Mark 16:15, “And he said to them, Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”

The Faith of our Founding Fathers

Declarations and writings of our Founding Fathers and Early Statesmen on Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible.

By David Barton

John Adams
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; JUDGE; DIPLOMAT; ONE OF TWO SIGNERS OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
“The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
“The Holy Ghost carries on the whole Christian system in this earth. Not a baptism, not a marriage, not a sacrament can be administered but by the Holy Ghost. . . . There is no authority, civil or religious – there can be no legitimate government but what is administered by this Holy Ghost. There can be no salvation without it. All without it is rebellion and perdition, or in more orthodox words damnation.”
Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company: I mean hell.”
“The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.”
“Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. . . . What a Eutopia – what a Paradise would this region be!”
“I have examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world.”

John Quincy Adams
SIXTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; DIPLOMAT; SECRETARY OF STATE; U. S. SENATOR; U. S. REPRESENTATIVE; “OLD MAN ELOQUENT”; “HELL-HOUND OF ABOLITION”
“My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away [evade or object to]. . . . the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God.”
“The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes in the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures must hope that the religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth. Never since the foundation of the world have the prospects of mankind been more encouraging to that hope than they appear to be at the present time. And may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper till the Lord shall have made “bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” [Isaiah 52:10].”
“In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.”

Samuel Adams
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; “FATHER OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION”; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
“I . . . [rely] upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.”
“The name of the Lord (says the Scripture) is a strong tower; thither the righteous flee and are safe [Proverbs 18:10]. Let us secure His favor and He will lead us through the journey of this life and at length receive us to a better.”
“I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world . . . 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.”
“He also called on the State of Massachusetts to pray that the peaceful and glorious reign of our Divine Redeemer may be known and enjoyed throughout the whole family of mankind.13
we may with one heart and voice humbly implore His gracious and free pardon through Jesus Christ, supplicating His Divine aid . . . and above all to cause the religion of Jesus Christ, in its true spirit, to spread far and wide till the whole earth shall be filled with His glory with true contrition of heart to confess their sins to God and implore forgiveness through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior.”

Josiah Bartlett
MILITARY OFFICER; SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; JUDGE; GOVERNOR OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
Called on the people of New Hampshire . . . “to confess before God their aggravated transgressions and to implore His pardon and forgiveness through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ . . . that the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ may be made known to all nations, pure and undefiled religion universally prevail, and the earth be fill with the glory of the Lord.”

Gunning Bedford
MILITARY OFFICER; MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; FEDERAL JUDGE
“To the triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost – be ascribed all honor and dominion, forevermore – Amen.”

Elias Boudinot
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; SIGNED THE PEACE TREATY TO END THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION; FIRST ATTORNEY ADMITTED TO THE U. S. SUPREME COURT BAR; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; DIRECTOR OF THE U. S. MINT
“Let us enter on this important business under the idea that we are Christians on whom the eyes of the world are now turned… [L]et us earnestly call and beseech Him, for Christ’s sake, to preside in our councils. . . . We can only depend on the all powerful influence of the Spirit of God, Whose Divine aid and assistance it becomes us as a Christian people most devoutly to implore. Therefore I move that some minister of the Gospel be requested to attend this Congress every morning . . . in order to open the meeting with prayer.”

Jacob Broom
LEGISLATOR; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION
A letter to his son, James, attending Princeton University: “I flatter myself you will be what I wish, but don’t be so much flatterer as to relax of your application – don’t forget to be a Christian. I have said much to you on this head, and I hope an indelible impression is made.”

Charles Carroll
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; SELECTED AS DELEGATE TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; U. S. SENATOR
“On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits, not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts.”
“Grateful to Almighty God for the blessings which, through Jesus Christ Our Lord, He had conferred on my beloved country in her emancipation and on myself in permitting me, under circumstances of mercy, to live to the age of 89 years, and to survive the fiftieth year of independence, adopted by Congress on the 4th of July 1776, which I originally subscribed on the 2d day of August of the same year and of which I am now the last surviving signer.23”
“I, Charles Carroll. . . . give and bequeath my soul to God who gave it, my body to the earth, hoping that through and by the merits, sufferings, and mediation of my only Savior and Jesus Christ, I may be admitted into the Kingdom prepared by God for those who love, fear and truly serve Him.”
Congress, 1854, “The great, vital, and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Congress, U. S. House Judiciary Committee, 1854, “Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle… In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity… That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”

John Dickinson
SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA; GOVERNOR OF DELAWARE; GENERAL IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
“Rendering thanks to my Creator for my existence and station among His works, for my birth in a country enlightened by the Gospel and enjoying freedom, and for all His other kindnesses, to Him I resign myself, humbly confiding in His goodness and in His mercy through Jesus Christ for the events of eternity.”
“Governments could not give the rights essential to happiness… We claim them from a higher source: from the King of kings, and Lord of all the earth.”

Gabriel Duvall
SOLDIER; JUDGE; SELECTED AS DELEGATE TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION; COMPTROLLER OF THE U. S. TREASURY; U. S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
“I resign my soul into the hands of the Almighty Who gave it, in humble hopes of His mercy through our Savior Jesus Christ.”

Benjamin Franklin
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION; DIPLOMAT; PRINTER; SCIENTIST; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA
“As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and His religion as He left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see.”
“The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and guilding, lies here, food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more beatiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author.” (FRANKLIN’S EULOGY THAT HE WROTE FOR HIMSELF)

Elbridge Gerry
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; MEMBER OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
He called on the State of Massachusetts to pray that . . .”with one heart and voice we may prostrate ourselves at the throne of heavenly grace and present to our Great Benefactor sincere and unfeigned thanks for His infinite goodness and mercy towards us from our birth to the present moment for having above all things illuminated us by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, presenting to our view the happy prospect of a blessed immortality.”
“And for our unparalleled ingratitude to that Adorable Being Who has seated us in a land irradiated by the cheering beams of the Gospel of Jesus Christ . . . let us fall prostrate before offended Deity, confess sincerely and penitently our manifold sins and our unworthiness of the least of His Divine favors, fervently implore His pardon through the merits of our mediator.”
“And deeply impressed with a scene of our unparalleled ingratitude, let us contemplate the blessings which have flowed from the unlimited grave and favor of offended Deity, that we are still permitted to enjoy the first of Heaven’s blessings: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. ”

Alexander Hamilton
REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
Following his duel with Aaron Burr, in those final twenty four hours while life still remained in him, Hamilton called for two ministers, the Rev. J. M. Mason and the Rev. Benjamin Moore, to pray with him and administer Communion to him. Each of those two ministers reported what transpired. The Rev. Mason recounted: “General Hamilton said,“I went to the field determined not to take his life.” He repeated his disavowal of all intention to hurt Mr. Burr; the anguish of his mind in recollecting what had passed; and his humble hope of forgiveness from his God. I recurred to the topic of the Divine compassion; the freedom of pardon in the Redeemer Jesus to perishing sinners. “That grace, my dear General, which brings salvation, is rich, rich” – “Yes,” interrupted he, “it is rich grace.” “And on that grace,” continued I, “a sinner has the highest encouragement to repose his confidence, because it is tendered to him upon the surest foundation; the Scripture testifying that we have redemption through the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins according to the richness of His grace.” Here the General, letting go my hand, which he had held from the moment I sat down at his bed side, clasped his hands together, and, looking up towards Heaven, said, with emphasis, “I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Rev. Benjamin Moore reported:
Immediately after he was brought from the field . . . “a message was sent informing me of the sad event, accompanied by a request from General Hamilton that I would come to him for the purpose of administering the Holy Communion. I went. . . . I proceeded to converse with him on the subject of his receiving the Communion; and told him that with respect to the qualifications of those who wished to become partakers of that holy ordinance, my inquires could not be made in lan¬guage more expressive than that which was used by our own Church. – I asked, “Do you sincerely repent of your sins past? Have you a lively faith in God’s mercy through Christ, with a thankful remembrance of the death of Christ? And are you disposed to live in love and charity with all men?” He lifted up his hands and said, “With the utmost sincerity of heart I can answer those questions in the affirmative – I have no ill will against Col. Burr. I met him with a fixed resolution to do him no harm – I forgive all that happened.” . . . The Communion was then administered, which he received with great devotion, and his heart afterwards appeared to be perfectly at rest. I saw him again this morning, when, with his last faltering words, he expressed a strong confidence in the mercy of God through the intercession of the Redeemer. I remained with him until 2 o’clock this afternoon, when death closed the awful scene – he expired without a struggle, and almost without a groan. By reflecting on this melancholy event, let the humble believer be encouraged ever to hold fast that precious faith which is the only source of true consolation in the last extremity of nature. And let the infidel be persuaded to abandon his opposition to that Gospel which the strong, inquisitive, and comprehensive mind of a Hamilton embraced.”
“One other consequence of Hamilton’s untimely death was that it permanently halted the forma¬tion of a religious society Hamilton had proposed. Hamilton suggested that it be named the Christian Constitutional Society, and listed two goals for its formation: first, the support of the Christian religion; and second, the support of the Constitution of the United States. This organization was to have numerous clubs throughout each state which would meet regularly and work to elect to office those who reflected the goals of the Christian Constitutional Society. ”

John Hancock
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
“Sensible of the importance of Christian piety and virtue to the order and happiness of a state, I cannot but earnestly commend to you every measure for their support and encouragement.”
He called on the entire state to pray “that universal happiness may be established in the world and that all may bow to the scepter of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole earth be filled with His glory.”
He also called on the State of Massachusetts to pray . . .”that all nations may bow to the scepter of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that the whole earth may be filled with his glory, that the spiritual kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be continually increasing until the whole earth shall be filled with His glory, to confess their sins and to implore forgiveness of God through the merits of the Savior of the World, to cause the benign religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be known, understood, and practiced among all the inhabitants of the earth, to confess their sins before God and implore His forgiveness through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, that He would finally overrule all events to the advancement of the Redeemer’s kingdom and the establishment of universal peace and good will among men.45
that the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be established in peace and righteousness among all the nations of the earth, that with true contrition of heart we may confess our sins, resolve to forsake them, and implore the Divine forgiveness, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, our Savior. . . . And finally to overrule all the commotions in the world to the spreading the true religion of our Lord Jesus Christ in its purity and power among all the people of the earth.”

John Hart
JUDGE; LEGISLATOR; SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION
“Thanks be given unto Almighty God therefore, and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die and after that the judgment [Hebrews 9:27] . . . principally, I give and recommend my soul into the hands of Almighty God who gave it and my body to the earth to be buried in a decent and Christian like manner . . . to receive the same again at the general resurrection by the mighty power of God.”

Patrick Henry
REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; LEGISLATOR; “THE VOICE OF LIBERTY”; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA
“Being a Christian… is a character which I prize far above all this world has or can boast.”
“The Bible… is a book worth more than all the other books that were ever printed.”
“Righteousness alone can exalt America as a nation. Whoever thou art, remember this; and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself, and encourage it in others.”
“The great pillars of all government and of social life [are] virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone, that renders us invincible.”
“This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed.”

Samuel Huntington
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; JUDGE; GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT
“It becomes a people publicly to acknowledge the over-ruling hand of Divine Providence and their dependence upon the Supreme Being as their Creator and Merciful Preserver . . . and with becoming humility and sincere repentance to supplicate the pardon that we may obtain forgiveness through the merits and mediation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

James Iredell
RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NORTH CAROLINA; U. S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON
“For my part, I am free and ready enough to declare that I think the Christian religion is a Divine institution; and I pray to God that I may never forget the precepts of His religion or suffer the appearance of an inconsistency in my principles and practice.”

John Jay
PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; DIPLOMAT; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; ORIGINAL CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE U. S. SUPREME COURT; GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
“Condescend, merciful Father! to grant as far as proper these imperfect petitions, to accept these inadequate thanksgivings, and to pardon whatever of sin hath mingled in them for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior; unto Whom, with Thee, and the blessed Spirit, ever one God, be rendered all honor and glory, now and forever.”
“Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son. . . . Blessed be His holy name.”
“Mercy and grace and favor did come by Jesus Christ, and also that truth which verified the promises and predictions concerning Him and which exposed and corrected the various errors which had been imbibed respecting the Supreme Being, His attributes, laws, and dispensations.”
“By conveying the Bible to people . . . we certainly do them a most interesting act of kindness. We thereby enable them to learn that man was originally created and placed in a state of happiness, but, becoming disobedient, was subjected to the degradation and evils which he and his posterity have since experienced. The Bible will also inform them that our gracious Creator has provided for us a Redeemer in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed – that this Redeemer has made atonement “for the sins of the whole world,” and thereby reconciling the Divine justice with the Divine mercy, has opened a way for our redemption and salvation; and that these inestimable benefits are of the free gift and grace of God, not of our deserving, nor in our power to deserve. The Bible will also encourage them with many explicit and consoling assurances of the Divine mercy to our fallen race, and with repeated invitations to accept the offers of pardon and reconciliation. . . . They, therefore, who enlist in His service, have the highest encouragement to fulfill the du¬ties assigned to their respective stations; for most certain it is, that those of His followers who participate in His conquests will also participate in the tran¬scendent glories and blessings of His Triumph.”
“I recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to Him from whose goodness these blessings descend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow.”
“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.”
“The evidence of the truth of Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce conviction in candid minds… they who undertake that task will derive advantages.”
“Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”

Thomas Jefferson
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; DIPLOMAT; GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA; SECRETARY OF STATE; THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
“The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.”
“The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, God has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.”
“I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.”
“I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.”

