America’s Genius and Power
America as it was and as it is, is well distinguished by the work of Alexis de Tocqueville, an eminent French representative of the liberal tradition of the mid-1800s. As such he was very active in French politics. He came to America to study the penal system but stayed for some time to study the nation from the perspective of a detached social scientist. His book released in 1835 entitled, “Democracy in America” is considered a classic early work in sociology. It reveals his perspective on the developing nation. These insights into our heritage are worth considering.
His observations led him to conclude why America had not embraced socialism or feudalism as in Europe. It was the different attitudes regarding money. In Europe the common people had no hope and therefore no aspiration to gain it. The privileged felt it was their right to have wealth. Their inherited entitlement resulted in lethargy regarding trying to gain it.
The ethos in America was different. In America money was an object to be sought. Here the people all felt they could gain wealth through industrious hard work. This resulted in a productive people.
He also wrote an interpretation of the character of our society.
“Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things.”
“I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion… But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions.”
“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors…; in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in the democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution.
“Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.”
“America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” That is a sobering thought.
Today there is a correlation between the decline of morality in our present society and the flickering flame in many pulpits. The popular health, wealth, and prosperity version of the gospel has replaced calls for a faith commitment resulting in morality, virtue, and integrity. Personal gain has replaced an appeal for a culture of responsible ethics that benefit all of society. A moral world is rarely addressed.
de Tocqueville wrote of the interrelation between two phases of American life. “In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.”
His belief that the two were mutually dependent resulted in this conclusion: “The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.”
We are seeing the decline of religion and the decay of our judicial system resulting in a society in decline. Only by the renewal of religious values can the morals befitting a renewed America be realized.
May once more our “pulpits flame with righteousness.” That said de Tocqueville is the “genius and power” of our greatness.
Have a blessed celebration of the birth of our nation. Pray for America.
I Pledge Allegiance
Religious freedom is foundational to all of our freedoms. It was a right obtained by men of faith.
John Leland in appealing to the Father of our Constitution, James Madison, for religious freedom wrote: “There is no Bill of Rights. Whenever a number of men enter into a state of society, a number of individual rights must be given up to society, but there should be a memorial of those not surrendered, otherwise, every natural and domestic right becomes alienable, which raises tyranny at once, and this is as necessary in one form or government as in another.”
Now, there is a thought! Note, “a number of rights must be given up to society.”
Acting in response to Leland’s appeal Madison acted when the First Congress convened in January 1789. Early in the session Madison presented the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution, called the Bill of Rights. In part the first of these stated: “Congress shall make no laws respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Parenthetically, neither should the courts.
This Bill of Rights was intended to do two things. One was to forbid the establishment of a state sponsored denomination as was common in Europe. Second, it restricts laws being made “prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” This simply leveled the playing field for all denominations and removed road blocks to the practice of religion.
The proponents of the First Amendment wanted to insure freedom OF religion not freedom FROM religion.
To pledge allegiance or not to pledge? Somebody’s right has to be given up. If we have freedom of speech, if we have freedom of religion, if we have a pledge approved by Congress in 1952, and practiced by millions ever since —- let’s pledge.
Why should the rights of the vast majority have to be given up to appease a religious minority? Atheism is a form of religious belief about God.
Why do atheists want the Pledge of Allegiance removed from schools? Are they trying to convert Christians to their belief in no God?
A glimpse of what Congress intended is found in this Congressional Decree of 1782: “It being the indispensable duty of all nations, not only to offer up their supplications to Almighty God, the giver of all good, for his gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner to give him praise for his goodness in general…”
It continued and concluded: “…they do further recommend to all ranks and testify their gratitude of God for his goodness, by cheerful obedience to his laws, and by protecting, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice and undefiled religion, which is the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.”
In these turbulent times of terrorism we need to consider well these words of Benjamin Franklin: “We need God to be our friend, not our adversary.”
The Law of Causality
“For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God” (Hebrews 3:4).
There is a law of causality; or the law of cause and effect. Simply summarized: for every effect there must be an equal or greater cause.
The world shows marks of design and dependence, hence of mind and management.
Everything about the universe indicates a plan and purpose.
Everywhere there are indications of origin and order.
Every building shows signs of origin and order, mind and management, plan and purpose.
Look at our vast universe and the same jumps out at you. Our universe shows signs of origin and order, mind and management, plan and purpose.
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Seeing a building, who would doubt that there was a planner, a designer, and a manager?
Why deny there to be such regarding our universe?
The effect is a universe. The cause must be equal to or greater than the effect. Enter: our Great God and Creator, Designer, Planner, and Manager of the Universe He created.
