of Almighty God, the Spirit moved among multitudes in the crowds of anointed preachers of the Word.
The Colonial Confederacy of AD 1777 until the adoption of the Bill of Rights and Constitution of the United States would undoubted have been influenced by three evangelistic fathers of the faith:
- John Wesley, of Epworth, Lincolnshire, Great Britain – AD 1703-1791
- Jonathan Edwards, of East Windsor, Connecticut – AD 1703-1758
- George Whitefield, of Gloucester, England – AD 1714-1770
I would suggest yet another earlier influencer of English Pilgrims and subsequently US Constitutional Law (including religious freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights;
John Bunyon, of Estow England, whose classic Christian allegory, THE PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, first published in AD 1678, may have sailed into the New World aboard English ships carried by the same faithful hands which turned every page of their King James Bibles.
Not that three or four men should shape all of our theology or be worshiped as stone idols in the agora of diverse faith, but the same apostate America 250 figureheads of faith and political misguidance do remind US of a fallen Empire which gave way to ‘the land of the free and home of the brave.’
But American or English apostasy aside, let’s close with a quick look at these three influencers of American theology that God used to pen a Constitution by the PEOPLE and for the PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
John Wesley
I grew up Methodist in 20th century Ohio, of the old Connecticut Western Reserve of Colonial days. I know the horseback evangelist stories and about his brother and hymn-writer, Charles. We heard Scripture preached every Sunday and fellowship and Bible study were methodically taught to all the youth who would become members.
But you're not interested in me, but need to know about John Wesley.
For fifty-three years—from 1738 to 1791—he held on his course, always busy, and always busy about one thing—attacking sin and ignorance everywhere, preaching repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ everywhere—awakening open sinners, leading on inquirers, building up saints—never wearied, never swerving from the path he had marked out, and never doubting of success.
John Wesley left behind 750 preachers in England, 350 in America; 76, 968 Methodists in England and 57,621 in America. What a ministry!
Revival Library .org
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards entered the Collegiate School of New Haven in the Colony of Connecticut (later renamed, Yale) at age 13. He read extensively and later wrote and preached with great impact.
Edwards was later invited as the third President of the College of New Jersey (later renamed, Princeton) founded by Jonathan Dickinson, another theologian, preacher and scholar supportive of the Great Awakening. Edwards succeeded Aaron Burr, Sr., a Presbyterian pastor and father of Jefferson’s future Vice President.
One of Edwards successors as President was John Witherspoon, who was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, was politically active in the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence.
IF you have not previously read Edward’s best-known sermon,
SINNERS In the Hands of an Angry GOD,
I urge you to take it in [on the link above] and consider its application in a rebellious 21st c. C.E. society offended by most Scriptural preaching.
Here's a brief excerpt:
Their foot shall slide in due time (Deut. xxxii. 35).
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God’s visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God’s wonderful works towards them, remained (as ver. 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit…
George Whitefield
Although many other preachers from England and New England could be included in the Great Awakening of Bible-in-hand 18th century public audiences, George Whitefield (pronounced: Whit-field) is one everyone wanted to hear preach.
George Whitefield was indisputably the most popular preacher of the Evangelical Revival in Great Britain and the Great Awakening in America. His unrivaled preaching ability, evangelistic fervor, and irregular methods paved the way for the Protestant multidenominational system that developed in America as well as the American Revolution itself. In addition to his fame earned from the pulpit, Whitefield was dedicated to the the importance and witness of genuine Christian charity.
George Whitefield, an itinerate missionary along with John and Charles Wesley and other Atlantic-crossing evangelists, ministered to congregations in Savannah Georgia (the southern-most British colony), Philadelphia, and Newburyport Massachusetts.
He raised money in England which he brought to Savannah for building a home for orphaned children (though he and his wife remained childless).
Because of his irregular preaching methods, he found many churches closed to him, so he turned to open-air preaching.
ibid.
Fireworks? or Tongues of Fire Preaching?
What did you do on the FOURTH of JULY of AMERICA 250?
Certainly WE do not buy that WE are a “christian Nation.”
Every political leader invested in AMERICA 250 ‘Red, White and Blue-washes’ the artifical persona of Democracy stained in every SIN in a Republic robbed of moral representation by political action pocketed in the name of loyalty.
Who dares charge a godless opulent leadership in a trilateral imbalance of inaccountability causing AMERICA 250 to fail in the footsteps into the ruble of history?
Will WE once more fall into the hands of an angry GOD — as did Israel again and again… as did worshippers of many gods on Mars Hill.. as did Rome served by so many slaves.. as did Brittania that ruled the waves..?
Will WE THE Apostate PEOPLE of AMERICA who spit in the face of a crucified CHRIST fall into the hands of an angry GOD.
Jesus: to the multitudes and leaders
“.. do not do according to their works;
Gospel of Matthew 23:3b,27 New King James Version
for they say, and do not do…
“Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.
Could the Lord say, ‘Woe to you Senators and President” (of AMERICA 250)?
Could Christ say, “Woe to you Representatives and Judges” (of AMERICA 250)?
Could Jesus say, “Woe to you who call me King, yet will not do what I say?”
Forgive US, Lord! For WE have been an APOSTATE AMERICA 250 of one Nation that claims obedience ‘under God.
Forgive US, Lord! For WE have claimed ‘You’ as King, without evangelizing Christ crucified and risen as Judge of the world and the one Redeemer of sin.
And returning to Edwards' pointed glance back to Moses:
Fireworks Before our Forefathers !
Deuteronomy 32
For a fire has been kindled by My anger,
and it burns to the depths of Sheol;
it consumes the earth and its produce,
and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
I will heap disasters upon them;
I will spend My arrows against them...
Israel is a nation devoid of counsel,
with no understanding among them.
If only they were wise, they would understand it;
they would comprehend their fate...
But their vine is from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah...
“Have I not stored up these things,
sealed up within My vaults?
Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.i
In due time their foot will slip;
for their day of disaster is near,
and their doom is coming quickly.”
Good Reason for Repentance before an Angry GOD !
Continuing in the Gospel of Matthew:
“Woe to you, …
(who) say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’
“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
Christ Jesus Preaching to the Crowds
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven,,,
Will you?
Jesus then continues with who will qualify for eternal life.
but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
You have claimed many things for your King, right?
“Many will say to Me in that day,
‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
“And then I will declare to them,
‘I never knew you;
depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Gospel of Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV
What must WE THE PEOPLE of AMERICA 250 do?
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