William Samuel Johnson
JUDGE; MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE; U. S. SENATOR
“I . . . am endeavoring . . . to attend to my own duty only as a Christian. . . . let us take care that our Christianity, though put to the test . . . be not shaken, and that our love for things really good wax not cold.”
In an address to graduates: “You this day. . . . have, by the favor of Providence and the attention of friends, received a public education, the purpose whereof hath been to qualify you the better to serve your Creator and your country. You have this day invited this audience to witness the progress you have made. . . . Thus you assume the character of scholars, of men, and of citizens. . . . Go, then, . . . and exercise them with diligence, fidelity, and zeal. . . . Your first great duties, you are sensible, are those you owe to Heaven, to your Creator and Redeemer. Let these be ever present to your minds, and exemplified in your lives and conduct. Imprint deep upon your minds the principles of piety towards God, and a reverence and fear of His holy name. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and its practice is everlasting happiness. . . . Reflect deeply and often upon your relations with God. Remember that it is in God you live and move and have your being, – that, in the language of David, He is about your bed and about your path and spieth out all your ways – that there is not a thought in your hearts, nor a word upon your tongues, but lo! He knoweth them al¬together, and that He will one day call you to a strict account for all your conduct in this mortal life. Remember, too, that you are the redeemed of the Lord, that you are bought with a price, even the inestimable price of the precious blood of the Son of God. Adore Jehovah, therefore, as your God and your Judge. Love, fear, and serve Him as your Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Acquaint yourselves with Him in His word and holy ordinances. . . . Go forth into the world firmly resolved neither to be allured by its vanities nor contaminated by its vices, but to run with patience and perseverance, with firmness and cheerfulness, the glorious career of religion, honor, and virtue. . . . Finally, . . . in the elegant and expressive language are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” – and do them, and the God of peace shall be with you, to whose most gracious protection I now commend you, humbly imploring Almighty Goodness that He will be your guardian and your guide, your protector and the rock of your defense, your Savior and your God.”

James Kent
JUDGE; LAW PROFESSOR; “FATHER OF AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE”
“My children, I wish to talk to you. During my early and middle life I was, perhaps, rather skeptical with regard to some of the truths of Christianity. Not that I did not have the utmost respect for religion and always read my Bible, but the doctrine of the atonement was one I never could understand, and I felt inclined to consider as impossible to be received in the way Divines taught it. I believe I was rather inclined to Unitarianism; but of late years my views have altered. I believe in the doctrines of the prayer books as I understand them, and hope to be saved through the merits of Jesus Christ. . . . My object in telling you this is that if anything happens to me, you might know, and perhaps it would console you to remember, that on this point my mind is clear: I rest my hopes of salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Francis Scott Key
U. S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA; AUTHOR OF THE “STAR SPANGLED BANNER”
“May I always hear that you are following the guidance of that blessed Spirit that will lead you into all truth, leaning on that Almighty arm that has been extended to deliver you, trusting only in the only Savior, and going on in your way to Him rejoicing.”

James Madison
SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; AUTHOR OF THE FEDERALIST PAPERS; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; SECRETARY OF STATE; FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
“A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest, while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.”
“I have sometimes thought there could not be a stronger testimony in favor of religion or against temporal enjoyments, even the most rational and manly, than for men who occupy the most honorable and gainful departments and who are rising in reputation and wealth, publicly to declare their unsatisfactoriness by becoming fervent advocates in the cause of Christ; and I wish you may give in your evidence in this way.”

James Manning
MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; PRESIDENT OF BROWN UNIVERSITY
“I rejoice that the religion of Jesus prevails in your parts; I can tell you the same agreeable news from this quarter. Yesterday I returned from Piscataway in East Jersey, where was held a Baptist annual meeting (I think the largest I ever saw) but much more remarkable still for the Divine influences which God was pleased to grant. Fifteen were baptized; a number during the three days professed to experience a change of heart. Christians were remarkably quickened; multitudes appeared.”

Henry Marchant
MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; ATTORNEY GENERAL OF RHODE ISLAND; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; FEDERAL JUDGE APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON
“And may God grant that His grace may really affect your heart with suitable impressions of His goodness. Remember that God made you, that God keeps you alive and preserves you from all harm, and gives you all the powers and the capacity whereby you are able to read of Him and of Jesus Christ, your Savior and Redeemer, and to do every other needful business of life. And while you look around you and see the great privileges and advantages you have above what other children have (of learning to read and write, of being taught the meaning of the great truths of the Bible), you must remember not to be proud on that account but to bless God and be thankful and endeavor in your turn to assist others with the knowledge you may gain.” (To his daughter.)

George Mason
DELEGATE AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION; “FATHER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS”
“I give and bequeath my soul to Almighty God that gave it me, hoping that through the meritorious death and passion of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ to receive absolution and remission for all my sins.”
“My soul I resign into the hands of my Almighty Creator, Whose tender mercies are all over His works. . . humbly hoping from His unbounded mercy and benevolence, through the merits of my blessed Savior, a remission of my sins.”

James McHenry
REVOLUTIONARY OFFICER; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; SECRETARY OF WAR UNDER PRESIDENTS GEORGE WASHINGTON AND JOHN ADAMS
“Public utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. Without the Bible, in vain do we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions.”
“Bibles are strong protections. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience.”

Thomas McKean
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA; GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA; GOVERNOR OF DELAWARE
In the case Respublica v. John Roberts, John Roberts was sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty of treason. Chief Justice McKean then told him: “You will probably have but a short time to live. Before you launch into eternity, it behooves you to improve the time that may be allowed you in this world: it behooves you most seriously to reflect upon your past conduct; to repent of your evil deeds; to be incessant in prayers to the great and merciful God to forgive your manifold transgressions and sins; to teach you to rely upon the merit and passion of a dear Redeemer, and thereby to avoid those regions of sorrow – those doleful shades where peace and rest can never dwell, where even hope cannot enter. It behooves you to seek the fellowship, advice, and prayers of pious and good men; to be persistent at the Throne of Grace, and to learn the way that leadeth to happiness. May you, reflecting upon these things, and pursuing the will of the great Father of light and life, be received into the company and society of angels and archangels and the spirits of just men made perfect; and may you be qualified to enter into the joys of Heaven – joys unspeakable and full of glory!”

Gouverneur Morris
REVOLUTIONARY OFFICER; MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; “PENMAN OF THE CONSTITUTION”; DIPLOMAT; U. S. SENATOR
“There must be religion. When that ligament is torn, society is disjointed and its members perish… The most important of all lessons is the denunciation of ruin to every state that rejects the precepts of religion.”
“Your good morals in the army give me sincere pleasure as it hath long been my fixed opinion that virtue and religion are the great sources of human happiness. More especially is it necessary in your profession firmly to rely upon the God of Battles for His guardianship and protection in the dreadful hour of trial. But of all these things you will and I hope in the merciful Lord.”

Jedidiah Morse
HISTORIAN OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION; EDUCATOR; “FATHER OF AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY”; APPOINTED BY SECRETARY OF STATE TO DOCUMENT CONDITION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS
“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. All efforts made to destroy the foundations of our Holy Religion ultimately tend to the subversion also of our political freedom and happiness. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation… in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom… Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government – and all the blessings which flow from them – must fall with them.”

John Morton
LEGISLATOR; JUDGE; SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION
“With an awful reverence to the Great Almighty God, Creator of all mankind, being sick and weak in body but of sound mind and memory, thanks be given to Almighty God for the same.”

James Otis
LEADER OF THE SONS OF LIBERTY; ATTORNEY & JURIST; MENTOR OF JOHN HANCOCK AND SAMUEL ADAMS
“Has government any solid foundation? Any chief cornerstone?… I think it has an everlasting foundation in the unchangeable will of God… The sum of my argument is that civil government is of God.”

Robert Treat Paine
MILITARY CHAPLAIN; SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MASSACHUSETTS; JUDGE
“I desire to bless and praise the name of God most high for appointing me my birth in a land of Gospel Light where the glorious tidings of a Savior and of pardon and salvation through Him have been continually sounding in mine ears.”
“I am constrained to express my adoration of the Supreme Being, the Author of my existence, in full belief of His Providential goodness and His forgiving mercy revealed to the world through Jesus Christ, through whom I hope for never ending happiness in a future state.”
“I believe the Bible to be the written word of God and to contain in it the whole rule of faith and manners.”

William Paterson
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW JERSEY; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; U. S. SENATOR; GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY; U. S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
“When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan. [invoking Proverbs 29:2 to instruct a grand jury].”

Timothy Pickering
REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; JUDGE; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; POSTMASTER GENERAL UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON; SECRETARY OF WAR UNDER PRESIDENTS GEORGE WASHINGTON AND JOHN ADAMS; SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS
“Pardon, we beseech Thee, all our offences of omission and commission; and grant that in all our thoughts, words, and actions, we may conform to Thy known will manifested in our consciences and in the revelations of Jesus Christ, our Savior.”
“We do not grieve as those who have no… resurrection to a life immortal. Here the believers in Christianity manifest their superior advantages, for life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel of Jesus Christ [II Timothy 1:10]. Prior to that revelation even the wisest and best of mankind were involved in doubt and they hoped, rather than believed, that the soul was immortal.”

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
REVOLUTIONARY GENERAL; LEGISLATOR; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; DIPLOMAT
“To the eternal and only true God be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen!”

John Randolph of Roanoke
CONGRESSMAN UNDER PRESIDENTS JOHN ADAMS, THOMAS JEFFERSON, JAMES MADISON, JAMES MONROE, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, ANDREW JACKSON; U. S. SENATOR; DIPLOMAT
“I have thrown myself, reeking with sin, on the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ His blessed Son and our (yes, my friend, our) precious Redeemer; and I have assurances as strong as that I now owe nothing to your rank that the debt is paid and now I love God – and with reason. I once hated him – and with reason, too, for I knew not Christ. The only cause why I should love God is His goodness and mercy to me through Christ.”
“I am at last reconciled to my God and have assurance of His pardon through faith in Christ, against which the very gates of hell cannot prevail. Fear hath been driven out by perfect love.”
“I have looked to the Lord Jesus Christ, and hope I have obtained pardon.”
“I still cling to the cross of my Redeemer, and with God’s aid firmly resolve to lead a life less unworthy of one who calls himself the humble follower of Jesus Christ.”

Benjamin Rush
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; SURGEON GENERAL OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; “FATHER OF AMERICAN MEDICINE”; TREASURER OF THE U. S. MINT; “FATHER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION”
“The Gospel of Jesus Christ prescribes the wisest rules for just conduct in every situation of life. Happy they who are enabled to obey them in all situations! . . . My only hope of salvation is in the infinite transcendent love of God manifested to the world by the death of His Son upon the Cross. Nothing but His blood will wash away my sins [Acts 22:16]. I rely exclusively upon it. Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly! [Revelation 22:20]”
“I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as satisfied that it is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament.”
“By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects… It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published.”
“The greatest discoveries in science have been made by Christian philosophers and . . . there is the most knowledge in those countries where there is the most Christianity.”
“The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.”
“The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools.”
“Christianity is the only true and perfect religion; and… in proportion as mankind adopt its principles and obey its precepts, they will be wise and happy.”
“The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world.”
“The Bible, when not read in schools, is seldom read in any subsequent period of life… The Bible… should be read in our schools in preference to all other books because it contains the greatest portion of that kind of knowledge which is calculated to produce private and public happiness.”

Roger Sherman
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION; SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION; “MASTER BUILDER OF THE CONSTITUTION”; JUDGE; FRAMER OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS; U. S. SENATOR
“I believe that there is one only living and true God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are a revelation from God, and a complete rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him. . . . That He made man at first perfectly holy; that the first man sinned, and as he was the public head of his posterity, they all became sinners in consequence of his first transgression, are wholly indisposed to that which is good and inclined to evil, and on account of sin are liable to all the miseries of this life, to death, and to the pains of hell forever. I believe that God . . . 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. . . . I believe a visible church to be a congregation of those who make a credible profession of their faith in Christ, and obedience to Him, joined by the bond of the covenant. . . . I believe that the sacraments of the New Testament are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. . . . I believe that the souls of believers are at their death made perfectly holy, and immediately taken to glory: that at the end of this world there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a final judgment of all mankind, when the righteous shall be publicly acquitted by Christ the Judge and admitted to everlasting life and glory, and the wicked be sentenced to everlasting punishment.”
“God commands all men everywhere to repent. He also commands them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and has assured us that all who do repent and believe shall be saved… God… has absolutely promised to bestow them on all these who are willing to accept them on the terms of the Gospel – that is, in a way of free grace through the atonement. “Ask and ye shall receive [John 16:24]. Whosoever will, let him come and take of the waters of life freely [Revelation 22:17]. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out” [John 6:37].”
“It is the duty of all to acknowledge that the Divine Law which requires us to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves, on pain of eternal damnation, is Holy, just, and good. . . . The revealed law of God is the rule of our duty.”
“True Christians are assured that no temptation (or trial) shall happen to them but what they shall be enabled to bear; and that the grace of Christ shall be sufficient for them.”
“The volume which he consulted more than any other was the Bible. It was his custom, at the commencement of every session of Congress, to purchase a copy of the Scriptures, to peruse it daily, and to present it to one of his children on his return.”

Richard Stockton
JUDGE; SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
“As my children will have frequent occasion of perusing this instrument, and may probably be particularly impressed with the last words of their father, I think it proper here not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great and leading doctrines of the Christian religion, such as the being of God; the universal defection and depravity of human nature; the Divinity of the person and the completeness of the redemption purchased by the blessed Savior; the necessity of the operations of the Divine Spirit; of Divine faith accompanied with an habitual virtuous life; and the universality of the Divine Providence: but also, in the bowels of a father’s affection, to exhort and charge my children that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that the way of life held up in the Christian system is calculated for the most complete happiness that can be enjoyed in this mortal state, and that all occasions of vice and immorality is injurious either immediately or consequentially – even in this life.”

