1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Baptist preachers and teachers What will you do if...?

Discussion in '2003 Archive' started by Jailminister, Aug 14, 2003.

  1. Clint Kritzer

    Clint Kritzer Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2001
    Messages:
    8,877
    Likes Received:
    4
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I found nothing on the cited incident, but I did find some disturbing cases involving Texas' School Districts:

    http://www.adherents.com/misc/school_houston.html

    From the same site, there is a link to the actual federal guidelines established in 1998. As lower districts can not supercede federal law, any district that violates these regulations can and should be sued.

    http://www.adherents.com/misc/fed_guidelines.html

    If anything, we should be promoting the actual cause of religious liberty. Cases like these show the ignorance of many local officials to the law. That same ignorance is also quite prevelant within our own ranks.

    I feel blessed to live in an area where we have never had to face this kind of claptrap. If I did live in such an area, perhaps I would make a printout of these federal guidelines for the child to keep in the Bible, just in case. I hope it never comes to that.

    If it is not "peacable," then the authorities are acting within their rights. The problem would be with discrimination against a street preacher based on his religion. That is what would violate the 1st Ammendment.

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
     
  2. Johnv

    Johnv New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2001
    Messages:
    21,321
    Likes Received:
    0
    That's not separation of church and state. That's separation of state from church. The Baptist Distinctive of Separation of Church and State, as well as the First Amendment law of Separation of Church and State, says that the Church stays out of the State, and the State stays out of the Church. It's mutual, not unilateral. Those who proclaim it to be unilateral are simply revising it to suit their needs. But no matter how much revisionism they attempt, they're still violating the Baptist Distinctive.
     
  3. Johnv

    Johnv New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2001
    Messages:
    21,321
    Likes Received:
    0
    I agree with you, of course. The practice of individual religious liberty is certainly within your right, as it is with anyone of any religion, or with anyone of no religion.
     
  4. Johnv

    Johnv New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2001
    Messages:
    21,321
    Likes Received:
    0
    Sounds like an urban legend. I did an extensive search on the internet and could find nothing about it at all. Do you have any documentation for this? </font>[/QUOTE]I, too, have not been able to find any data on this. However, I've found that here, in Orange County, California, the Orange Unified School District has a religion section in the school libraries. They contain copies of different versions of the Bible, as well as Koran and Judaic OT. The high school's section also has copies of the Gospels of Thomas and others, several publications by Max Lucado, Jerry Falwell, and Billy Graham, as well as authors by non-Christian folks on non-Christian religious topics.
     
  5. Scott J

    Scott J Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2001
    Messages:
    8,462
    Likes Received:
    1
    Faith:
    Baptist
    The problem with separation of church and state as popularly conceived today is that when Jefferson wrote, education was seen as a largely religious endeavor. I am sure that there were those who protested the first public schools and were assured that the state was not trying to intrude on religion's turf. In fact in a book I own, quotes one of the earliest public school charters as having a stated goal to educate so that everyone could read the Bible.

    BTW, regardless of what "separation of church and state" means, it is not law. The Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state church and protects the free practice of religion... In no way does it limit the exercise of religion where ever one might choose to practice it.
     
  6. td

    td New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2000
    Messages:
    310
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joshua, not a very good argument. By your standard you would have to eliminate anyone with a bullhorn giving a political speech, a carnival barker or a sidewalk salesman. I suggest that if someone doesn't like the message, they can always vote with their feet.
     
  7. Jailminister

    Jailminister New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2003
    Messages:
    907
    Likes Received:
    0
    To all you that believe in the false doctrine of separation of church and state, go right ahead and believe it and our country will continue down that slippery slope of hopelessness. You will only have more religious prosecution, more sodomites loosed on the street, more vulgarity, more drugs, more rebellion, more baby killing and Sodom will have nothing over us. You remove the ancient landmarks with you false beliefs and lack of moral direction and it will be you who will be blamed for the downfall of this country. It will be ones like you who will escort ones like me who believe in the the old ways and preaching in places other than in some building, someone who proclaims the Gospel of Jesus in the byways and on the highways and who just keep on standing up for righteousness, you will escort us off to jail because we embarass you. Go ahead believe you easy believism and turn people away from the light with your compromising. Go ahead, GO AHEAD!!!!
     
  8. Joshua Rhodes

    Joshua Rhodes <img src=/jrhodes.jpg>

    Joined:
    Jun 9, 2003
    Messages:
    3,944
    Likes Received:
    0
    BLAM! OK, don't worry everyone, the rabbit is dead.

    The original question was:

    I will continue to serve a God Who is bigger than the Boogeyman. According to Veggietales, He's bigger than Godzilla, or the monsters on TV. He's watching out for you and me!

