What Makes Us Free?
John 8:31-36; 2 Corinthians 3:12-18
July 6, 2003
Independence Day
Intro:
A. [This quote and all other quotes in this sermon are taken from Americas’ God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations, compiled by Wiliam J. Federer, Fame Publishing Co., Coppell, TX, 1994. This quote on p. 9]
On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, reflecting on what he had shared in Congress and, with prophetic insight, declaring the importance of that day: “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, form one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever.”
B. God has blessed America and John Adams was right about the importance of celebrating what God did for America in granting her independence.
1. It is certainly fitting to celebrate His goodness to us.
2. We should be thankful for the bounty we share in this good land.
C. Freedom is one of our greatest blessings in this great country.
1. That is why I believe that we should call it “Independence Day” instead of the “Fourth of July.”
2. The “Fourth of July” connotes another summer holiday.
3. But the word Independence brings to mind words like freedom and liberty.
4. This sermon will even go further than that.
a. This sermon will define between political and personal freedom.
b. There is a big difference between the two that I hope you will see.
c. But I also hope that while you see the difference between the two, you will also see that one is actually dependent upon the other.
d. There is only one way to gain personal freedom.
e. [p 18] John Quincy Adams, 6th president of the US, said on July 4, 1881,
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it as connected in an indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”
f. And I hope that you will see from these brief Biblical passages, that political freedom is actually dependent upon the same things that personal freedom is based.
g. You will also hear the Founding Fathers say that political freedom is dependent upon the very things that personal freedom is dependent; they will use different words for political and personal freedom, but you will see that whatever words they use-both freedoms are based upon the same things.
D. So our question this morning is: What makes us free?
E. Near the end of the last century, Dr. John Caldwell at Kingsway Christian Church in Indianapolis preached a sermon series which he called: “Five Top Lies of the 20th Century.”
1. One of those five lies was: “America Never Was a Christian Nation.”
2. And boy has this generation bought that lie!
3. Our education system, in its dumbing-down of America is effectively re-writing our history to try to justify their current politically correct principle of diversity.
4. Our education system is teaching our children that America was never a Christian nation.
5. Could it be that we’ve been lied to in this generation?
6. Could it be that America always was a Christian nation?
F. Our Supreme Court has certainly tried to tell us that we never were a Christian nation.
1. They took prayer out of the schools.
2. They took the Ten Commandments out of schools.
3. And they have sought to demote Christianity from public discourse.
4. And all-the-while telling us that the Founding Fathers intended there to be a separation of Church and State.
5. They’ve tried to tell us that the Founding Fathers were not Christians.
6. They’ve tried to tell us that the Constitution calls for a diversification of all religions in this country.
G. Interestingly, listen to this about a man by the name of Joseph Story.
1. Now how many of you have heard of Joseph Story?
a. You mean the Supreme Court never said anything about Joseph Story in giving these decisions?
b. Why do you suppose our current Supreme Court doesn’t quote Joseph Story?
c. I tell you why…and I’ll also warn you…
d. Mr. Story and most of the other Founding Fathers of America weren’t informed about they intentionally put a Separation of Church and State clause in the Constitution and so they rather unashamedly spouted off their religious view…in public, no less!
e. So if you believe that the Founding Fathers intended to keep Christianity out of government and public life, you’re going to be a little shock by their graphic use of Christianity in the language.
2. So, having warned you, let me tell you a little about Joseph Story…
a. He was a US Congressman from 1808-1809.
b. Joseph Story was appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1811 by President James Madison.
c. Mr. Story was on the bench of the US Supreme Court for 34 years.
d. He wrote the very first commentaries on the Constitution.
e. Do you suppose he understood the Constitution?
f. Do you think he understood what the writers of the Constitution meant when they wrote it?
g. Why do you suppose no one quotes Joseph Story today?
h. Well, listen as I quote from one of the first Supreme Court Justices…
Quote # 1[p 574]: “There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.”
Quote # 2 [p 574]: “It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape.”