Thomas Stone
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; SELECTED AS A DELEGATE TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
“Shun all giddy, loose, and wicked company; they will corrupt and lead you into vice and bring you to ruin. Seek the company of sober, virtuous and good people… which will lead you to solid happiness.”

Joseph Story
U. S. CONGRESSMAN; “FATHER OF AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE”; U. S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT JAMES MADISON
“One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations.”
“I verily believe that Christianity is necessary to support a civil society and shall ever attend to its institutions and acknowledge its precepts as the pure and natural sources of private and social happiness.”

Caleb Strong
DELEGATE AT THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION TO FRAME THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; RATIFIER OF THE CONSTITUTION; U. S. SENATOR; GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS
He called on the State of Massachusetts to pray that . . . “all nations may know and be obedient to that grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ.”

Zephaniah Swift
U. S. CONGRESSMAN; DIPLOMAT; JUDGE; AUTHOR OF AMERICA’S FIRST LEGAL TEXT (1795)
“Jesus Christ has in the clearest manner inculcated those duties which are productive of the highest moral felicity and consistent with all the innocent enjoyments, to which we are impelled by the dictates of nature. Religion, when fairly considered in its genuine simplicity and uncorrupted state, is the source of endless rapture and delight.”

Charles Thomson
SECRETARY OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; DESIGNER OF THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES; ALONG WITH JOHN HANCOCK, THOMSON WAS ONE OF ONLY TWO FOUNDERS TO SIGN THE INITIAL DRAFT OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE APPROVED BY CONGRESS
“I am a Christian. I believe only in the Scriptures, and in Jesus Christ my Savior.”

Jonathan Trumbull
JUDGE; LEGISLATOR; GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT; CONFIDANT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON AND CALLED “BROTHER JONATHAN” BY HIM
“The examples of holy men teach us that we should seek Him with fasting and prayer, with penitent confession of our sins, and hope in His mercy through Jesus Christ the Great Redeemer.”
“Principally and first of all, I bequeath my soul to God the Creator and giver thereof, and my body to the earth to be buried in a decent Christian burial, in firm belief that I shall receive the same again at the general resurrection through the power of Almighty God, and hope of eternal life and happiness through the merits of my dear Redeemer Jesus Christ.”
He called on the State of Connecticut to pray that . . . “God would graciously pour out His Spirit upon us and make the blessed Gospel in His hand effectual to a thorough reformation and general revival of the holy and peaceful religion of Jesus Christ.”

George Washington
JUDGE; MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS; COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY; PRESIDENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION; FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; “FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY”
“You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.”
“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”
“The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.”
“I now make it my earnest prayer that God would… most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion.”

Daniel Webster
U. S. SENATOR; SECRETARY OF STATE; “DEFENDER OF THE CONSTITUTION”
“The Christian religion – its general principles – must ever be regarded among us as the foundation of civil society.”
“Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.”
“To the free and universal reading of the Bible… men are much indebted for right views of civil liberty.”
“The Bible is a book… which teaches man his own individual responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow man.”

Noah Webster
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER; JUDGE; LEGISLATOR; EDUCATOR; “SCHOOLMASTER TO AMERICA”
“The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles… This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.”
“The moral principles and precepts found in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.”
“All the… evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”
“Our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion.”
“The Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children under a free government ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
“The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society – the best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men.”
The Christian religion… is the basis, or rather the source, of all genuine freedom in government… I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of Christianity have not a controlling influence.”

John Witherspoon
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; RATIFIER OF THE U. S. CONSTITUTION; PRESIDENT OF PRINCETON
“Christ Jesus – the promise of old made unto the fathers, the hope of Israel [Acts 28:20], the light of the world [John 8:12], and the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth [Romans 10:4] – is the only Savior of sinners, in opposition to all false religions and every uninstituted rite; as He Himself says (John 14:6): “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”
“No man, whatever be his character or whatever be his hope, shall enter into rest unless he be reconciled to God though Jesus Christ.”
“There is no salvation in any other than in Jesus Christ of Nazareth.”
“I shall now conclude my discourse by preaching this Savior to all who hear me, and entreating you in the most earnest manner to believe in Jesus Christ; for “there is no salvation in any other” [Acts 4:12].”
“It is very evident that both the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New are at great pains to give us a view of the glory and dignity of the person of Christ. With what magnificent titles is He adorned! What glorious attributes are ascribed to him!… All these conspire to teach us that He is truly and properly God – God over all, blessed forever.”
“If you are not reconciled to God through Jesus Christ – if you are not clothed with the spotless robe of His righteousness – you must forever perish.”
“He is the best friend to American liberty who is the most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I scruple not to call him an enemy to his country.”

Oliver Wolcott
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; MILITARY GENERAL; GOVERNOR OF CONNECTICUT
“Through various scenes of life, God has sustained me. May He ever be my unfailing friend; may His love cherish my soul; may my heart with gratitude acknowledge His goodness; and may my desires be to Him and to the remembrance of His name…. May we then turn our eyes to the bright objects above, and may God give us strength to travel the upward road. May the Divine Redeemer conduct us to that seat of bliss which He himself has prepared for His friends; at the approach of which every sorrow shall vanish from the human heart and endless scenes of glory open upon the enraptured eye. There our love to God and each other will grow stronger, and our pleasures never be dampened by the fear of future separation. How indifferent will it then be to us whether we obtained felicity by travailing the thorny or the agreeable paths of life – whether we arrived at our rest by passing through the envied and unfragrant road of greatness or sustained hardship and unmerited reproach in our journey. God’s Providence and support through the perilous perplexing labyrinths of human life will then forever excite our astonishment and love. May a happiness be granted to those I most tenderly love, which shall continue and increase through an endless existence. Your cares and burdens must be many and great, but put your trust in that God Who has hitherto supported you and me; He will not fail to take care of those who put their trust in Him….It is most evident that this land is under the protection of the Almighty, and that we shall be saved not by our wisdom nor by our might, but by the Lord of Host Who is wonderful in counsel and Almighty in all His operations.”

The Economic Lessons of Bethlehem

By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

At the heart of the “Christmas” story rests some important lessons concerning free enterprise, government, and the role of wealth in society.

Let’s begin with one of the most famous phrases: “There’s no room at the inn.” This phrase is often invoked as if it were a cruel and heartless dismissal of the tired travelers Joseph and Mary. Many renditions of the story conjure up images of the couple going from inn to inn only to have the owner barking at them to go away and slamming the door.

In fact, the inns were full to overflowing in the entire Holy Land because of the Roman emperor’s decree that everyone be counted and taxed. Inns are private businesses, and customers are their lifeblood. There would have been no reason to turn away this man of royal lineage and his beautiful, expecting bride.

In any case, the second chapter of St. Luke doesn’t say that they were continually rejected at place after place. It tells of the charity of a single inn owner, perhaps the first person they encountered, who, after all, was a businessman. His inn was full, but he offered them what he had: the stable. There is no mention that the innkeeper charged the couple even one copper coin, though given his rights as a property owner, he certainly could have.

It’s remarkable, then, to think that when the Word was made flesh with the birth of Jesus, it was through the intercessory work of a private businessman. Without his assistance, the story would have been very different indeed. People complain about the “commercialization” of Christmas, but clearly commerce was there from the beginning, playing an essential and laudable role.

And yet we don’t even know the innkeeper’s name. In two thousand years of celebrating Christmas, tributes today to the owner of the inn are absent. Such is the fate of the merchant throughout all history: doing well, doing good, and forgotten for his service to humanity.

Clearly, if there was a room shortage, it was an unusual event and brought about through some sort of market distortion. After all, if there had been frequent shortages of rooms in Bethlehem, entrepreneurs would have noticed that there were profits to be made by addressing this systematic problem, and built more inns.

It was because of a government decree that Mary and Joseph, and so many others like them, were traveling in the first place. They had to be uprooted for fear of the emperor’s census workers and tax collectors. And consider the costs of slogging all the way “from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David,” not to speak of the opportunity costs Joseph endured having to leave his own business. Thus we have another lesson: government’s use of coercive dictates distort the market.

Moving on in the story, we come to Three Kings, also called Wise Men. Talk about a historical anomaly for both to go together! Most Kings behaved like the Roman Emperor’s local enforcer, Herod. Not only did he order people to leave their homes and foot the bill for travel so that they could be taxed. Herod was also a liar: he told the Wise Men that he wanted to find Jesus so that he could “come and adore Him.” In fact, Herod wanted to kill Him. Hence, another lesson: you can’t trust a political hack to tell the truth.

Once having found the Holy Family, what gifts did the Wise Men bring? Not soup and sandwiches, but “gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” These were the most rare items obtainable in that world in those times, and they must have commanded a very high market price.

Far from rejecting them as extravagant, the Holy Family accepted them as gifts worthy of the Divine Messiah. Neither is there a record that suggests that the Holy Family paid any capital gains tax on them, though such gifts vastly increased their net wealth. Hence, another lesson: there is nothing immoral about wealth; wealth is something to be valued, owned privately, given and exchanged.

When the Wise Men and the Holy Family got word of Herod’s plans to kill the newborn Son of God, did they submit? Not at all. The Wise Men, being wise, snubbed Herod and “went back another way” – taking their lives in their hands (Herod conducted a furious search for them later). As for Mary and Joseph, an angel advised Joseph to “take the child and his mother, and fly into Egypt.” In short, they resisted. Lesson number four: the angels are on the side of those who resist government.

In the Gospel narratives, the role of private enterprise, and the evil of government power, only begin there. Jesus used commercial examples in his parables (e.g., laborers in the vineyard, the parable of the talents) and made it clear that he had come to save even such reviled sinners as tax collectors.

And just as His birth was facilitated by the owner of an “inn,” the same Greek word “kataluma” is employed to describe the location of the Last Supper before Jesus was crucified by the government. Thus, private enterprise was there from birth, through life, and to death, providing a refuge of safety and productivity, just as it has in ours.

The Black Regiment

An informative and motivational sermon on the pivotal role those bold and courageous preachers played during the founding of this great nation.

We desperately need that kind of pulpit patriotism from our preachers and churches today if America’s heritage and posterity is to survive the current and looming onslaught of well organized and calculated evil from our own government and forces around the world.

by Jeff Strite

1 Peter 4:17-4:19

OPEN: 1776. That was the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. But did signing that declaration actually make America a free and independent nation? No. There was still a long, and costly conflict that needed to fought with THE superpower of the day.

• America only had rag tag army was poorly paid (if they were paid at all)
• They had few – if any – uniforms.
• Their weapons were often what they brought from home.
• If any cannons, they were those taken from the British.
• And the soldiers often had to survive without adequate food and shelter.

By contrast they faced one of the most feared armies in the world. British troops were the best trained and equipped of any army of the day. Other nations looked on to this conflict and doubted these colonial soldiers could ever succeed. Few doubted these “Freedom fighters” would prevail…

But they did!
And one of the reasons they prevailed was that they had a secret weapon.
A secret weapon so powerful that even King George feared it.

That secret weapon was a powerful brigade of soldiers that Britain referred to as the “Black Regiment.” They were such a powerful force for the cause of freedom that, before the Revolution started, the British governor of Massachusetts made the statement that if this Black Regiment ever came out in force to support the Revolution England would lose.

So, what was this “Black Regiment”?
And what was it about them that made Britain fear it?
(Does Anybody Know Who They Were?)

The Black Regiment were the preachers throughout the Colonies
Their weapon was the Bible.
And their battlefield was the pulpit.
They were called the “Black” regiment because they wore black robes when they preached. (Some sources refer to them as the “Black Robed Regiment”)

It was their moral leadership and influence that enabled America to become a free and independent nation.

These preachers preached what they preached, because they believed that the very essence of Christian religion was the idea that liberty is a sacred gift from God and that the united Colonies of America had been chosen by God to guard the sacred lamp of liberty.

Thus, on the first anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, a preacher named Jonas Clark declared: “From this day will be dated the liberty of the world.”

Resistance to England became a sacred duty – to a people who were on the whole, highly a religious people. And they were led – in their resistance to the tyranny of England – by their preachers.

• It was a preacher named Jonathan Mayhew who observed that England imposed heavy taxes on the Colonies without allowing them to be represented in the Parliament. And so he coined the phrase that became a battle cry for the Revolutionaries: “No taxation without representation”
• It was a Presbyterian minister named John Witherspoon who preached on the similarities between the bondage of Israel in Egypt with the bondage the colonies suffered under England. You might know Witherspoon’s name – he was one of those who signed the Declaration of Independence.
• Samuel Cooper was a Congregational minister who actively preached on the Revolution to an audience that often included John Adams, Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren and John Hancock.
• And then there was the preacher named Peter Muhlenberg. How many of you have ever seen the movie the “Patriot” with Mel Gibson? Muhlenberg was the preacher who served as the model for the preacher in that movie. One Sunday, he stood in his pulpit and preached from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and he concluded his sermon with these words:
“The Bible tells us there is a time for all things, and there is a time to preach and a time to pray… and there is a time to fight, and that time has come now. Now is the time to fight!”
At that point Muhlenberg stripped off his preaching robes to reveal a military uniform pulled a musket out from behind the pulpit and began leading men in battle. He at Valley Forge, as well as the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and was instrumental in leading the Colonial army to victory at Yorktown – the battle which effectively ended the war.

These were just 4 of the hundreds of preachers across the colonies who made up Black Regiment. And they helped lead America to become a Free and powerful nation.