    In all seriousness, I hope to be found serving tirelessly and faithfully. I believe that's what we're called to do even under persecution and suffering. God does not forsake the righteous. Come quickly, Lord.

    In His Grip,
    joshua
     
  9. Clint Kritzer

    Clint Kritzer Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2001
    Messages:
    8,877
    Likes Received:
    4
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I'm very surprised no one else picked up on this post!

    Jailminister, you could not be more in error. It is those of us who uphold the doctrine and practice of Seperation of Church and State that have kept people from being marched off to jail for espousing their beliefs. That's how we got to this point in the first place!

    It is obvious that you have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the struggle for religious freedom in this country that was spearheaded by the early Baptists. The fact that you have repeatedly called the Seperation of Church and State a false doctrine makes me doubt that you even are a Baptist. Your last post isn't talking about the future. It's describing the past! Even if you won't read a book, maybe you could look in a hymnal at the words to Faith of our Fathers.

    Can you show me even ONE theocracy that did not eventually lead to apostacy and oppression? Even one? Christianity has survived oppression, but it flourishes under freedom.

    The real irony is that it is because of those who came before us that set the foundational principles of religious freedom in this nation that you can so boldly call for an end to such in this day and age. Unbelievable!

    Don't worry, though. There are still enough of us out here to protect your beliefs that you will likely have that right until you die.

    You're welcome.

    So what will we do if there ever comes a time that the government tries to stop us from proclaiming the Gospel? We will do what we did before: endure beatings, the whip, jailings, and harrassments. We will wait for the time to re-enact the treasured, BIBLICAL principle of the seperation of the secular and the ethereal. Until that time we will count it joy as James told us to do. We will speak to the authorities with respect as Peter told us to do. We will keep faith in the Promise of Christ that even the very gates of hell will not do us in.

    What will you do?
     
  10. Sherrie

    Sherrie New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2002
    Messages:
    10,274
    Likes Received:
    0
    Very Good Post Clint!


    I am not agreeing with Jailmaster, but on this paticular issue, I would like to point out, the above quote is not so in our schools here! We do however meet and pray around the flag pole at paticular times. But there are no Bibles in our schools, and prayer is not done as a group, or assembly. Quietly and Privately it can be done, but not openly. We do not even have a Bible Club.

    Sherrie
     
  11. Jailminister

    Jailminister New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2003
    Messages:
    907
    Likes Received:
    0
    clint K said
    Clint You are the one in error. It is guys like you who has allowed the downfall of morals in this country. I have a degree in History and I know what our forefathers said and did. They were against a state religion. Our baptist forefathers were against state religion. That is ALL. Our very foundations are Christian principles, but our forefathers decided that would not endorse or promote any particular denomination. They tried to for a while, but decided that it was wrong to do so. They had come thru the Great Awakening and they knew that without our Christian foundation that this country could not exist. God has always been in our government, but now liberals and misinformed like you and Ed Edwards, Scott E. and BB, and some others are trying to rip these out of our lives. Well you stand with those liberals and those humanist if you want to do so, as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
     
  12. Clint Kritzer

    Clint Kritzer Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2001
    Messages:
    8,877
    Likes Received:
    4
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Wow! Really? To what are you referring that you would say that it is "guys like me" that have contributed to a downfall?

    What denomination do you think they tried to promote? Sources please. If you can't back this up, then you should retract your statement.


    I note a hint that this should be considered an insult. Obviously these folks have backed you into a corner of which your lack of facts can not get you out. So, for me, the insult is moot. However, the three men you mentioned may not be very happy about having me grouped with them. I hope they forgive you.

    Liberal, conservative, moderate, modernist, revisionist... the titles mean nothing against facts. While your posturing and strutting may go over well with those who wish you to be right, they are a meaningless and transparent act to those of us who know better.

    I saved this part of your post for last because this is where the rubber meets the road. I would ask that you back up your assertions against these quotes:

    Founding Fathers

    I'll stop there on that list, though if pressed, I could fill up many posts with similar statements. I didn't even get into Jefferson yet! You likely don't want me to. The challenge for you, Jailminister, is to show me documentation that the founding fathers wished a Judeo-Christian controlled government. Now, on to the:

    Baptist Forefathers


    Again, you probably don't want me to get into Leland and Backus! So the challenge for you now, Jailminister, is to show me the counter to these statements. Show me an early confession accepted by an American congregation that does not espouse the concept of religious liberty. SHOW me I am in error, don't just say you have a degree. Your degree does not lord over facts. Hard, cold, demonstrable facts, sir.

