Christians need to take responsibility for the shape America’s in right now because Christians have abdicated their role in civil society.
Too many Christians have bought into the lie that says the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are not Christian documents. The rest of the world understands this quite clearly, but here in America, we seem to have lost our way. We also seem to be trying to destroy everything in this country that has made it strong and good, i.e. God and the Bible.
Not many people know that of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, 24 of them held seminary degrees. George Washington and Alexander Hamilton said they got the idea for our government’s separation of powers from Jeremiash 17:9. The concept for our three branches of government -- legislative, executive, and judicial -- originated in Isaiah 33:22 where God is described as judge, lawgiver, and king. The idea for the tax-exempt status for churches came from Ezra 7:24.
The text from Deuteronomy 17:6 can be found in Article 3, Section 3, paragraph 1 of the United States Constitution. The text for Ezekiel 18:20 can be found in Article 3, section 3, paragraph 2 of that same document.
John Adams himself stated that the founding fathers used the principles of Christianity to achieve independence. No wonder the United States of America is the longest running constitutional republic in the history of the world.
What I wouldn’t give to listen in on some of the sermons that were preached during the times of the founding fathers. Talk about applying the Bible to everyday life! Pastors in those days regularly preached in response to current cultural and social issues. They covered such current events as earthquakes, the great fire of Boston, and solar eclipses, After a man was sentenced to death, pastors often preached from the Bible about capital punishment. How many of our pastors today do this? How many know their Bibles well enough to even attempt it? And thus so many of the issues of today which are clearly laid out in the Bible fall into heated and unnecessary dispute.
Did you know that Jesus taught two parables on the issue of capital gains? He taught about minimum wage (once) and which kind of tax system is biblical (twice). The BIble addresses the issue of an unjust war vs the proper use of military action. How handy this might have been in the Iraq war among other instances.
The Bible speaks about the importance of Christians being involved in elections. In Exodus 18:21, God even gives the qualifications for an elected official -- they should be a person of faith who hates covetousness and who will rule with the fear of God. How many men and women in our Congress fit that description? And we wonder why the country is tanking on pretty much every front.
Christians need to realize that Congress doesn’t necessarily represent the values of Americans -- they represent the values of those who vote. Between 1992 and 1996, there was a 17% decrease in the number of evangelicals who voted. From 1996 to 2000, it decreased another 23%, for a 40% total decrease. In the year 2000, out of the 60 million evangelicals living in America, only 15 million voted. Can you imagine if the other 45 million had gone to the voting booth in this latest election? We would surely have a different president sitting in the oval office.
We could take back this country in a heartbeat if we only took the Bible seriously and did what God wants us to do. So why don’t we?
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