Quote # 3 [p 575]: “The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects [denominations] and to prevent any national ecclesiastical patronage of the national government.” (explain Church of England, then re-read)
Quote #4 [p 575]: There is not a truth to be gathered from history more certain, or more momentous, than this: that civil liberty cannot long be separated from religious liberty without danger, and ultimately without destruction to both. Wherever religious liberty exists, it will, first or last, bring in and establish political liberty.”
i. Question: Was the original US Supreme Court correct in its interpretation of the Constitution, or is our current Supreme Court correct?
1) Could it be that we’ve been lied to?
2) Could it be that Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story was correct in stating that political freedom cannot long be separated from personal, spiritual freedom?
3) Let’s look at three passages of Scripture to see if we can discover: What makes us free?
I. The Scriptures make us free (John 8:32)
John 8:31-32 (NIV), To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
A. Jesus said, “the truth will set you free.”
1. What is the truth?
2. If that isn’t a question for our time…
a. What is the truth?
b. There just doesn’t seem to be much need for the truth anymore.
c. We claim to have freedom in America, but don’t seem to know what truth is anymore.
d. The truth doesn’t seem to matter anymore.
e. We have politicians and broadcasters and educators that lie to us without batting an eye.
f. 2 Peter 2:19 says, “They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”
g. We have politicians and broadcasters and educators that promise us freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity.
h. They lie to us to promote their own agendas.
i. They lie to us while promising that it will give us freedom.
j. But the truth is that they don’t know the truth.
k. Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
l. So what is the truth?
B. In verse 31, Jesus said what the truth is.
1. Jesus told how to know the truth in verse 31.
2. He said, “If you hold to My teachings…”
3. If we hold to His teachings, then we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.
4. Real freedom doesn’t come from being an American…
a. Real freedom doesn’t come from being a Republican or a Democrat…
b. Real freedom doesn’t come from being a Liberal or a Conservative…
c. Jesus said that freedom comes from obeying His teachings.
5. His teachings are recorded for us in the Holy Scriptures.
6. Real freedom comes from obeying the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Scriptures.
7. Real freedom comes from obeying the Scriptures, not from being an American.
C. Listen to these quotes from some of the Founding Fathers about the Scriptures:
1. [p 19] John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the US said,
“I speak as a man of the world to men of the world; and I say to you, Search the Scriptures! The Bible is the book of all others, to be read at all ages, and in all conditions of human life; not to be read once or twice or thrice through, and then laid aside, but to be read in small portions of one or two chapters every day, and never to be intermitted, unless by some overruling necessity.”
2. [p 25] On September 10, 1782, Congress commissioned the printing of Bibles because of a shortage due to the Revolutionary War,
“Resolved, that the US in Congress assembled…recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the US, and hereby authorize [Robert Aitken] to publish this recommendation in the manner he shall think proper.” (Congress authorized the printing of the Scriptures!)
3. [p 113] Christopher Columbus wrote of his trip,
“There is no question that the inspiration was from the HS, because he comforted me with rays of marvelous illumination from the Holy Scriptures, a strong and clear testimony from the 44 books of the OT, from the four Gospels, and from the 23 Epistles of the blessed Apostles, encouraging me continually to press forward, and without ceasing for a moment they now encourage me to make haste.”