Every effect demands a cause. Our loving Creator has put on display as evidence of His existence an entire universe.
Back to the party! It is reasonable that such a God would provide a door.
Hebrews 11: 3 states an evident reality: “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
Poster: “All that I have seen of God teaches me to trust Him for all that I have not seen.”
Many at this moment have needs and they can’t see how things are going to work out. As you let God work in them, they work out.
If organic evolution accounts for our being, there is no way such a material process could produce a nonmaterial soul that will survive death. Thus, evolution which proposes we came from nothing dictates we deteriorate into nothing.
The formula for Darwinian Evolution is “Nothing times nobody equals everything.”
T. N. Timinisian, physiologist with the Atomic Energy Commission, said, “Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con-men and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever.”
Not only is the Lord God existent, He loves you and wants you to spend eternity with Him. Trust Him and become a new creature.
The Eye and the Ear Evidence God
“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The Lord has made both of them” (Proverbs 20:12). Consider them.
The eye is far more complex than the most sophisticated camera ever designed. The eye consists of 107 million cells.
Seven million are cones which receive and record for me the full spectrum ban of colors numbering in the thousands.
One hundred million cells are rods which enable me to see in low light.
It has infinite design, order, and plan to the eye. Consider it.
When light rays hit the cornea they are slightly bent toward each other. Next the light travels through the aqueous humor, then the pupil. The iris regulates the amount of light entering the eye. Next the light travels through the curved surface of the lens into the vitreous humor and meets at a point called the focus, which ideally is the retina. From there the optic nerve can carry multiple simultaneous electronic messages to the brain.
These rods and cones are shaped differently and numbered variously with different animals. Such effect demands a great cause and that cause is our loving Creator.
Consider the ear. You can listen to an orchestra and enjoy multiple sounds at once, sounds so faint that they flutter my eardrum one billionth of a centimeter. These sounds are transmitted to the brain by three bones called the hammer, anvil, and stirrup.
If they register the sound of a piano emitted at 250 vibrations per second, they know it is middle-C.
There is a design, a plan, and order to the ear. It is a great effect. The cause? Our loving Creator God.
The eye, the ear, the universe feeds your faith.
My eyes have seen the Alps and Andes, the Congo and Nile rivers, the Sahara and the Judean deserts, the seven seas and the five continents.
My ears have been flooded with the sounds of joy and sorrow, pleasure and protection, wisdom and wit.
BUT, the Scripture says, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard … the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (I Corinthians 2:9).
Order, plan, and design of everything from the universe to your eyes and ears stimulate your faith. There is an effect: you. Where there is an effect there must be a cause. The cause is our loving Creator God. Trust Him as Savior.
Jesus explains why He came and offered Himself as the door to immortality. He said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10: 10).
What Is on Your “Must Do List”?
In the days just before Jesus faced Calvary it was written: “He said, `I must go to Jerusalem…” (Matthew 16: 21). Thus, summarily He said there was something He “must” do. For Him, and for us it was imperative that He must go.
Jesus was definitive as to why He must go to Jerusalem. It was to “suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day” (Matthew 16: 21). Not an easy assignment, but a critical one. Jesus was laser-focused on going. He was saying He must die that we may live.
Peter, who insisted that He not go. Later in Gethsemane Peter resisted Jesus’ arrest. Often one’s best friend becomes his biggest obstacle in following Jesus. Hence, it becomes Jesus or me. In being an obstacle the friend is indirectly living out, “It is me of Jesus, you choose.”
Here is the clincher. Jesus said,“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way” (Matthew 16: 24). Most people don’t grasp the seriousness of this calling. Giving up our own way is challenging. Such is demanding, but rewarding. Think of an occasion of having done so as a result of commitment. Remember the sense of fulfillment? You win by losing.
Giving up our own way is contrary to the concept of Jesus. We want gain without pain.
Some indirectly teach it’s all about me. Jesus wants me healthy, wealthy, and happy. He wants His followers well or rich. and if you aren’t all those things, they don’t have enough faith or they aren’t sending them enough money. Farcically they are teaching Christianity is designed for you to get everything you need and want. NOT!
By way of contrast Jesus is the paramount example of true commitment.. He was willing to stay committed to His mission because He realized the reward was worth the effort. Make sure the things on your “Must List” are worth the effort. What is the payoff?
The ultimate reward is said to be Jesus will reward us along with His angels (Matthew 16: 27). This teaches us there are degrees of rewards in heaven. All who trust Him are saved. However, the extent of faithfulness thereafter will determine one’s rewards in heaven. The nature of the reward is unspecified. Whatever it is it will be worth it because of the one who gives it, Jesus.
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matthew 16: 24 – 27).