These preachers had two basic messages:
1st – The King of England was a tyrant and opposing God’s will by oppressing them.
And 2nd – the only way to free themselves from this evil ruler was to appeal to God.
Thus, one of the constant themes from their pulpits was the same as our text this morning:
“… it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God…” 1 Peter 4:17

Before Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, it called the nation to fasting and prayer. And whenever Congress met – it opened each session praying to God to guide them in their decisions and to protect the colonies and their army.

The General they had chosen to lead that army – George Washington – believed that holiness and prayer were essential if the army was to ever prevail against Britain. And George Washington’s religion was not just a “personal/private thing”. Washington IMPOSED Christian morality on his soldiers.

ILLUS: In one of his “General Orders” Washington declared this
“The General most earnestly requires and expects a due observance of those articles of war established for the government of the army which forbid profane cursing, swearing and drunkenness; and in the like manner requires and expects of all officers and soldiers not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on Divine Service to implore the blessings of Heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense.”

These were not suggestions by General Washington.
These were marching orders.
George Washington believed they could not be successful in war if they angered the God who he felt watched over this nation.

Most of the men who led our nation into war in 1776 were influenced by the “Black Regiment. The Black Regiment laid the foundation for our nation to become a free Country.
Even after the war this Black Regiment continued to lay the foundation for our Country so that it would become a Powerful and Great Nation that it is today.

And what was that foundation that they laid?
It was a foundation of repentance and humility.
They preached that IF God’s people continually humbled themselves and sought God’s guidance – God would bless their nation and America would continue to be a great and influential country.

They knew well the passage that declared: “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.” 2 Chronicles 7:14

And so not only did they preach that the colonies needed to rise up against England but they also preached that the Colonists needed to spend time in fasting and prayer… or else they would fail.

They believed that “… it (was) time for judgment to begin with the family of God…” 1 Peter 4:17
That was the message of the Black Regiment back in the beginning.
And that continues to be the message for America to that day.
The Church’s job is always to call people to repentance.
The Church’s job is always to declare that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and that EVERYONE must humble themselves before God and seek His will.

God has always called His people to confront their leaders with the need for righteousness.
• John the Baptist confronted King Herod about his immoral marriage.
• Jesus confronted the Pharisees about their hypocrisy.
• Peter confronted the Sanhedrin about their role in crucifying Christ.

Jesus said we need to be light and salt in a dark and foul tasting world.
The church has been called to stand for God’s Holiness and righteousness in an unholy and unrighteous world.

And for nearly 200 years the church did that.
Then in 1954 a Senator from Texas changed that. His name was Lyndon Baines Johnson’s and he passed an amendment to the tax code of that year. His objective was to silence his political opponents and anyone else who’d expose him for what he was. His amendment threatened non-profit organizations like churches who would attempt to speak out against politicians such as himself.
AND from that day to this the church has increasingly backed off on immorality in politics.

ILLUS: I recently talked with a relative of mine who isn’t a Christian. She receives our church newsletter and some of the things I’d written there had upset her. These comments were political in nature (though I rarely deal with politics, I often rail against immorality in the politicians). She said that if I continued to speak out against certain kinds of immorality I might end up in jail. I told her I doubted that would happen any time soon… (PAUSE) but even if it were to happen, and the government were to make preaching against immorality illegal, then they’d probably have to arrest me to stop me. BECAUSE that’s what God has called me/ church to do!!!
And God forbid that we should ever cease standing for Holiness… because we’re afraid!
God forbid we should cease preaching righteousness because we feared losing our tax exempt status of our buildings.
(pause)

But Peter tells us that judgment needs to start with the Family of God.
Repentance needs to start with us.
Holiness needs to begin in our church/ and in our homes/ in our own lives.

As Ephesians 5:3-8 tells us
“Among you (Christians) there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
Therefore do not be partners with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”

Live as Children of light.
Why?
Why is that so important?

1st – because the world isn’t going to listen to hypocrites.
The world knows what Jesus preached.
The world understands what the church should stand for.
But why would they listen to us if our lives aren’t any different than theirs?
Why would they listen to us if we laugh at the same dirty jokes they do?
… if we watch the same immoral TV shows and movies they do?
… if we’re just as greedy and selfish and rude as they are?
… if on our Facebook, we insult others or talk about things good Christians shouldn’t.
Why should they listen to us????
If your life/ mine – is no different than theirs – why should they change?
If our lives are no different, we may be paving the way for their eternity in hell.

So, first we need to apply Holiness to our own lives because the world doesn’t listen to hypocrites
AND 2nd – We need to be dedicated to holiness and righteousness because that may be the only thing that saves our nation from God’s judgment.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately… but our nation has descended into a moral quagmire.
• You can’t pray in School
• You can’t bring a Bible to school. (though you can take into the prisons?)
• Christians have lost their jobs because they talk to others about Christ, or let it be known they don’t approve of certain lifestyles.
• Some states are endorsing same-sex marriage.
• The American Psychiatric Society recently had a conference in Baltimore where many of the psychiatrists present said pedophilia was normal. (http://www.pointofview.net/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=17910&news_iv_ctrl=1201)
• And as we noted last week – New York banned God from the Ground Zero ceremonies
• And the list could go on and on and on….

It’s almost as if those in charge in America have decided to go out of their way to bring God’s judgment down on our nation. As we read in Ephesians 5 because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

The Bible tells of us of nations who were destroyed for doing far less than this!
What could be done to hold back God’s wrath?
What could stay the hand of God’s judgment on our nation?

The Bible tells us WE can. By dedicating ourselves to personally being holy and righteous before God.

ILLUS: In Genesis 18, we read that God visited Abraham in the plains of Mamre, and told him
“The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” 18:20-21

Now, realizing that God intended to destroy these wicked cities Abraham said “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?” Genesis 18:23-24

The LORD said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Genesis 18:26

Then Abraham bargained with God, and asked God if He would spare the city for 40/ 30/ 20 and finally 10 righteous people in the city. And God said He’d spare the city if ONLY 10 righteous people lived there.

Cities back then were not as large as they are today. But Sodom was a major trade center and I’d suspect Sodom may have had as many as 2000 people living there. If that’s true… only ½ % of those living there needed to be holy for Sodom to be spared.

Glenn Beck recently said that if we could just get10% of our leaders to make the right decisions – we can change this nation. Now, he may be right… but if we could just get ½ % of those living in America to live holy lives for Jesus – we could save our nation.

And that ½ % has to start with us.

CLOSE: The following words were written on the tomb of an Anglican bishop in the crypts of Westminster Abbey:
“When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits. I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it too, seemed immovable. As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it. And now as I lie on my deathbed. I suddenly realize, if I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and, who knows, I may have even changed the world.”

“… it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God…” 1 Peter 4:17

It’s time for God’s people to re-enlist in the Black Regiment for God.

The Believer's Authority

A powerful, life changing, 5-part series by Andrew Wommack that will transform the way believers relate to God and the world around them.

Discover the authority God gave to His people and how Jesus Christ administers His authority through us.

Andrew Wommack Ministries

Available Free Online

 

Spiritual Revival: The Want of the Church

A powerful sermon on the history of revival and the church’s perspective and responsibility to function as God’s ambassador and authority in the restoration and preservation of this great nation.

By Charles Spurgeon.

“O Lord, revive thy work.” Hab., iii. 2

ALL true religion is the work of God: it is pre-eminently so. If he should select out of his works that which he esteems most of all, he would select true religion. He regards the work of grace as being even more glorious than the works of nature; and he is, therefore, especially careful that it shall always be known, so that if any one dare to deny it, they shall do so in the teeth of repeated testimonies to the contrary, that God is indeed the author of salvation in the world and in the hearts of men, and that religion is the effect of grace, and is the work of God.

I believe the Eternal might sooner forgive the sin of ascribing the creation of the heavens and of the earth to an idol, than that of ascribing the works of grace to the efforts of the flesh, or to any thing else but God. It is a sin of the greatest magnitude to suppose that there is aught in the heart which can be acceptable unto God, save that which God himself has first created there.

When I deny God’s work in creating the sun, I deny one truth; but when I deny that he works grace in the heart, I deny a hundred truths in one; for in the denial of that one great truth, that God is the author of good in the souls of men, I have denied all the doctrines which make up the great articles of faith, and have run in the very teeth of the whole testimony of sacred Scripture I trust, beloved, that many of us have been taught, that if there be any thing in our souls which can carry us to heaven ’tis God’s work, and, moreover, that if there be might that is good and excellent found in his church, it is entirely God’s work, from first to last.

We firmly believe that it is God who quickens the soul which was dead, positively “dead in trespasses and sins;” that it is God who maintains the life of that soul, and God who consummates and perfects that life in the borne of the blessed, in the land of the hereafter. We ascribe nothing to man, but all to God. We dare not for a moment think that the conversion of the soul is effected either by its own effort or by the efforts of others; we conceive that there are means and agencies employed, but that the work is, both alpha and omega, wholly the Lord’s.

We think, therefore, that we are right in applying the text to the work of divine grace, both in the heart and in the church at large; and we think we can have no subject more appropriate for our consideration than the text. ” O Lord, revive thy work!”

First, beloved, trusting that the Spirit of God will help me I shall endeavor to apply the text to our own soul personally, and then to the state of the church at large, for it well needs that the Lord should revive his work in its midst.

I. First, then, to OURSELVES. We should begin at home. We too often flog the church, when the whip should be laid on our own shoulders. We drag the church, like a colossal culprit, to the altar; we bind her, and try to execute her at once; we bind her hands fast, and tear off thongfull after thongfull of her quivering flesh-finding fault with her where there is none, and magnifying her little errors; while we too often forget ourselves. Let us, therefore, commence with ourselves, remembering that we are part of the church, and that our own want of revival is in some measure the cause of that want in the church at large.

Now, I directly charge the great majority of professing Christians-and I take the charge to myself also-with a need of a revival of piety in these days. I shall lay the charge before you very peremptorily, because I think I have abundant grounds to prove it. I believe that the mass of Christian men in this age need a revival, and my reasons are these:

In the first place, look at the conduct and conversation of too many who profess to be the children of God. It ill becomes any man who occupies the sacred place of a pulpit to flatter his hearers, and I shall not attempt to do so. The evidence lies with too many of you who unite yourselves with Christian churches, and in practically protesting against your profession.

It has become very common now-a-days to join a church; go where you may you find professing Christians who sit down at some Lord’s table or another; but are there fewer cheats than there used to be? Are there less frauds committed? Do we find morality more extensive? Do we find vice entirely at an end? No, we do not. The age is as immoral as any that preceded it; there is still as much sin, although it is more cloaked and hidden.

The outside of the sepulcher may be whiter; but within, the bones are just as rotten as before. Society is not one whit improved. Those men who, in our popular magazines, give us a true picture of the state of London life, are to be believed and credited, for they do not stretch the truth-they have no motive for so doing; and the picture which they give of the morality of this great city is certainly appalling. It is a huge criminal, full of sin; and I say this, that if all the profession in London were true profession, it would not be nearly such a wicked place as it is; it could not be, by any manner of means.

My brethren, it is well known and who dares deny it that is not too partial, and who will not speak wilful falsehood? It is well known that it is not these days a sufficient guaranty even of a man’s honesty, that he is a member of a church. It is a hard thing for Christian ministers to say, but we must say it, and if friends say it not, enemies will; and better that the truth should be spoken in our midst, that men may see that we are ashamed of it, than that they should hear us impudently deny what we must confess to be true!

O sirs, the lives of too many members of Christian churches give us grave cause to suspect that there is none of the life of godliness in them all! Why that reaching after money, why that covetousness, why that following of the crafts and devices of a wicked world, why that clutching here and clutching there, that grinding of the faces of the poor, that stamping down of the workman, and such like things, if men are truly what they profess to be? God in heaven knows that what I speak is true, and too many here know it themselves.

If they be Christians, at least they want revival; if there be life in them, it is but a spark that is covered up with heaps of ashes; it needs to be fanned, ay, and it needs to be stirred also, that, haply, some of the ashes may be removed and the spark may have place to live. The church wants revival in the persons of its members. The members of Christian churches are not what once they were. It is fashionable to be religious now; persecution is taken away; and ah! I had almost said, the gates of the church were taken away with it.

The church has, with few exceptions, no gates now; her sons come in, and go out of it, just as they would march through St. Paul’s cathedral, and make it a very place of traffic, instead of regarding it as a select and sacred spot, to be apportioned to the holy of the Lord, and to the excellent of the earth, in whom is God’s delight.

If this be not true, you know how to treat it; you need not confess to sin you have not committed; but if it be true, and true in your case, O humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God; ask him to search and try you, that if you be not his child you may be helped to renounce your profession, lest it should be to you but the gaudy pageantry of death, and mere tinsel and gew-gaw in which to go to hell. If you be his, ask that he may give you more grace, that you may renounce these faults and follies, and turn unto him with full purpose of heart, as the effect of a revived godliness in your soul.

Again: where the conduct of professing Christians is consistent, let me ask the question, Does not the conversation of many a professor lead us either to doubt the truthfulness of his piety, or else to pray that his piety may be revived? Have you noticed the conversation of too many who think themselves Christians? You might live with them from the first of January to the end of December, and you would never be tired of their religion for what you would hear of it. They scarcely mention the name of Jesus Christ at all.

On Sabbath afternoon all the ministers are talked over, faults are found with this one and the other, and all kinds of conversation take place, which they call religious, because it is concerning religious places. But do they ever talk of what be said and did, and what he suffered for us here below? Do you often hear the salutation addressed to you by your brother Christian, “Friend, how doth thy soul prosper?”

