Is America Under God's Judgment?

IS AMERICA UNDER GOD’S JUDGMENT?

BY

DR. JERRY FALWELL

A. INTRODUCTION

1. The Declaration of Independence is the greatest document (outside the Bible) in the history of mankind.

Because it promises the greatest good.

Because it has impacted the greatest number of people.

Because it provided the greatest quality of living.

Because it produced the greatest nation;

And that nation provided the greatest freedom in history,

And led to the greatest advancement of mankind this world has ever known.

2. “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

3. Four Christian “Self-Evident Truths” our founding fathers believed.

a. They believed in a Creator.

b. They believed that God created them in His own image.

c. They believed in supernatural acts, i.e. that a supernatural Being began this universe and is responsible for giving them the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

d. They believed in moral absolutes or absolute truths which our Fathers call “inalienable rights,” and self-evident truths. (Government cannot give these rights, so they cannot take them away. These rights came from God.

4. The Mayflower compact, November, 1620.

a. “In the Name of God Almighty, we whose names are underwritten . . . having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, . . . a voyage to plan the first colony in northern Virginia (they were in Massachusetts); do by these present, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick . . .”

b. Three truths those on board the Mayflower believed:

(1) They believed the new nation would glorify God.

(2) They believed the new nation would extend Christianity.

(3) They believed their authority was from God.

B. FROM THE BEGINNING THE CHURCH AND NATION WERE SEPARATE.

1. America was/is not a theocracy, i.e. the direct rule of God.

2. America was/is not a church controlled nation, i.e. operated for church purposes.

3. I believe in the separation of church and state.

a. The Christian church is organized to carry out the Great Commission, . . . nations are not organized to carry it out.

b. A nation is organized by its people, for its people and under the authority of its people for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . . . that is not the purpose of the church.

c. The First Amendment. “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.”

The church does not control the government and the government cannot control the church.

4. America is a Christian nation because:

a. It was Christians who first came to America for Christian purposes.

b. It was Christians who wrote the Declaration of Independence and included their belief of God in its Preamble.

c. It is Christians who wrote our Constitution on a Christian view of law. They did not found our nation on Christian laws, but on God’s laws, which are absolute truth and absolute morality.

d. Christianity has been the largest religious body in America.

C. DID AMERICA MAKE A COVENANT COMMITMENT WITH GOD?

This title asks a question. I believe the answer is yes. American pioneers made a compact with God. In the compact/covenant, the people agreed to honor God. In return, they expected God to bless them.

COVENANT = PROMISE-MAKERS.

BROKEN COVENANT = PROMISE-BREAKERS

NEEDED = PROMISE-KEEPERS

1. Mayflower Compact: “Undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith.”

2. Declaration of Independence: “Endowed by their Creator unto certain inalienable rights.”

3. Our fathers founded this nation:

a. For the glory of God.

b. Based on rights given to them by God.

c. Seeking the blessing of God.

d. In a covenant, two sides make promises and commit themselves to the other side. The Declaration of Independence maintains, that,

“We the people in order to form a more perfect union.” We made a covenant with God the One that we called creator. We recognized we were made in God’s image. We based our covenant on “inalienable rights” also called “self-evident truths.” Yes, America made a covenant with God.

e. Evidence of America’s reliance on the covenant:

Did not America pray and fast in times of war and national emergency?

Did not America claim to be “One nation under God” in its slogans?

Did not America put “In God we trust” on its coins?

Did not America inaugurate its presidents with a hand on the Bible and ask them to pledge “So help me God?”