4. [p 529] As recently as October 4, 1982, listen to Public Law 97-280,
“Whereas the Bible, the Word of God, has made a unique contribution in shaping the US as a distinctive and blessed nation and people; Whereas deeply held religious convictions springing from the Holy Scriptures led to the early settlement of our Nation; Whereas many of our great national leaders—among them Presidents Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, and Wilson—paid tribute to the surpassing influence of the Bible in our country’s development, as in the words of President Jackson that the Bible is “the rock on which our republic rests”; Whereas the history of our Nation clearly illustrates the value of voluntarily applying the teachings of Scriptures in the lives of individuals, families, and societies; Whereas the Nation now faces great challenges that will test this Nation as it has never been tested before; and Whereas that renewing our knowledge of and faith in God through Holy Scripture can strengthen us as a nation and a people: Now Therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the US of A in Congress assembled, That the President is authorized and requested to designate 1983 as a national “Year of the Bible” in recognition of both the formative influence the Bible has been for our Nation, and our national need to study and apply the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. Thomas P. O’Neill Strom Thurmond Speaker of the House President of the Senate-Pro Tempore Approved October 4, 1982, Ronald Reagan
5. [p 39] The Constitution of the State of Delaware 1776 stated:
“Article XXII Every person who shall be chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trust…shall…make and subscribe to the following declaration, to wit: ‘I , do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for evermore, I do acknowledge the holy scripture of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.’”
6. [p265] Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the US stated:
“I believe the Holy Scriptures, and whoso lives by them will be benefited thereby. Men may differ as to the interpretation, which is human, but the Scriptures are man’s best guide…”
7. [p 278] Warren Gamaliel Harding, 29th President of the US said,
“I have always believed in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, whereby they have become the expression to man of the Word and Will of God.”
8. [p 286] Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th President of the US declared,
“I am a firm believer in the Divine teachings, perfect example, and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I believe also in the Holy Scriptures as the revealed Word of God to the world for its enlightenment and salvation.”
9. [p 311] June 8, 1845, the 7th President of the US, Andrew Jackson said,
“The book, Sir, is the Rock upon which our republic rests.”
10. [p 312] A few days before his death, Andrew Jackson, said,
“Sir, I am in the hands of a merciful God. I have full confidence in his goodness and mercy…The Bible is true. I have tried to conform to its spirit as near as possible. Upon that sacred volume I rest my hope for eternal salvation, through the merits and blood of our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
11. [p 318] John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court was concurrently president of the American Bible Society.
12. [p 371-372] Numerous quotations from Scripture can be found on the walls of the Library of Congress, including: Micah 6:8; Psalm 19:1; and John 1:5.
13. [p 589-590] Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the US admonished,
“The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.”
14. [p 668-669] Daniel Webster, a US Congressman, a US Senator, and Secretary of State stated,
“If there is anything in my thoughts or style commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”
15. [p 676] Three quotes from Noah Webster, the author of the first edition of his American Dictionary of the English Language in November, 1828:
“Education is useless without the Bible.” “The Bible was America’s basic text book in all fields.” “God’s word, contained in the bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct.”
16. [p 698] Woodrow Wilson 28th President of the US said,
“There are a good many problems before the American people today, and before me as a President, but I expect to find the solution to those problems just in the proportion that I am faithful in the study of the Word of God.”
D. America never was a Christian Nation?
1. The Founding Fathers weren’t Christians?
2. Could it be that we have been lied to?
3. Could it be that we have bought the lie?
4. This is only a random sampling.
5. The Founding Fathers clearly recognized that both personal and political freedom is based upon the scriptures.
6. Does the Church still believe that freedom is based upon the Scriptures?
7. The Scriptures make us free, and…
II. The Son makes us free (John 8:36)
John 8:33-36 (NIV), They answered him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" 34 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
A. These Jews did not understand what freedom is.
1. And the sad thing is that most Americans no longer know what freedom is.
2. Those Jews said that they had never been slaves to anyone, so they were free.
3. And sadly, that’s what many Americans think.
4. But Jesus told them the truth about freedom.
5. They did not understand Him and refused to believe.
6. They argued with Him for the rest of this chapter.
7. And in verse 58, they were read to stone Him, because He said they were slaves; slaves to sin (verse 34).
B. And sadly, most American’s think that freedom means that you are not a slave to anyone.
1. And since you are not a slave to anyone, then you are free to do anything you want; including what Jesus would call sin.
2. But the truth is that when people think they have the freedom to sin, they become slaves to it.
3. You think about it, sex outside of marriage leads to slavery to it.
4. Being a homosexual is slavery.
5. Holding a grudge is slavery.
6. Sin is slavery.
7. But the Son will set you free.
8. Free from the slavery to sin.
9. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”!!!