When we step into each other’s houses, do we begin to talk concerning the cause and truth of God? Do you think that God would now stoop from heaven to listen to the conversation of his church, as once he did, when it was said, “The Lord hearkened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name?”

I solemnly declare, as the result of thorough, and, I trust, impartial observation, that the conversation of Christians, while it cannot be condemned on the score of morality, must almost invariably be condemned on the score of Christianity.

We talk too little about our Lord and Master. That word sectarianism has crept into our midst, and we must say nothing about Christ, because we are afraid of being called sectarians. I am a sectarian, and hope to be so until I die, and to glory in it; for I can not see, now-a-days, that a man can be a Christian, thoroughly in earnest, without winning for himself the title.

Why, we must not talk of this doctrine, because perhaps such a one disbelieves it; we must not notice such and such a truth in Scripture, because such and such a friend doubts or denies it; and so we drop all the great and grand topics which used to be the staple commodities of godly talk, and begin to speak of any thing else, because we feel that we can agree better on worldly things than we can on spiritual.

Is not that the truth? and is it not a sad sin with some of us, that we have need to pray unto God, “O Lord, revive thy work in my soul, that my conversation may be more Christ-like, seasoned with salt, and kept by the Holy Spirit?”

And yet a third remark here. There are some whose conduct is all that we could wish, whose conversation is for the most part unctuous with the gospel, mid savory of truth ; but even they will confess to a third charge, which I must now sorrowfully bring against them and against myself; namely, that there is too little real communion with Jesus Christ.

If thanks to divine grace, we are enabled to keep our conduct tolerably consistent, and our lives unblemished, yet how much have we to cry out against ourselves, from a lack of that holy fellowship with Jesus which is the high mark of the true child of God Brethren, let me ask some of you how long it is since you have had a love-visit from Jesus Christ-how long since you could say, “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies?” How long is it since “he brought you into his banqueting house, and his banner over you was love?”

Perhaps some of you will be able to say, “It was but this morning that I saw him; I beheld his face with joy, and was ravished with his countenance.” But I fear the greatest part of you will have to say, “Ah, sir, for months I have been without the shinings of his countenance.” What have you been doing, then, and what has been your way of life? Have you been groaning every day? Have you been weeping every minute? “No!” Then you ought to have been.

I can not understand how your piety can be of any very brilliant order, if you can live without the sunlight of Christ, and yet be happy. Christians will lose sometimes the society of Jesus; the connection between themselves and Christ will be at times severed, as to their own feeling of it; but they will always groan and cry when they lose their Jesus. What! is Christ thy Brother, and does he live in thine house, and yet thou hast not spoken to him for a month? I fear there is little love between thee and thy Brother, for thou hast had no conversation with him for so long.

What! is Christ the Husband of his church, and has she had no fellowship with him for all this time? Brethren, let me not condemn you, let me not even judge you, but let your conscience speak. Mine shall, and so shall yours. Have we not too much forgotten Christ? Have we not lived too much without him? Have we not been contented with the world, instead of desiring Christ? Have we been, all of us, like that little ewe lamb that did drink out of the master’s cup, and feed from his table? Have we not rather been content to stray upon the mountains, feeding anywhere but at home?

I fear many of the troubles of our heart spring from want of communion with Jesus. Not many of us are the kind of men who, living with Jesus, his secrets must know. O! no; we live too much without the light of his countenance; and are too happy when he is gone from us. Let us, each of us, then, for I am sure we have each of us need, in some measure, put up the prayer, “O Lord, revive thy work!” Ah! methinks I hear one professor saying, “Sir, I need no revival in my heart; I am everything I wish to be.” Down on your knees, my brethren! down on your knees for him! He is the man that most needs to be prayed for.

He says that he needs no revival in his soul; but he needs a revival of his humility, at any rate. If he supposes that he is all that he ought to be, and if he knows that he is all he wishes to be, he has very mean notions of what a Christian is, or of what a Christian should be, and very unjust ideas of himself. Those are in the best condition who, while they know they want reviving, yet feel their condition and groan under it.

Now, I think I have in some degree substantiated my charge, I fear with too strong arguments; and now let me notice, that the text has something in it which I trust that each of us has. Here is not only an evil implied in these word-“O Lord, revive thy work;” but there is an evil evidently felt. You see Habakkuk knew how to groan about it. O Lord,” said he, “revive thy work!” Ah! we many of us want revival, but few of us feel that we want it. It is a blessed sign of life within, when we know how to groan over our departures from the living God.

It is easy to find by hundreds those that have departed, but you must count those by ones who know how to groan over their departure. The true believer, however, when he discovers that he needs revival, will not be happy; he will begin at once that incessant and continuous strain of cries and groans which will at last prevail with God, and bring the blessing of revival down. He will, days and nights in succession, cry, “O Lord, revive thy work!”

Let me mention some groaning times, which will always occur to the Christian who needs revival. I am sure he will always groan, when he looks upon what the Lord did for him of old. When he recollects the Mizars and the Hermons, and those places where the Lord appeared of old to him, saying, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love,” I know he will never look back to them without tears.

If he is what he should be as a Christian, or if he thinks he is not in a right condition, he will always weep when he remembers God’s lovingkindness of old. O! whenever the soul has lost fellowship with Jesus, it can not bear to think of the “chariots of Aminadab;” it can not endure to think of “the banqueting house,” for it hath not been there so long; and when it does think of it, it says,

“The peaceful hours I then enjoyed,
How sweet their memory still.
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.”

When he hears a sermon which relates the glorious experience of the believer who is in a healthy state, he will put his hand upon his heart, and say, “Ah! such was my experience once; but those happy days are gone. My sun is set; those stars which once lit up my darkness are all quenched;

O! that I might again behold him; O! that I might once more see his face;

O! for those sweet visits from on high; O! for the grapes of Eschol once more.” And by the rivers of Babylon you will sit down and weep. You will weep, when you remember your goings up to Zion-when the Lord was precious to you, when he laid bare his heart, and was pleased also to fill your heart with the fullness of his love. Such times will be groaning times, when you remember “the years of the right hand of the Most High.”

Again, to a Christian who wants revival, ordinances will be also groaning times. He will go up to the house of God; but he will say of himself when he comes away, “Ah! how changed! When I once went with the multitude that kept holy day every word was precious. When the song ascended my soul had wings, and up it flew to its nest among the stars; when the prayer was offered, I could devoutly say, ‘Amen;’ but now the preacher preaches as he did before; my brethren are as profited as once they were; but the sermon is dry to me, and dull.

I find no fault with the preacher; I know the fault is in myself. The song is just the same-as sweet the melody, as pure the harmony; but ah! my heart is heavy; my harp strings are broken, and I can not sing;” and the Christian will return from those blessed means of grace, sighing and sobbing, because he knows he wants revival. More especially at the Lord’s Supper he will think, when he sits at the table, “O! what seasons I once had here!

In breaking the bread and drinking the wine my Master was present.” He will bethink himself how his soul was even carried to the seventh heaven, and the house was made “the very house of God and the gate of heaven.” “But now,” he says, “it is bread, dry bread to me; it is wine, tasteless wine, with none of the sweetness of paradise in it; I drink, but all in vain. No thoughts of Christ. My heart will not rise; my soul can not heave a thought half way to him!” And then the Christian will begin to groan again – “O Lord revive thy work!”

But I shall not detain you upon that subject. Those of you who know that you are in Christ, but feel that you are not in a desirable condition, because you do not love him enough, and have not that faith in him which you desire to have, I would just ask you this: Do you groan over it? Can you groan now? When you feel your heart is empty, is it “an aching void?” When you feel that your garments are stained, can you wash those garments with tears? When you think your Lord is gone, can you hang out the black flag of sorrow, and cry, “O my Jesus! O my Jesus! art thou gone?” If thou canst, then I bid thee do it. Do it, do it; and may God be pleased to give thee grace to continue to do it, until a happier era shall dawn in the reviving of thy soul!

And remark, in the last place, upon this point, that the soul, when it is really brought to feel its own sad estate, because of its declension and departure from God, is never content without turning its groanings into prayer, and without addressing the prayer to the right quarter: “O Lord, revive thy work!” Some of you, perhaps, will say, “Sir, I feel my need of revival; I intend to set to work this very afternoon, as soon as I shall retire from this place, to revive my soul.” Do not say it; and, above all things, do not try to do it, for you never will do it. Make no resolutions as to what you will do; your resolutions will as certainly be broken as they are made, and your broken resolutions will but increase the number of your sins. I exhort you, instead of trying to revive yourself, to offer prayers. Say not, “I will revive myself,” but cry, “O Lord, revive thy work!”

And let me solemnly tell thee, thou hast not yet felt what it is to decline, thou dost not yet know how sad is thine estate, otherwise thou wouldest not talk of reviving thyself. If thou didst know thy own position, thou wouldest as soon expect to see the wounded soldier on the battle-field heal himself without medicine, or convey himself to the hospital when his limbs are shot away, as thou wouldest expect to revive thyself without the help of God. I bid thee not do anything, nor seek to do any thing, until first of all thou hast addressed Jehovah himself by mighty prayer-until thou hast cried out, “O Lord, revive thy work!”

Remember, he that first made you must keep you alive; and he that has kept you alive must restore more life to you. He that has preserved you from going down to the pit, when your feet have been sliding, can alone set you again upon a rock, and establish your goings. Begin, then, by humbling yourself-giving up all hope of reviving yourself as a Christian, but beginning at once with firm prayer and earnest supplication to God: “O Lord, what I cannot do, do thou! O Lord, revive thy work!”

Christian brethren, I leave these matters with you. Give them the attention they deserve. If I have erred, and in aught judged you too harshly, God shall forgive me, for I have meant it honestly. But if I have spoken truly, lay it to your hearts, and turn your houses into a “Bochim.” Weep men apart, and women apart, husbands apart, and wives apart. Weep, weep, my brethren: “It is a sad thing to depart from the living God.” Weep, and may he bring you back to Zion, that you may one day return like Israel, not with weeping, but with songs of everlasting joy!

II. And now I come to the second part of the subject, upon which I must be more brief. In THE CHURCH ITSELF, taken as a body, this prayer ought to be one incessant and solemn litany: “O Lord, revive thy work!”

In the present era there is a sad decline of the vitality of godliness. This age has become too much the age of form, instead of the age of life. I date the hour of life from this day one hundred years ago when the first stone was laid of this building in which we now worship God. Then was the day of life divine, and of power, sent down from on high. God had clothed Whitefield with power: he was preaching with a majesty and a might of which one could scarcely think mortals could ever be capable; not because he was anything in himself, but because his Master girded him with might. After Whitefield there was a succession of great and holy men.

But now, sirs, we have fallen upon the dregs of time. Men are the rarest things in all this world; we have not many left now. We have no men in government, to conduct our politics, and scarcely any men in religion. We have the things that perform their duties, as they are called; we have the good, and, perhaps, the honest things, who in the regular routine go on like pack-horses with their bells, for ever in the old style; but men who dare to be singular, because to be singular is generally to be right in a wicked world, are not very many in this age. Compared with the puritanic times even, where are our divines!

Could we marshal together our Howes and our Charnocks? Could we gather together such names as I could mention about fifty at a time? I trow not. Nor could we bring together such a galaxy of grace and talent as that which immediately followed Whitefield. Think of Rowland Hill, Newton, Toplady, Doddridge, and numbers of others whom time would fail me to mention. They are gone, they are gone; their venerated dust sleeps in the earth, and where are their successors? Ask where, and echo will reply, “Where?” There are none. Successors of them, where are they? God hath not yet raised them up, or, if he have, you have not yet found out where they are.

There is preaching, and what is it? “O Lord, help thy servant to preach, and teach him by thy Spirit what to say.” Then out comes the manuscript, and they read it. A pure insult to Almighty God! We have preaching, but it is of this order. It is not preaching at all. It is speaking very beautifully and very finely, possibly eloquently, in some sense of the word but where is the right down preaching, such as Whitefield’s? Have you ever read one of his sermons? You will not think him eloquent; you cannot think him so. His expressions were rough, frequently very coarse and unconnected; there was very much declamation about him; it was a great part, indeed, of his speech.

But where lay his eloquence? Not in the words you read, but in the tone in which he delivered them, and in the earnestness with which he felt them, and in the tears which ran down his cheeks, and in the pouring out of his soul. The reason why he was eloquent was just what the word means. He was eloquent, because he spoke right out from his heart-from the innermost depths of the man. You could see when he spoke that he meant what he said. He did not speak as a trade, or as a mere machine, but he preached what he felt to be the truth, and what he could not help preaching. When you heard him preach, you could not help feeling that he was a man who would die if he could not preach, and with all his might call to men and say, “Come! come! come to Jesus Christ, and believe on him!”

Now, that is just the lack of these times. Where, where is earnestness now? It is neither in pulpit nor yet in pew, in such a measure as we desire it; and it is a sad, sad age, when earnestness is scoffed at, and when that very zeal which ought to be the prominent characteristic of the pulpit is regarded as enthusiasm and fanaticism. I ask God to make us all such fanatics as most men laugh at-to make us all just such enthusiasts as many despise. We reckon it the greatest fanaticism in the world to go to hell, the greatest enthusiasm upon earth to love sin better than righteousness; and we think those neither fanatics nor enthusiasts who seek to obey God rather than man, and follow Christ in all his ways. We repeat, that one sad proof that the church wants revival is the absence of that death-like, solemn earnestness which was once seen in Christian pulpits.

