Proverbs 14:34 THE DEATH OF OUR NATION 3-9-13
I believe any reasonable thinking person can see and understand that our nation is in big trouble, it's in big trouble with God.
* Listen as I read today's text found in Proverbs 14:34;
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
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God is removing His strong arm of protection and blessing from our country because of what we have allowed to happen, evidently the majority of the voters this past election felt that Obama and his cohorts was the best route for the nation, but in reality this administration is the worst in the history of the nation.
* God can not bless any nation with such a mind-set as this.
>>Proverbs 25:19 Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.
>>Psalms 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
We that are saved know that God's chosen people is Israel, but God will bless any nation that proclaims Jehovah as it's God, and we that are believers gladly proclaim that Jehovah is God, He is the only real and true God, and His Only begotten Son the Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour.
Every Sunday morning where I attend church, the first thing we do is pledge allegiance to the Bible God's Word, and then the Christian flag, and then the American flag.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
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* LISTEN: I found this as I was putting this message together.
The Warren Supreme Court (1963) are the men who banned School Prayer, and Bible reading in our public schools.
----- listen;
There are three landmark cases that changed the meaning of the First Amendment as it was previously understood and practiced in America.
In all three cases a parent of a child in school petitioned the courts to stop the school from exposing their child to prayer in school and reading the Bible in school. -- LISTEN; American Civil Liberties Union;
The ACLU Lawyers used Thomas Jefferson's letter in the argument for the plaintiffs. They argued that the founding fathers wanted a "wall of separation between church and State"; therefore, the government should be neutral to religion in schools, and as a result the Warren Court ruled that there would be no prayer in school or Bible reading.
The court's "majority ruling" reasoned that being neutral or not favoring one religion over another was the same as not allowing religious practices in school. But;
>> Justice Potter Stewart, the one dissenting vote blasted the ruling saying, "It led not to true neutrality with respect to religion, but to the establishment of a religion of secularism." -- Meaning, the social or political process of rejecting all forms of religious faith.
* True neutrality would not favor one religion over another,
But the court's ruling favored atheism over all the religions of the world that believe in God. -- LISTEN;
Atheism has been declared a religion by the U.S. Supreme Court, so the Court did not act neutrally, but instead favored one religion over another.
If the Court had really been true to its intention of neutrality; it would have been impartial to the students, by neither forcing non believers to pray, nor prohibiting believers from prayer.
>Therefore the Warren Supreme court's actions were not neutral. --
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>After the June 17, 1963 ruling the Wall Street Journal commented that atheism was now "the one belief to which the state's power will extend its protection."
====== LISTEN,
Today, many Americans think that the First Amendment says "Separation of Church and State." The Courts and the media will often refer to a ruling as being in violation of the "Separation of Church and State." A recent national poll showed that 69% of Americans believe that the First Amendment says "Separation of Church and State." But it does not.
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* You may be surprised to learn that these words do not appear in the First Amendment or anywhere else in the Constitution!
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* Here is what the First Amendment actually does say. LISTEN CLOSELY.
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".
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LISTEN; so where did the words "Separation of Church and State." come from? They can be traced back to a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote back in 1802.
>> In October 1801, the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut wrote to President Jefferson, and in their letter they voiced some concerns about Religious Freedom.
>>On January 1, 1802 Jefferson wrote a letter to them in which he added the phrase "Separation of Church and State." When you read the full letter, you will understand that Jefferson was simply underscoring the First Amendment as a guardian of the people's religious freedom from government interference. Here is an excerpt from Jefferson's letter. . .
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
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Jefferson simply quotes the First Amendment then uses a metaphor, the "wall", to separate the government from interfering with religious practice.
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>>Notice that the First Amendment puts Restrictions only on the Government, not the People!
* But the Warren Supreme Court of 1963 re-interpreted the First Amendment thus putting the restrictions on the People!
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Today the government can stop you from Praying in school, reading the Bible in school, showing the Ten Commandments in school, or have religious displays at Christmas.
>>This is quite different from the wall Jefferson envisioned, protecting the people from government interference with Religious practice.
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When Thomas Jefferson wrote his letter to the Danbury Baptist Association he never intended the words "Separation of Church and State" to be taken out of context and used as a substitute for the First Amendment, but for all practical purposes that is what the courts have done.
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* I'll be the first to admit that I'm certainly not an authority on the constitution, or the 1st Amendment, and I dare say that goes for most people, but when we can read it as we just did it's obvious that the courts have changed it to say what they wanted it to say.
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LISTEN-- it is interesting to note that 3 days after Jefferson wrote those words, he attended church in the largest congregation in North America at the time.
This church held its weekly worship services on government property, in the House Chambers of the U.S. Capital Building.
The wall of separation applies everywhere in the country even on government property, without government interference.
This is how it is written in the Constitution, this is how Thomas Jefferson understood it from his letter and actions, and this is how the men who wrote the Constitution practiced it.
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* Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, William Rehnquist SAID THIS:
"The metaphor of a wall of separation is bad history and worse law. It has made a positive chaos out of court rulings. It should be explicitly abandoned."
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At the very heart of Jefferson's idea of "Wall of Separation", is the notion that the government will not interfere with people's right to worship God. -- In other words, the government is to stay away from and out of how the people worship God.
* LISTEN; The very fact that the government has ruled to regulate religious practices, indicates that the government has crossed that "Wall of Separation."
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While the words "Separation of Church and State" do not appear in the U.S.A. Constitution, they do appear in the constitution of the former U.S.S.R. Communist State.
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* LISTEN TO WHAT SOME OF OUR NATIONS LEADERS AND FOUNDERS SAID:
John Jay, Original Chief-Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court,
"The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts."
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Benjamin Franklin, Signer of the Declaration of Independence;
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
Continental Congress, 1778:
"Whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness . . . it is hereby earnestly recommended to the several States to take the most effectual measures for the encouragement thereof."
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Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence said;
"The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be aid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind."
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John Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and our second President said In a speech to the military in 1798 warned his fellow countrymen stating,
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
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* That is from the information that I found as I was putting this message together.
As many of you know that live here in Pickens county of S.C. there has been an on going discussion by the County officials and residents to do with taking prayer out of our public schools, to me it's a no brainier, all they need to do is rightly understand what the laws of the constitution says and means.
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I commend Brother Ben Trotter, and Brother Jimmy Shelton, as well as Pickens resident Sister Sonya Hoxit for their stand with God's truths, and let's be sure that God has taken notice of them as well.
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>Romans 8:31-- If God be for us, who can be against us?