C. Now listen to what many of our Founding Fathers said about Jesus, and how they knew that freedom comes from Jesus Christ:
1. [p 24] Samuel Adams, known as the “Father of the American Revolution” and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, declared,
“I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler…that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established, and the people willingly bow to the scepter of Him who is the prince of Peace.”
2. [p 53] Sir William Blackstone, who played a leading role in forming the basis of law in America expressed the presuppositional base for law:
“The belief of a future state of rewards and punishments, the entertaining just ideas of the main attributes of the Supreme Being, and a firm persuasion that He superintends and will finally compensate every action in human life (all which are revealed in the doctrines of our Savior, Christ), these are the grand foundations of all judicial oaths, which call God to witness the truth of those facts which perhaps may be only known to Him and the party attesting;”
3. [p 275] Alexander Hamilton, was a signer of the Constitution, and his dying words were:
“I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a sinner. I look to him for mercy; pray for me.”
4. [p 289] Patrick Henry boldly declared,
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
5. [p 362-363] Richard Henry Lee was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and was both a Congressman and a Senator and on November 1, 1777 recommended a resolution setting apart:
“Thursday, the 18th of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance.”
6. [p 395] On March 16, 1776, as recorded in the Journal of Congress, General William Livingston, as a signer of the Constitution, and as a Congressman presented this resolution in Congress , which passed without dissent:
“We earnestly recommend that Friday, the 17th day of May next, be observed by the colonies as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that we may with united hearts confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life appease God’s righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ to obtain His pardon and forgiveness.”
7. [p 511] Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was a signer of the Constitution and said,
“Blasphemy against the Almighty is denying His being or providence, or uttering contemptuous reproaches on our Savior Christ. It is punished, at common law by fine and imprisonment, for Christianity is part of the laws of the land.”
8. [p 560-561] Benjamin Rush was a physician, signer of the Declaration of Independence, “father of public schools” and a principle promoter of the American Sunday School Union. This Benjamin Rush humorously described himself:
“I have alternately been called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Chistocrat.”
9. [560-561] Roger Sherman, who was the only one of the Founding Fathers to sign all four of the major founding documents (The Articles of Association, The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution) wrote the following,
“I believe that God having elected some of mankind to eternal life, did send his own Son to become man, die in the room and stead of sinners and thus to lay a foundation for the offer of pardon and salvation to all mankind, so as all may be saved who are willing to accept the gospel offer…”
10. [p 672-673] US Congressman and Senator Daniel Webster declared:
“The Gospel is either true history, or it is a consummate fraud; it is either a reality or an imposition. Christ was what He professed to be, or He was an impostor. There is no other alternative. His spotless life in His earnest enforcement of the truth—His suffering in its defense, forbid us to suppose that he was suffering an illusion of a heated brain. Every act of His pure and holy life shows that He was the author of truth, the advocate of truth, the earnest defender of truth, and the uncompromising sufferer for truth.”
D. America never was a Christian Nation?
1. The Founding Fathers weren’t Christians? Could it be that we have been lied to?
3. Could it be that we have bought the lie?
4. This is only a random sampling. It is clear that the Founding Fathers recognized that both personal and political freedom comes from Jesus Christ!
6. Does the Church still believe that freedom comes from Jesus Christ?!!!
E. The Scriptures make us free, the Son makes us free, and…
III. The Spirit makes us free
2 Corinthians 3:12-17 (NIV), Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
A. Paul says that the Jews didn’t really understand the OT.
1. That is what Paul is saying.
2. The Jews don’t really understand even the OT, let alone the NT.
3. It is the same thing that Jesus said to the faces of some of them in John 8.
4. Paul said that when they read the OT, it was if there was a veil between their eyes and the words on the paper.
5. And since there was this veil there, they could not see and understand the Scriptures clearly.
6. But when a person believes Jesus, that veil is taken away.
7. And in John 14:26 Jesus said, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
a. That means that not only did the Scriptures come to us through the HS, but the HS teaches them to us.
b. The HS helps us understand the Scriptures.
c. The HS teaches us the Scriptures.