The absence of sound doctrine is another proof of our want of revival. Do you know who are called Antinomians now, who are called “hypers,” who are laughed at, who are rejected as being unsound in the faith? Why, the men that once were the orthodox are now the heretics. We can turn back to the records of our Puritan fathers, to the articles of the Church of England, to the preaching of Whitefield, and we can say of that preaching, it is the very thing we love; and the doctrines which were then uttered are and we dare to say it everywhere the very self-same doctrines that he proclaimed. But because we choose to proclaim them, we are thought singular and strange; and the reason is, because sound doctrine hath to a great degree ceased. It began in this way.

First of all the truths were fully believed, but the angles were a little taken off. The minister believed election, but he did not use the word, for fear it should in some degree disturb the equanimity of the deacon in the green pew in the corner. He believed that all men were depraved, but he did not say it positively because if he did, there was a lady who had subscribed so much to the chapel-she would not come again; so that while he did believe it, and did say it in some sense, he rounded it a little. Afterward it came to this.

Ministers said, “We believe these doctrines, but we do not think them profitable to preach to the people. They are quite true: free grace is true; the great doctrines of grace that were preached by Christ, by Paul, by Augustine, by Calvin, and down to this age by their successors, are true; but they had better be kept back-they must be very cautiously dealt with; they are very high and dreadful doctrines, and they must not be preached; we believe them, but we dare not speak them out.”

After that it came to something worse. They said within themselves, “Well, if these doctrines will not do for us to preach, perhaps they are not true at all;” and going one step further, they said they dare not preach them. They did not actually say it, perhaps, but they began just to hint that they were not true; then they went one step further, giving us something which they said was the truth; and then they would cast us out of the synagogue, as if they were the rightful owners of it, and we were the intruders. So they have passed on from bad to worse; and if you read the standard divinity of this age, and the standard divinity of Whitefleld’s day, you will find that the two cannot by any possibility stand together. We have got a “new theology.”

New theology? Why, it is anything but a Theology; it is a theology which hath cast out God utterly and entirely, and enthroned man, as it is the doctrine of man, and not the doctrine of the everlasting God. We want a revival of sound doctrine once more in the midst of the land.

And the church at large, may be, wants a revival of downright earnestness in its members. Ye are not the men to fight the Lord’s battles yet. Ye have not the earnestness, the zeal, which once the children of God had. Your forefathers were oaken men; ye are willow men. Our people, what are they many of them? Strong in doctrine when they are with strong doctrine men ; but they waver when they get with others, and they change as often as they change their company; they say sometimes one thing, and sometimes another. They are not the men to go to the stake and die; they are not the men that know how to die daily, and so are ready for death when it comes.

Look at our prayer-meetings, with here and there a bright exception. Go in. There are six women; scarcely ever enough members come to pray four times. Look at them. Prayer-meetings they are called ; spare meetings they ought to be called, for sparely enough they are attended. And very few there be that go to our fellowship-meetings, or to any other meetings that we have to help one another in the fear of the Lord. Are they attended at all?

I would like to see a newspaper printed somewhere, containing a list of all the persons that went to those meetings during the week in any of our chapels. Ah! my friends, if they should comprise all the Christians in London, you might find that a chapel or two would hold them all. There are few enough that go. We have not earnestness, we have not life, as we once had; if we had, we should be called worse names than we are; we should have viler epithets thrown at us, if we were more true to our Master; we should not have all things quite so comfortable, if we served God better.

We are getting the church to be an institution of our land-an honorable institution. Ah! some think it a grand thing when the church becomes an honorable institution! Methinks it shows the church has swerved, when she begins to be very honorable in the eyes of the world. She must still be cast out, she must still be called evil, and still be despised, until that day shall come, when her Lord shall honor her because she has honored him-shall honor her, even in this world, in the day of his appearing.

Beloved, do you think it is true that the church wants reviving? Yes, or no? “No,” you say, “not to the extent that you suppose. We think the church is in a good condition. We are not among those who cry, ‘The former days were better than these.'” Perhaps you are not: you may be wiser than we are, and therefore you are able to see those various signs of goodness which are to us so small that we are not able to discover them.

You may suppose that the church is in a good condition; if so, of course you can not sympathize with me in preaching from such a text, and urging you to use such a prayer. But there are others of you who are frequently prone to cry, “The church wants reviving.” Let me bid you, instead of grumbling at your minister, instead of finding fault with the different parts of the church, to cry, “O Lord revive thy work!”

“O!” says one, “if we had another minister. O! if we had another kind of worship. O! if we had a different sort of preaching.” Just as if that were all! It is, “O! if the Lord would come into the hearts of the men you have got. O! if he would make the forms you do use full of power.” You do not want fresh ways or fresh machinery; you want the life in what you have.

There is an engine on a railway; a train has to be moved. “Bring another engine,” says one, “and another, and another.” The engines are brought, but the train does not move at all. Light the fire, and get the steam up, that is what you want; not fresh engines. We do not want fresh ministers, or fresh plans, or fresh ways, though many might be invented, to make the church better; we only want life in what we have got.

Given, the very man who has emptied your chapel; given, the selfsame person that brought your prayer-meeting low; God can make the chapel crowded, open the doors yet, and give thousands of souls to that very man. It is not a new man that is wanted; it is the life of God in him. Do not be crying out for something new; it will no more succeed, of itself than what you have. Cry, “O Lord, revive thy work!”

I have noticed in different churches, that the minister has thought first of this contrivance, then of that. He tried one plan, and thought that would succeed; then he tried another; that was not it. Keep to the old plan, but get life in it. We do not want anything new; “the old is better”-let us keep to it. But we want the life in the old. “O!” men cry, “we have nothing but the shell; they are going to give us a new shell.” No, sirs, we will keep the old one, but we will have the life in the shell too; we will have the old thing; but we must, or else we will throw the old away, have the life in the old. O! that God would give us life.

The church wants fresh revivals O! for the days of Cambuslang again, when Whitefield preached with power. O! for the days when in this place hundreds were converted sometimes under Whitefield’s sermons. It has been known that two thousand credible cases of conversion have happened under one solitary discourse.

O! for the age when eyes should be strained, and ears should be ready to receive the word of God, and when men should drink in the word of life, as it is indeed, the very water of life, which God gives to dying souls! O! for the age of deep feeling-the age of deep, thorough-going earnestness!

Let us ask God for it; let us plead with him for it. Perhaps he has the man, or the men, somewhere, who will shake the world yet; perhaps even now he is about to pour forth a mighty influence upon men, which shall make the church as wonderful in this age, as it ever was in any age that has passed.

Should Christians Run For Office?

The 1777, the Georgia Constitution stated that ministers, or “clergymen”, should not be involved in politics.

When Rev. Witherspoon learned of this prohibition, he wrote the following rational response exposing the irrationality of that position.

This article is about Rev. Witherspoon’s letter on why ministers should be permitted to serve in State legislatures.

Wallbuilders

Who are the “Nicolaitans”?

The “Nicolaitans”, as referred to in Revelations Chapter 2, were a mysterious group of wicked religious imposters. What did they teach? Why does God hate them? Do they still exist today? In the warnings to the seven churches of Revelation, we are told to beware of them. Why are they dangerous and how would you recognize them, today?
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by William F. Dankenbring

In Revelation, chapter 2, we read of an enigmatic sect or group called the Nicolaitans who post a great threat to the churches of God. The Messiah, Yeshua, says to the Ephesus church: “But this you have, that you hate the DEEDS of the Nicolaitans, which I also HATE” (Rev. 2:6). Notice that they hated and rejected the doctrines, works, and doctrines of the “Nicolaitans.”

The Ephesus church was historically a type or antitype of the first and second century churches of God – essentially, the first generation of the church and their early descendents. But Christ said, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to [all] the churches” (v.7).

Then, to the Pergamos church, who existed in a succeeding period of the church, Yeshua declares again: “But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. REPENT, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth” (vs. 14-16).

Doctrine of Balaam

Notice that their teachings are comparable or the same as the doctrine of Balaam, the arch apostate deceiver and prophet who tried to use divine magic against Israel when they came out of Egypt. When God would not allow him to place a curse on Israel, he later taught the Midianites and their allies to “seduce” Israel from their faithfulness to God by sending their daughters and wives to use their sexual charms on them and to entice them to commit immorality and the partake of pagan festivities and idolatrous worship, combining paganism with the worship of God – something which God considers an abomination and thoroughly detests! The blending of the truth of God with paganism and wicked pagan festivals and practices is an abhorrence to God. It is called religious “syncretism.”

The word “Nicolaitans,” in Greek, means “followers of Nicolas.” The name “Nicolas” means “victor of the people.”

Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary says of them, “They seem to have held that it was lawful to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit the immoral excesses of the heathen, in opposition to the decree of the Church rendered in Acts 15:20, 29. Mingling themselves in the orgies of idolatrous feasts, they brought the impurities of those feasts into the meetings of the Christian Church. And all this was done, it must be remembered, not simply as an indulgence of appetite, but as a part of a SYSTEM, supported by a “doctrine,” accompanied by the boasts of a prophetic illumination” (p.449).

Early Church Syncretism

The Nicolaitans, therefore, were the early Christian-pagan syncretists, the false teachers that crept into the church, who disguised themselves as followers of Christ – who professed to be His ministers and servants – but who led the people astray.

Peter wrote of them, saying, “But there were also false prophets among the people [such as Balaam], even as there will be FALSE TEACHERS among you, who will secretly bring in DESTRUCTIVE HERESIES, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed” – by the world around, which will paint all true Christians with the same brush-stroke, as being corrupt, immoral, and evil, because of the shenanigans and wicked works of these “Nicolaitans” or false Christians, false teachers who claim to represent Messiah and His truth (II Pet.2:1-2).

Peter goes on, “By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words” (v.2). He says of them, that they “despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed,” and like brutish beasts “speak evil of the things they do not understand” (verse10, 12). “They are spots and blemishes [in the churches], carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you . . . They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, FOLLOWING THE WAY OF BALAAM the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness” (verses 13-15).

These are the ‘Nicolaitans.” Halley’s Bible Handbook tells us of them, “Sexual vice was actually a part of heathen worship, and recognized as a proper thing in heathen festivals. Priestesses of Diana and kindred deities were public prostitutes. The thing had been a troublesome question for Gentile churches from the start. . . Meantime great multitudes of heathen had become Christians, and had carried some of their old ideas into their new religion. . . Naturally there were all sorts of attempts to harmonize these heathen practices with the Christian religion.

Many professing Christian teachers, claiming inspiration from God, were advocating the right to free participation in heathen immoralities. In Ephesus, the Christian pastors, as a body, excluded such teachers. But in Pergamum and Thyatira, while we are not to think that the main body of pastors held such teachings, yet they tolerated within their ranks those who did” (p.694).

Ancient Pergamos was a city where the worship of Zeus and Asclepios were endemic, whose symbol was a serpent entwined around a rod or staff. It was a city where paganism and politics were closely entwined and allied. Nicolaitan pressures were very strong in this city where pressures to “compromise” would have been very heavy.

“Sacrificed to Idols”

The Nicolaitans seduced God’s people to “eat things sacrificed to idols” – that is, participate in heathen, pagan festivals, including sexual immorality – in other words, to commit spiritual fornication and adultery – which is IDOLATRY! This convergence of Christianity with pagan beliefs and practices was sheer APOSTASY in the eyes of God!

The Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary tells us, “Since the same practice and teaching of immorality and of idolatry appear in the church of Thyatira, the Nicolaitans, though not named, were probably present also in this church (Rev.2:20-25)” (p.547). By the time of the Thyatira church age, the problem had grown into a much greater state or condition, for at that time a woman, “Jezebel,” represented the group of apostate heretics and their heresy – a powerful church in conflict with the true Church, masquerading as the true Church.

John wrote, to Thyatira, “Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because YOU ALLOW THAT WOMAN JEZEBEL, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols” (Rev.2:20). God says of that heathen “church,” which inculcated massive pagan practices and festivals into its church calendar, “Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit ADULTERY [idolatry!] with her into GREAT TRIBULATION, unless they repent of their deeds” (v.22).

Down Through Church History

It is clear from the evidence that this heresy, which began as a small group, in the first century, mushroomed and became a strong, dominant CHURCH by the third and fourth centuries, and became the foundation of the Church of Rome and the papacy. It is described in Revelation 17 as a “woman sitting on a scarlet beast” with the name: “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev.17:3-5).

By the Middle Ages this church became the great persecuting church and was guilty of spilling massive amounts of the blood of the true saints and servants of God (Rev.17:6).

What was the main crime of this church? Spiritual fornication – or spiritual adultery! Combining pagan practices and doctrines with the Word of God, or replacing the teachings of God’s Word with corrupt, pagan deceptions and lies, straight from the bowels of Satan the devil!

Says The Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary, “Pagan feasts might thus foster immorality, which is understood literally as licentiousness, or possibly in an allegorical way as unfaithfulness to God. . . . At Thyatira followers of Jezebel claim to know the deep things of Satan. . . . This claim to special knowledge of deep mysteries marks the incipient Gnosticism which flourished a century later (Iren.Her.II.2.2). The Nicolaitans may be taken to be a heretical sect, who retained pagan practices like idolatry [such as image worship, observing pagan holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc.] and immorality contrary to the thought and the conduct required in Christian churches” (p.548).

The early church fathers also spoke of the Nicolaitans. “Tertullian reports the lust and luxury of the Nicolaitans, cites evidence from Revelation, and adds that there was another sort of Nicolaitans, a satanic sect, called the Gaian heresy [worship of Mother Earth, which has reared its ugly head today] . . . Clement of Alexandria knows of followers of Nicolaus, ‘lascivious goats,’ who perverted his saying that it was necessary to abuse the flesh . . . Clement undertakes to show that Nicolaus [the deacon mentioned in Acts 6:1-6, a faithful servant of God] was a true ascetic and that the later, immoral Nicolaitans were not his followers, though they claimed him as their teacher . . . Later their name flourished as a designation for heretics.”

