America's Answer Series

[The Agenda – Grinding America Down – Video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xQf_QfitmKE

Do you think America is in trouble?

There is a war going on within our country right now that has nothing to do with the terrorist threat or foreign invasion. It is a war between right and wrong/truth and lies/godliness and ungodliness

We have gone from:

• Kids having fistfights at the bike rack to drive by shootings in the neighborhood

• School searches for chewing gum to searches for weapons

• Mayberry to Brokeback Mountain

• John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Sweden (2005)

A Swedish appeals court has overturned the “hate crimes” conviction of a Pentecostal pastor who preached a sermon on homosexuality.

“It’s one thing to arrest someone; it’s quite another to arrest someone’s conscience,” said ADF Senior Counsel Glen Lavy. “This pastor had no desire whatsoever to incite hatred against those who participate in homosexual behavior. He was merely stating his views on the morality of such behavior. That should not be a crime.”

The pastor, Ake Green, received a one-month jail sentence last year under a Swedish “hate crimes” law that forbids criticism of those who participate in homosexual behavior. But Friday the Goeta Appeals Court found no fault with Green.

“Nothing indicates the pastor used his position as a preacher as a cover for attacking homosexuals,” the court said in its opinion, concluding that Ake’s speech resulted from “the Bible’s categorical condemnation of homosexual relations as a sin.”

That kind of thing could never happen in America! Or can it?

Wichita, KS (2009)

City of Wichita officials have agreed to a consent order from a federal court that concludes that police violated the constitutional rights of a pastor when they arrested him as he prepared to peacefully express his Christian beliefs on a public sidewalk. Pastor Mark Holick is represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund.

“Christians shouldn’t be penalized for expressing their beliefs,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Joel Oster. “We are pleased city of Wichita officials will now ensure that Pastor Holick is free to exercise his First Amendment rights in public without fear of arrest.”

Holick was arrested June 24, 2007, while attempting to peacefully express his faith on a public sidewalk with other members of his church outside of an event celebrating homosexual behavior. Holick, who notified police of the group’s plans a week before the event, was confronted by eight to 10 officers, who informed him that he would be arrested if he did not leave the public sidewalk. They charged him with trespassing and arrested him after he refused to move to a private parking lot across the street. The charges were later dismissed.

“The actions of the police were based solely on the perceived content of our Christian speech and beliefs,” said Holick. “They arrested me before I even had a chance to speak.”

San Juan Capistrano, CA – 2011

Chuck and Stephanie Fromm were fined $300 and ordered to stop holding a regular Bible study at their home. The meeting violates a city ordinance as a “church” and not as a private gathering, they were told. They also face additional charges of $500 per meeting for any further “religious gatherings” in their home, according to the Pacific Justice Institute, which is representing the couple in a legal fight to get the city’s decision overturned.

San Diego, CA 2009

In San Diego, county officials have reneged on their demand that a preacher and his wife discontinue weekly Bible studies in their home until they obtain a Major Use Permit, a process that costs tens of thousands of dollars.

According to news reports out of San Diego, Pastor David Jones and his wife Mary were interrogated by a county official and then threatened with increasing fines if they continued holding their Tuesday night Bible studies. The studies regularly drew about 15 people.

What will we do about it?

I. It has ALWAYS been the Job of God’s People to Contend with Ungodly Culture

Examples:

• Noah

• Moses with Pharaoh

• Jonah and Nineveh

• Elijah and Ahab

• Nathan and David

• Isaiah – Counselor to 4 Kings

• Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar

• John the Immerser and Herod

• Yeshua

A Charge – Ezekiel 33.2-9

America‘s Foundation

John Adams Letter to Hezekiah Niles, 1818

But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American War? The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people, a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations.

While the king, and all in authority under him, were believed to govern in justice and mercy according to the laws and constitution derived to them from the God of nature, and transmitted to them by their ancestors, they thought themselves bound to pray for the king and queen and all the royal family, and all in authority under them, as ministers ordained of God for their good. But when they saw those powers renouncing all the principles of authority, and bent upon the destruction of all the securities of their lives, liberties, and properties, they thought it their duty to pray for the Continental Congress and all the thirteen state congresses, etc.