8. So now you see what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 3:16, when he writes, “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”
a. When a person receives the HS, the HS begins to remove the veil from the Scriptures.
b. The Scriptures begin to be understood.
c. Then the person begins to apply the Scriptures to their life.
d. When the Scriptures are applied to life, the shackles of sin are broken.
e. And when the shackles of sin are broken there is freedom!
f. “and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”!
g. The Spirit makes us free!
B. Now listen to some of the things the Founding Fathers had to say about the HS:
1. [p 11] On March 6, 1799, President John Adams called for a National Fast Day in which he called upon US citizens
“that they call to mind our numerous offenses against the most high God, confess them before Him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy, through the Great Mediator and Redeemer, for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of His Holy Spirit, we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience to his righteous requisitions in time to come…”
2. [p 113] Again Christopher Columbus said of his voyage that,
“There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit…”
3. [p 147] The Continental Congress issued the First national Proclamation of Thanksgiving on November 1, 1777 that included the following paragraph:
“That it may please Him, to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people, and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yet yield its increase; to take school and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under His nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth ‘in righteous, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.’”
4. [p 365] General Robert E. Lee said,
“There are things in the old Book which I may not be able to explain, but I fully accept it as the infallible Word of God, and receive its teachings as inspired by the Holy Spirit.”
5. [p 544] Benjamin Rush who described himself as a Christocrat, wrote to his wife during his final illness,
“My excellent wife, I must leave you, but God will take care of you. By the mystery of Thy holy incarnation; by Thy holy nativity; by Thy baptism, fasting, and temptation; by Thine agony and bloody sweat; by Thy cross and passion; by Thy precious death and burial; by Thy glorious resurrection and ascension, and by the coming of the Holy Ghost, blessed Jesus, wash away all my impurities, and receive me into Thy everlasting kingdom.”
C. America never was a Christian Nation?
1. The Founding Fathers weren’t Christians? Could it be that we have been lied to?
3. Could it be that we have bought the lie?
4. Again, this is only a random sampling. The Founding Fathers clearly recognized that both personal and political freedom comes through the HS.
6. Does the Church still believe that freedom comes through the HS?!!!
D. The Spirit makes us free, the Son makes us free, and the Scriptures make us free.
Conclusion:
A. Both political and personal freedom comes from being a believer in Jesus Christ!
B. But I do want to say that the Constitution DOES say that there should be a separation between church and state, between political freedom and spiritual freedom.
1. I’m going to read it to you, leaving out only two letters…
2. See if you can guess what two letters I am omitting…
3. [p 618] [Read the quote skipping over the blanks.] “Article 124: In order to ensure to citizens freedom of conscience, the church in the U.S. . . is separated from the State, and the school from the church.” [re-read]
4. Can you guess the two letters that I omitted? The two letters are: S. R.
5. [Re-read, supplying the S. R. in the blanks.]
C. 2 Peter 2:19 says, “They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”
1. I submit to you that we have, indeed been lied to.
2. Even many Christians have been deceived by the father of lies, Satan himself!
3. This nation always was a Christian nation!
4. We have been lied to!!
5. We have been lied to in order to divert America away from her dependence on God.
6. America’s freedom came from the Scriptures, from the Son, and from the Spirit!
7. The question is how do we preserve that freedom for future generations?
8. How do we get it back?
9. How can we once again make this a Christian nation?
C. Abraham Lincoln said it much better than I on March 30, 1863:
“Whereas, the Senate of the US devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation:
And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now disolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the view of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.
And do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessing no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the US to be affixed. By the President: Abraham Lincoln.
D. And even better yet are God’s words… 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV), if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
1. That’s how we make this a Christian nation again.
2. God’s people must get on our knees and repent on behalf of this great nation!
E. #807 “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”