The “Synagogue of Satan”

When the Nicolaitans become powerful and the apostasy becomes full blown, and matures, then it changes into a whole Church – but no longer in any degree or sense a part of God’s true Church but an entirely apostate Church body! When Satan the devil takes over the church body, it becomes literally a “synagogue of Satan”!

This was prophesied to happen during the course of history, and a vast parallel church would be formed of people who think they are Christian, but they are far removed from the original true teachings of the apostles during the first century.

John, in the book of Revelation, spoke of it in the message to the Philadelphia church. He wrote, to this faithful and true body of believers, who held fast to the truth, and did not deny His Name, “you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Indeed [for this reason] I will make those of the SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN, who say they are Jews [spiritual Jews or true Christians] and are NOT but LIE [they are deceived frauds, impostors, phony as a $6 dollar bill] – indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Rev.3:8-10).

Christ warns this church body, the genuine “Philadelphia” church, called that because God names things according to their dominant characteristics, and this church is characterized by “brotherly love,” for the Greek word philadelphos literally means “brother love.” He warns it, “Behold, I am coming quickly! HOLD FAST what you have, that no one may take your CROWN” (verse 11).
This church does not slip into the apostasy of the Nicolaitans. In fact, it has conquered them and their full-blown image – the “synagogue of Satan” by remaining faithful to God’s Word and doctrine!

But many, not knowing or understanding, fall victim to the “conquerors” – the “victors over the people.” Speaking of such religious leaders, Paul declared, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (II Cor.11:13-15).

Church history has been replete with such splinter groups, heresies, sects, denominations, cults of all bizarre types and sizes and beliefs. They are all part and parcel of the “great apostasy” that developed over the centuries from the original church of God.

Paul warned the brethren in Ephesus, “For I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:29-30).

He was especially concerned about the church in Galatia, and wrote to them, exclaiming, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to PERVERT the gospel of Christ” (Gal.1:6-7).

This was already beginning to occur during the very FIRST generation and Age of the church! The apostasy and heresy has developed and grown massively since that era, with thousands of Octopus-like tentacles reaching throughout the world.

How did it all begin? When did the real apostasy really start?

The Real Nicolas Identified

Who was the original founder of this apostasy? There is no evidence to support the idea that an early deacon in the church named Nicolas was the one who began this heretical movement. The New Testament nowhere says that he later went astray. Rather, he was a man who was chosen for a special task, along with Stephen, one of “seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:5).

However, God calls things what they are – He names people according to their major characteristic. A look at the name “Nicholas” will be helpful. It literally means “victor of the people.” A synonym of “victor” would be “one who vanquishes an enemy; a conqueror” (The Winston Dictionary).

Who was the great conqueror who first led the world into APOSTASY?

“Cush began Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a might hunter before [or, Hebrew, “against”] the LORD” (Gen.10:8-10). He was the first world despot or tyrant upon the earth after the Flood. Alexander Hislop, in The Two Babylons, tells us, “He [Ninus] was the first who carried on war against his neighbors, and he conquered all nations from Assyria to Libya, as they were yet unacquainted with the arts of war” (p.23, Hislop quoting Justin’s “Trogus Popeius”). Ninus was Nimrod, the most ancient king of the Assyrians and Babylonians.

Nimrod “began to be mighty upon the earth.” He was a great dictator, autocrat, and ruled with an iron hand. He was very contentious and brooked no insult or disobedience to his iron-fisted rule. He was also the religious leader of the world, leading mankind away from the worship of the true God and into incredible idolatry. He was the founder of the “Babylonians Mysteries” (compare Rev.17:1-5).

Cush and Religious “Chaos”

Says Hislop, “Cush [Nimrod’s father] is generally represented as having been a ringleader in the great apostasy” (p.25). Cush was also known as Hermes [“son of Ham”], or Mercury, and was “the great original prophet of idolatry; for he was recognized by the pagans as the author of their religious rites, and the interpreter of the gods” (ibid., p.25-26). Cush was also known as Bel, “The Confounder,” who confounded the truth with his replacement lies and deceptions. He was also called Janus, “the god of gods,” who said of himself, “The ancients . . . called me Chaos.”

He was the one who brought “Chaos” into the world after the Deluge.

Nimrod: The Original “Nicolas” and Arch Apostate

Cush’s son Nimrod (or “Ninus”) “inherited his father’s titles, and was the first king over the Babylonian Empire, which he created by conquest. Nimrod also led the great rebellion against God by building the tower of Babel, in an attempt to unite all mankind under his rulership and in defiance of the ordinances of heaven.

Hislop goes on to say that when the deification of mortals began, “the ‘mighty son’ of Cush was deified, the father, especially considering the part which he seems to have had in concocting the whole idolatrous system, would have to be deified too, and of course, in his character as the Father of the ‘Mighty one,’ and of all the immortals that succeeded him. But, in point of fact, we shall find, in the course of our inquiry, that Nimrod was the actual Father of the gods, as being the first of deified mortals” (p.32).

Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews, tells us, “Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah – a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage that procured their happiness. He also gradually changed the government into a tyranny, — seeing no other way to turn men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence upon his power” (Bk.I, iv, 2).

Nimrod was the first great “victor of [or over] the people.” He was the first “Nicolaus.” He is the one for whom the WHOLE SYSTEM is named! His name is stamped on the forehead of this “Mystery, Babylon,” religious system which seeks to bring the whole world into one unified religious system of belief, doctrines, and religious globalization.

To compromise with that entire system or any part of it, God says He HATES – He is passionately against it – it is utterly idolatrous, the horrendous religious system inspired and created by Satan the arch-enemy of God – the devil who deceives the WHOLE WORLD by masking truth of God and replacing it with his nefarious, devious, enticing doctrines (see Rev.12:9)!

Where Are the Nicolaitans Today?

The Nicolaitans today comprise all those people who DEPART from the truth of God, and jettison the true teachings and doctrines of the Bible, for the substitute “mush” from the churches of “nominal, mainstream” Christianity, which has over the centuries, plunged back into a religious system originating in ancient Babylon, and from there to Rome, and from there to Protestantism, and the wide-ranging cults, sects, and denominations of our current generation.

The world is full of them! They are everywhere – like dandelion seeds, wafting on the winds, blown about and scattered all around us. “You will know them by their fruits,” the Messiah Yeshua declared (Matt.7:20).

The vast, overwhelming number of churches in the world today would fall into the category of the infamous “Nicolaitans”! The deception is global. And it is getting much, much worse, and stronger!

The apostle Paul wrote, about the last days, before the coming of Christ, “Let no man deceive you by any means for that Day will not come unless the FALLING AWAY comes first, and the man of SIN [lawlessness] be revealed, the son of perdition [destruction], who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped [such as Nimrod himself!], so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. . . . For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until He [or “he”] is taken out of the way. And then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (II Thess..2:3-8).

An end-time “Nicolas” – victor or tyrant over the people – is soon to appear on the scene!

The end-time resurrection of this evil apostasy and deception is fast falling into place and coming together before our very eyes, at this moment in history!

False Doctrine – A Mark of the Nicolaitans

What are the identifying “marks” of this vast, deluded apostasy? How do you know that you personally have not to some extent fallen into some form of this adulterated subspecies which broke off from true Christianity?

First, look at their teachings and doctrine. Compare them with the Scriptures very carefully, taking nothing for granted. Believe nobody, but check up on everybody, and then believe your Bible! The apostle Paul wrote, “PROVE ALL THINGS; HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD” (I Thess.5:21). Isaiah the prophet wrote, “To the law and to the testimony [the Old Testament and the New Testament – the Word of God]! If they do not speak according to THIS WORD, it is because there is NO LIGHT in them” (Isa.8:20).

Paul praised the Bereans because “they received the word in all readiness, and SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES DAILY to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Paul wrote to Timothy, exhorting him (and all of us), “Be diligent to present yourself to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of truth” (II Tim.2:15).

Nicolaitans are those who have departed from the faith, in some degree or completely. They have been led astray by false teachings and doctrines. Most have rejected the true Sabbath. Most have rejected the TRUE holy days of God, the annual festivals of His Word (Lev.23), and some THINK they observe them, but have been misled, and keep a false “Passover,” a false “Pentecost,” and even the wrong days for the other holy days, and reject specific commandments of God when they do so! Most reject the TRUE calendar of God, the New Moons, and the proper calculation of the Hebrew months, and therefore the holy days. Many accept a false, “fixed’ Jewish calendar when replaced the true calendar in 357-58 A.D. in the time of Hillel II.

And these are only SOME of the false teachings of modern day, end-time “Nicolaitan”-influenced churches which claim to be the true remnants of the Church of God and assure the people that they have the bona fide “TRUTH”!

But Yeshua declared, “Thy Word is truth,” (John 17:17), and “The Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), and asserted also, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt.4:4; Luke 4:40.

The Second Fatal Identifying Mark – False Form of Church Government

The Nicolaitans are also like their original founder, Nimrod the apostate, guilty of not only compromising the truth of God, and adulterating it, and mixing it with PAGAN beliefs and doctrines and practices, but they possess a wicked, deceptive, deceitful form of CHURCH GOVERNMENT. They are often in the form of religious tyrannies, authoritarian, totalitarian, abusive ministers, and very quick to discipline and disfellowship recalcitrant or slow-to-conform members of their churches. They are very intolerant and autocratic – and rule their congregations like a “god” or a Hitler with a Gestapo-like ministry.

Jeremiah the prophet prophesied of them: “ ‘WOE to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!’ says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: ‘You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,’ says the Lord” (Jer.23:1-2).

Speaking of the churches of God, and the religious leaders of His people, God says, “ ‘For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,’ says the LORD. ‘Therefore their way to them shall be like slippery ways; in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall in them; for I will bring disaster on them, the year of their punishment,’ says the LORD. And I have seen folly in the prophets [ministers, pastors, preachers] of Samaria [the modern United States, Britain and house of “Israel”]; the prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to ERR” (Jer.23:11-13).

God is very angry at these end-time preachers, ministers, and their lack of true conversion, humility, fear of God, and arrogance! He thunders, “ ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; they speak a vision [or doctrine, teaching] of their own heart, not from the mouth of the LORD” (v.16).

God is going to punish. He declares, “The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly” (v.20).

Do you understand? Do you fear and tremble before the Word of God? (see Isaiah 66:1-2). Do you humble yourself before His Word?

God goes on in His severe warning: “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied [preached]. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings” (vs.21-22).

God would even forgive them, for their preaching in His name, if only they would preach the TRUTH! But they don’t, and they won’t. So God declares, “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy LIES in My name, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed, they are prophets of the DECEIT [deception, false teaching, false doctrines] of their OWN heart” (vs.25-26).

God thunders, “ ‘The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?’ says the LORD. ‘Is not My word like a fire?’ says the LORD, ‘And like a hammer the rock in pieces? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,’ says the LORD, ‘who STEAL MY WORDS everyone from his neighbor” (vs.28-30).

The warnings of Yahveh God are very explicit. He declares, “Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams [false ideas, teachings of their own heart – see verse 26],’ says the LORD, ‘and tell them, and CAUSE MY PEOPLE TO ERR by their LIES and by their RECKLESSNESS. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,’ says the LORD” (Jer.23:32).

And in verse 36 God warns, “For every man’s word will be his oracle [“burden”], for you have PERVERTED the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God” !

Very serious charges, these are! Don’t you agree?

The LORD Yahveh says He is going to forsake utterly those who pervert His Word, and preach the deceit of their own hearts, make His people to err and go astray by their LIES, and their “RECKLESSNESS” regarding His divine Word, His TRUTH!

Modern-day “Nicolaitans” and their followers should get a real “HEADS UP” and WARNING from Jeremiah’s message in chapter 23. He is speaking to THEM!

The Final Mark – Abuse and Cruelty

Ezekiel the prophet was inspired to continue this awesome, power-packed indictment against the shepherds of Israel during the end-time. He wrote, “And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD to the shepherds: ‘WOE to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.

The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; BUT WITH FORCE AND CRUELTY you have RULED them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field [false churches, religions, and spiritual gurus] where they were scattered” (Ezek.34:1-5, NKJV).

Notice! These churches, regardless of their posturing and posing, and dubious claims, persecute the flock under them. They mistreat God’s people, cause them to grovel in the dirt before their imagined authority, rule them with CRUELTY and hardness, harshness, and overbearing authority.

They do not love the flock; they are not loving or good shepherds, who would even give their lives for the sheep (see John 10:11). Rather, they are mere ‘hirelings,” who have their own agenda, their own motives, for being ministers, teachers, and pastors! The Messiah Yeshua said, “But a hireling, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and FLEES; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep” (John 10:12-13).

These “hirelings” rule the flock with “force” and “cruelty.” The Hebrew word for “force” is #2394, chosqah, meaning “vehemence (usually is a bad sense), force, mightily, repair, sharply.” Gesenius says, “might, violence, very, mightily.” The Hebrew word for “cruelty” is #6531, perek, and means “from an unused root meaning ‘to break apart,’ fracture – i.e. severity – cruelty, rigor” (Strong’s Concordance). Gesenius states: “oppression, tyranny, from the signification of crushing.”

Do we get the picture? Do you know ANY ministers or churches like that? How does your minister or church handle it when or if members DARE to ask questions concerning doctrines, teachings, beliefs, or Scriptures which seem to conflict with the church’s teachings and doctrines?

True Ministers

A true minister of God will handle questions in a gentle, loving, patient manner. As Timothy was told by the apostle Paul, “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity” (I Tim.5:1).

