One Nation Under God .... Again

“One Nation Under God .... Again!”

Psalm 33:12-22

This morning I want us to begin with a history lesson. In November of 1620 the first pilgrims arrived in this country. They arrived in a sailboat that was about 25 ft. wide and 100 ft long. They landed on the east coast in the middle of a very harsh winter. They immediately signed a written agreement called the Mayflower Compact. This agreement states among other things that they came for this cause ... “for the Glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.

That first winter was really rough. Some days their food supply was limited to 5 grains of corn per person per day. History tells us there were 102 men and women who arrived in 1620 and in the first 5 months 44 of them died. In the fall of 1621 however they received their first harvest..... 21 acres of corn. The first thing they did when that harvest came through was to thank God ... they joined together and marched through the corn fields singing “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Ps 24:1.

The following month those 58 who had survived met together with 80 Indians and for 3 days they did 4 things. They ate, prayed, sang songs and preached. All of this leads me to the first question I want to ask this morning.

1. What is it that makes American great? We live in a beautiful country. From the mountains of North Carolina to the coast of California, from the bluegrass of Kentucky to Clearwater beach we live in an amazing country. There is no place on earth quite like it. But that’s not what makes America great.

America has an abundance of things. If you have ever traveled to a 3rd world country and seen first hand how people live that is when we begin to realize how much we have. In America we have the ability to buy a nice home, buy a car, buy more than one car and buy it all on a monthly plan. But that’s not what makes us great.

I believe that the greatness of America is in our freedom and in the men and women who fought so that we could have it. Those men who signed the Declaration of Independence had far more to lose than they ever stood to gain. Most of them were men of great wealth with a lot of influence but they knew that there was something much more important than all of that. It was considered an act of treason to sign that document yet they did it. These men paid the price for what we enjoy today. This is what makes America great. Great people who have made a great sacrifice.

2. Is America a Christian nation? My answer to that is we have been in the past and we can be again. Historians have tried to rewrite the history books to make us believe that our founding fathers were not Christians. And there is that old saying in politics that says, “tell a lie often enough and loud enough and soon everyone will believe it.” History books now say that the early pilgrims and the Indians met together to express their thanks to each other. The truth is they met together to express their thanks to our Heavenly father.

The story is told of Abe Lincoln. Abe was taking to a farmer one day and he asked how many legs a cow had. The farmer of course said 4. Abe then asked him how many legs a cow would have if you counted his tail as a leg. The farmer then said 5. Lincoln said no it doesn’t matter what you call the tail, the cow still only has 4 legs. The truth is the truth no matter what we say. And the truth is America was founded by Christians who looked to God for leadership.

This wonderful organization the ACLU fully believes in the statement that if you tell the lie often enough, people will believe it. They have been screaming this for years telling us that there is a wall of separation between the state and the church and the government put it there. The origin of the separation of church and state was that Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to a group of Baptists assuring them that the government would stay out of the church’s businesses. In other words he did it to protect the church from the state not the other way around.

Do you know what George Washington’s first act as President was? When he was sworn into office he kissed the Bible that was used. Then he held a two hour worship service in the Congressional hall. Now to show how far we have fallen, Judge Roy Moore was fired from his position on the state supreme court for keeping a monument of the 10 commandments in the entry way to a state building.