Sermon Central
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Getting America Back To God
Contributed by R. David Reynolds on Jul 3, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon was preached on Independence Day, Sunday, July 4, 2004, as a patriotic message for our day and age.
GETTING AMERICA BACK TO GOD, AN INDEPENDENCE DAY MESSAGE
Israel is a Jewish nation; Saudi Arabia is a Muslim one; India is a Hindu country; but what kind of Country is America? It may not be the politically correct position to take; but, nevertheless, it is true: “America is a Christian nation,” and it’s time for us to “Get America Back to God.” It may appear as if these statements contradict each other. Maybe I should rephrase just a bit. We are a nation with a Christian foundation, but our country has backslidden in our relationship with the God of our Fathers. The Holy Spirit is calling us to “Get America Back to God.”
“In a mid-Atlantic summit with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the darkest hours of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt—who had described the United States as ‘the lasting concord between men and nations, founded on the principles of Christianity’—asked the crew of an American warship to join him in a rousing chorus of the hymn, ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’” [--Gary DeMar, America’s Christian Heritage, (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2003)]. Today
We have drifted far astray in 58 years. Remember what happened on November 13, 2003, to Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court! He was removed from office by the State’s “nine member Court of the Judiciary for defiance of a federal judge’s order to move his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state courthouse.” Bold declaring his faith, Judge Moore testified, “It’s about whether or not we can acknowledge God as the source of our law and our liberty. That’s all I’ve done. I’ve been found guilty. I was not surprised by the verdict” [--“Alabama Ousts Justice Moore,” www.worldnetdaily,com, November 13, 2003]. “We’ve Got to Get America Back to God!”
There is no doubt our nation was founded on Christian principles.
Remember the Pilgrims and Plymouth Plantation. William Bradford,
longtime governor of the Colony authored Of Plymouth Plantation. Listen
to his testimony: “[The colonists] cherished a great hope and inward zeal
of laying good foundations, or at least of making some way towards it, for
the propagation and advance of the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in the
remote parts of the world, even though they should be but stepping stones to others in the performance of so great a work” [--William Bradford,
Bradford’s History of the Plymouth Settlement, 1608-1650, rendered into
Modern English by Harold Paget (Portland, OR: American Heritage Ministries, 1988), 21.].
This is our Christian heritage in America, but we have greatly backslidden from our roots:
“Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
The politically correct thing to say and do today is to accept America as a
multicultural society, one in which all religions lead to God. Since Roe
versus Wade in 1973, we have slaughtered more than forty million innocent
babies through the holocaust of abortion. Homosexuality is accepted as a suitable, alternative life style.Co-habitation and sexual intimacy before and outside of marriage are the Norm. Pornography is rampant, and child pornography is exploited on the internet in the name of the First Amendment and “free speech.” At the end of June 2004 in a split decision, the United States Supreme Court “barred the government from enforcing the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which was designed to protect young children from Internet pornography. . . .Pat Trueman, senior legal advisor for Family Research Council, stated, ‘Today’s decision is yet another victory at the High Court for pornographers, at the expense of America’s children” [“Supreme Court Prevents Enforcement of Internet Porn Law,” Tuesday, June 29, 2004, www.reclaimamerica.org/Pages/News/newspage.asp?story=1863].
Perhaps most deplorable is the fact that Canada has passed a “Hate Crimes” Law which marking parts of the Bible as “hate literature,” and a similar measure recently passed the US Senate as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act [“Senate Passes Homosexual ‘Hate Crimes’ Bill,” Tuesday, June 15, 2004, www.reclaimamerica.org/Pages/News/newspage. asp?story=1761]. The dangers of such legislation are stifling: “The Bible, at least certain portion of it, may be declared ‘hate literature’; Churches may not be able to mention certain Scriptures; Clergy may be subjected to criminal charges if they refuse to marry homosexuals; and expressing disagreement with homosexual behavior or the homosexual agenda, either verbally or in writing, would be considered hate propaganda” [“The Bible as ‘Hate Literature’?: Canadians Advance Bill that Chills Speech about Homosexuality, Monday, October 21, 2002, www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29328].
“Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
Proverbs 14:34 applies not only to Ancient Israel but to the United
States or any other nation as well. The words “nation” and “people” apply
Not only to Israel but any nation. They apply equally as well to the United
States in 2004 as they did to Israel during the reign of King Solomon some