Paul declared, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perchance will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” to stir up strife and cause confusion in the flock, and to destroy all he can, for he is the “great destroyer” (II Tim..3:24-26).

Peter tells the true servants of God, the true ministry, “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being EXAMPLES to the flock” (I Pet.5:1-3).

And to the church members, God says, “Remember those who rule [lead] over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established with grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them” (Hebrews 13:7-9).

Paul adds, “Obey those who rule [lead] over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable to you” (verse 17).

And to the Thessalonians, Paul wrote, “And we urge your, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish [“instruct or warn”] you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves” (I Thess.5:12-13).

Warning for the End Time

The problems with false teachings, false doctrines, and the spirit of Nicolaitan ministers and teachers, was foretold to become very serious and extreme in the “end of days.” The apostle Paul warned, “Now the Spirit expressly [explicitly] says that in the LATTER TIMES some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (I Tim.4:1-2).

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul issued the same warning, only more explicit He wrote, “But know this, that in the LAST DAYS perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a FORM of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the TRUTH. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth” (II Tim.3:1-8).

The Nicolaitan condition is like a spiritual cancer, that spreads and poisons cells and creates tumors and metastasizes until it spreads its lethal cargo throughout the whole body. If it is not purged, it leads ultimately to death.

Therefore, God tells His true ministers, and servants, to be on their guard. “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with al longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (II Tim.4:2-4).

Each one of us is responsible for our own salvation. We dare not trust any man to do our work, study, prayer, or research for us – we must work out our own salvation, “with fear and trembling” (Phil.2:12-13). Paul also declared, “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (Eph.4:14).

Salvation is serious business! The spirit of Nicolaus/Nimrod and religious deception is alive and well, and thriving in this end-time generation.

Now that you know who and what the “Nicolaitans” are, what are you going to do about it?

Ronald Reagan on Faith in Jesus Christ

Watch and be inspired by the words of former President Ronald Reagan. He personified what a great leader should be and how a great man of God must give direction and encouragement to those within his sphere of influence, whether it is from a podium or a pulpit.

The perpetual lie that there is a separation between church and state must be exposed and overcome. That single deception has done more to destroy our great nation that any foreign attack could ever accomplish.

While President, Ronald Reagan was never arrested for speaking these words. Neither has a preacher ever been arrested for speaking out about political and cultural issues.

America needs God’s preachers to stand and lead with the same fearless passion and conviction as demonstrated here by Ronald Reagan.

Running Time  5 Minutes

Recession? No Thanks. I’m Not Participating

An article and sermon topic explaining that this is not a time to cut back and panic over finances, as the world does. You will only reap what you sow. This is a time to believe God as never before. This is our greatest hour. We can demonstrate to the world, as Isaac did, that there is a God in heaven who blesses His people even in the worst of times.

By Andrew Wommack

Our media buyer called me recently with an emphatic question: “Andrew, what in the world are you doing over there at AWMI?” He then proceeded to tell me that most of the ministries he works with and others that he knows about are drastically cutting back or, at best, struggling just to meet their obligations. “Yet you guys are expanding and growing by leaps and bounds. What’s the deal?” he asked.

I could have answered that question in a number of ways. For example, God has given us the right message at the right time in history. That’s true. I believe the time has come when the world is longing for the message of God’s grace and unconditional love, and He has prepared us to deliver that message.

Or perhaps I could have answered that it’s our Television Department. We have some of the best and most creative people in America working in Television. Surely that could be the reason for our success. Maybe it’s marketing, the way we present the ministry to the public, or our customer care and prayer ministry provided through the Phone Center. Or maybe it’s just the result of good money management.

Business experts might tell us it’s the combination of all these things that has made this ministry prosper. And although I have learned over the years how important it is to have great people and a well-run ministry, I don’t believe that’s the main reason we are so blessed.

Right before my mother’s death in June 2009, she asked me to tell her all the things that were happening with the ministry. I talked about all our Bible colleges worldwide, how many letters and calls we were getting, and many of the miraculous testimonies of lives that were being changed.

And then, as only a mother can do, she said, “Andy, you know that’s the Lord doing all of that.” I said, “Yes, Mother, I know it’s the Lord.” Then she said, “You aren’t smart enough to do that.”

Wow! Now you know where I got my bluntness. But that’s absolutely true. Although the Lord has given Jamie and me some of the best and most creative people in any ministry, it is not our great wisdom or talents that are causing these miraculous results. The only thing we can really take credit for is holding on to the Lord with all we have,and He is taking us for the ride of our lives.

Some of you may remember the letter I wrote in December of 2008. It was a letter of hope at a time when many people were beginning to panic about the economic downturn. All the news was predicting a depression that would mirror the Great Depression. And, as usual, the exaggerated predictions of those in the media never materialized.

Yet many of us are still buying into the lie that they can’t prosper during these times. So, I think we all need to hear that message of hope once again during this Christmas season. THE SKY IS NOT FALLING, JESUS IS STILL ON THE THRONE, AND HIS WORD IS STILL TRUE.

In Genesis, we learn that Isaac went through hard times too. There was a famine in the land (Gen. 26:1), and remember that Isaac was a stranger in that land. He didn’t own any property. But the Philistines around him panicked. They didn’t work their fields. What was the use? There was a famine in the land, but Isaac saw it as an opportunity and took advantage of their idle fields.

Genesis 26:12 says, “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.”

This happened during a drought! What was he doing sowing seed when they were in a drought? He was believing God! That’s what we should do.

Since there was a drought, others hadn’t planted, and food was in short supply. Isaac got premium prices for his crops. The next few verses go on to tell about how Isaac became so prosperous that Abimelech, the king of Gerar, came to him and asked him to leave because he was more prosperous than that whole nation.

“For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him…. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we” (Gen. 26:14 and 16)

This is the news we as believers should be listening to. We have promises from the Lord that He will provide our needs according to His riches IN GLORY by Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19). We aren’t limited to this world’s economy! Let those who only trust in money panic. In God we trust (Ps. 91:2, 118:8-9; Is. 12:2, 26:4; and Nah. 1:7). We should be rejoicing.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t make adjustments. If you bought into this world’s philosophy of “get all you can and get it by mortgaging your future,” then come to your senses, and follow the principles of God’s Word. Even if you’ve been burned, you’ve learned a valuable lesson, and now you can go forward with a new focus on the Lord as your source.

Let me point out the obvious: This is not a time to cut back on your sowing. You will only reap what you sow (Gal. 6:7). This is a time to believe God as never before. This is our greatest hour. We can demonstrate to the world, as Isaac did, that there is a God in heaven who blesses His people even in the worst times.

In December of 2008, I countered this negative mindset by making some very bold, God-inspired predictions of my own. I didn’t know the details, the difficulties we would face, or the exact cost, but I went on record and said that we were going to build to accommodate growth. Instead of cutting back, we were going to expand, even during a time of “recession.” We simply refused to participate in the recession.

I know many people thought I was crazy or foolish or both, but here are some stats that might make them think again:
Within a year, we had purchased the 157 acres in Woodland Park that we call The Sanctuary. The hard economic times worked to our advantage and allowed us to purchase this prime real estate for pennies on the dollar. We are now in the process of developing that property into our new Charis Bible College (CBC) campus that will allow our college to grow to at least 3,000 students.

We finally went on the Trinity Broadcasting Network with a daily program in February 2011. This has resulted in 60,000 new people contacting us for the first time this year. That’s a 40 percent increase over the previous year. Our phone calls have nearly doubled to a monthly average of over 30,000. We now have over 1 million visits to our website each month. More people are being reached with this good-news Gospel than ever before. And our ministry income has doubled since December 2008. Thank You, Jesus!

I know someone is thinking, this is just because you are a big ministry. Well, I know plenty of ministries, large and small, that haven’t had these results. And this hasn’t been limited to our ministry. Jamie and I had some money in the stock market from Jamie’s inheritance. When the stock market went down 50 percent in late 2008 to early 2009, our stocks increased 61 percent. Hallelujah! This was because of our faith in the Lord and our refusal to participate in the recession.
The Lord is not a respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11).

What He has done for Jamie and me and this ministry, He wants to do for you. But you have to cooperate. You have to reach out by faith to receive the grace God has for you.
Along with the predictions I made in December 2008, I taught a short, two-part series called In God We Trust. I believe what I taught in this series expresses the heart of what caused these miraculous results, and I encourage you to get a copy of this teaching.

Listen to it in light of the testimony I’ve given in this letter. Compare what I believed with what has happened. You can’t help but come to the conclusion that faith in God’s grace works, and it will work for you too. I know this perspective will challenge you, but remember—as you think in your heart, that’s the way it’s going to be (Prov. 23:7). So, if recession comes knocking, open your door, and with a loud, faith-filled voice, say this: “No thanks—my family and I aren’t participating.”

Principles of Liberty

Let us reflect with much vigilance and reverence upon the marvelous principles underlying the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The following is a review of these principles together with a comment or a quote by one of the Founders.

By Earl Taylor, Jr.

Principle 1 – The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.

Natural law is God’s law. There are certain laws which govern the entire universe, and just as Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, there are laws which govern in the affairs of men which are “the laws of nature and of nature’s God.”

Principle 2 – A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.

“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” – Benjamin Franklin

Principle 3 – The most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.

“Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who … will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man.” – Samuel Adams

Principle 4 – Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports…. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.” – George Washington

Principle 5 – All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent, and to him they are equally responsible .

The American Founding Fathers considered the existence of the Creator as the most fundamental premise underlying all self-evident truth. They felt a person who boasted he or she was an atheist had just simply failed to apply his or her divine capacity for reason and observation.

Principle 6 – All mankind were created equal.

The Founders knew that in these three ways, all mankind are theoretically treated as:

Equal before God.
Equal before the law.
Equal in their rights.
Principle 7 – The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.

The Founders recognized that the people cannot delegate to their government any power except that which they have the lawful right to exercise themselves.

Principle 8 – Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights.

“Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal [or state] laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislation has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner [of the right] shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture.” – William Blackstone

Principle 9 – To protect human rights, God has revealed a code of divine law.

“The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found by comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man’s felicity.” – William Blackstone

Principle 10 – The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.

“The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legislative authority.” – Alexander Hamilton

Principle 11 – The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes … but when a long train of abuses and usurpations … evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” – Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence

Principle 12 – The United States of America shall be a republic.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
And to the republic for which it stands….”

Principle 13 – A Constitution should protect the people from the frailties of their rulers.

“If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary…. [But lacking these] you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” – James Madison

Principle 14 – Life and liberty are secure only so long as the rights of property are secure .

John Locke reasoned that God gave the earth and everything in it to the whole human family as a gift. Therefore the land, the sea, the acorns in the forest, the deer feeding in the meadow belong to everyone “in common.” However, the moment someone takes the trouble to change something from its original state of nature, that person has added his ingenuity or labor to make that change. Herein lies the secret to the origin of “property rights.”

Principle 15 – The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a minimum of government regulations.

Prosperity depends upon a climate of wholesome stimulation with four basic freedoms in operation:

The Freedom to try.
The Freedom to buy.
The Freedom to sell.
The Freedom to fail.
Principle 16 – The government should be separated into three branches .

“I call you to witness that I was the first member of the Congress who ventured to come out in public, as I did in January 1776, in my Thoughts on Government … in favor of a government with three branches and an independent judiciary. This pamphlet, you know, was very unpopular. No man appeared in public to support it but yourself.” – John Adams

Principle 17 – A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power by the different branches of government.

“It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.” – James Madison

Principle 18 – The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written Constitution.

The structure of the American system is set forth in the Constitution of the United States and the only weaknesses which have appeared are those which were allowed to creep in despite the Constitution.

Principle 19 – Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by the people.

The Tenth Amendment is the most widely violated provision of the bill of rights. If it had been respected and enforced America would be an amazingly different country than it is today. This amendment provides:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Principle 20 – Efficiency and dispatch require that the government operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.

“Every man, by consenting with others to make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an obligation to every one of that society to submit to the determination of the majority, and to be concluded [bound] by it.” – John Locke

Principle 21 – Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.

“The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent [to perform best]. – Thomas Jefferson

Principle 22 – A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.

“The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence of others, which cannot be where there is no law.” – John Locke

Principle 23 – A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.

“They made an early provision by law that every town consisting of so many families should be always furnished with a grammar school. They made it a crime for such a town to be destitute of a grammar schoolmaster for a few months, and subjected it to a heavy penalty. So that the education of all ranks of people was made the care and expense of the public, in a manner that I believe has been unknown to any other people, ancient or modern. The consequences of these establishments we see and feel every day [written in 1765]. A native of America who cannot read and write is as rare … as a comet or an earthquake.” John Adams

Principle 24 – A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.

“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” – George Washington

Principle 25 – “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.”- Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address.

Principle 26 – The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore the government should foster and protect its integrity.

“There is certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America, or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated.” Alexis de Tocqueville

Principle 27 – The burden of debt is as destructive to human freedom as subjugation by conquest.

“We are bound to defray expenses [of the war] within our own time, and are unauthorized to burden posterity with them…. We shall all consider ourselves morally bound to pay them ourselves and consequently within the life [expectancy] of the majority.” – Thomas Jefferson

Principle 28 – The United States has a manifest destiny to eventually become a glorious example of God’s law under a restored Constitution that will inspire the entire human race.

The Founders sensed from the very beginning that they were on a divine mission. Their great disappointment was that it didn’t all come to pass in their day, but they knew that someday it would. John Adams wrote:

“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”

I once again commend these to you. Freedom-loving citizens, young and older, find that memorizing these principles proves to be a valuable asset in their defense of our liberty.