    I will likely stop the discourse now. You were unable to satisfactorily answer te implications of Christ's claim to Pilate that his Kingdom was not of earth. Nor were you able to show that Christ ever went against the civil authority of His time. Though in your mind your cause may seem just, it is earthly and of the flesh, not of one who shows faith in the power of God.

    So go ahead and call me names if that's your desire. Call a cherished principle of Baptist Doctrine false if you like. It is you and those like you that have attempted to rewrite history, but even for all that:

    I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. - mis-attributed to Voltaire, actual quote by Evelyn Beatrice Hall, another re-writer of history

    [ August 21, 2003, 01:39 PM: Message edited by: Clint Kritzer ]
     
  13. Jailminister

    Jailminister New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2003
    Messages:
    907
    Likes Received:
    0
    Clint said;
    It is obvious that you have never study the Treaty of Tripoli. Did you know that the ambassador added that phrase to the treaty AFTER John Adams signed it. NO. At the very last minute the muslims want that phrase stuck in there or they would not sign it. So he did it without permission. If he would have had to go back and have Adams sign it(which he would not have done so), this fellow would have lost a lot of money on this trade agreement that he selfishly pushed for.

    No for the rest here are some things you left out:
    I am told two students were standing outside the Columbine school and one said, "Why doesn't God do something about this?"

    The other student replied, "God is not allowed in there."

    SOMETHING HAS CHANGED IN AMERICA IN THE PAST 40 YEARS.

    I remember going to school at our Rural school in Southern Indiana and it was a common sight to see the school parking lot lined with pickup trucks from the students and each pick-up truck had as standard equipment, a gun rack. On that gun rack was at least one loaded gun. A hunting knife was usually under the seat.

    Amazingly, I never heard of a school shooting!

    What has changed in America is not the accessibility of guns, but the change is in the character of man!

    Since 1962 we have told that young man he evolved from slime, and that God and the Bible are of no relevance, even if they do exist!

    In our lifetime, in one generation, we have seen God systematically removed from our children's classrooms, our Government, and from our Public life.

    Proverbs 14:34,

    " Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.


    Abraham Lincoln had this to say during his presidency. Is it not applicable for today?

    "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nations has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace! It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."

    NO NATION IN THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION HAS EVER SEPARATED ITSELF FROM GOD AND SURVIVED AS A NATION.

    Yes, we are living in Troublesome times in America. But there is still hope.

    However, I believe it is nearing the Midnight hour!

    It we don't turn course soon, it will be too late!

    I believe God is giving America it's last chance.

    The answer for America is not in the Republican or Democratic parties.

    The Bible tells the answer to America's problems in 2 Chronicles 7:14,

    "If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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."

    The People of God need to get right with God and we will have our Land of America 'healed' God says!

    Christians need to get back to church, serving the Lord the way they should, and forsaking the sin in their lives!

    This nation of America was founded on Christian Principles and was intended to be a Christian nation as I will show with evidence from the very words of our forefathers.

    I believe the reason we have been so blessed as a nation up until about 40 years ago is told us in Psalms 33:12,

    " Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance."

    To show that this nation was built on the Bible and Christian Principles, listen to what Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country:

    "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not be religionists but by Christians....not on religions but ton the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

    Listen to what our first President, George Washington, said,

    "It is impossible to rightly govern....without God and the Bible."

    Daniel Webster said, "If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering, but it we neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how soon a catastrophe may overcome us, and bur all our glory in profound obscurity."


    James Madison, our 4th President, said,

    "We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

    Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd President, is often referred to as the Founding Father that said there is a Separation of Church and State, and imply this means all practice of Religion and prayer and the Bible should be removed from our schools and our government.

    We should get the true story on this 'SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE'..

    These 3 words, Separation, Church, State are not in the Constitution or any Federal document!

    Around 1800, a group from the Danbury Baptist Association heard a rumor that CONGREGATIONALISM was about to become the National Denomination of America.

    This was very disturbing because the Pilgrims left Europe for that very reason. They did not want any 'National Denomination' in America.

    They did not want there to be one 'denomination' that one had to be in order to hold political office, etc. as it was in Europe. In Germany, for example, The Lutheran Church was the State Church and and tax money supported it! In England, it was the Anglican Church.

    They wanted complete Religious Freedom in America!

    The Danbury Baptists wrote Thomas Jefferson and he replied that the First Amendment to the Constitution had 'erected a wall of separation of church and state' so that the state could not enforce any 'National Denomination' and that Government could not intrude and interfere with churches and and their worship practices and beliefs.

    The Courts later modified to say that churches or people could not do things harmful to society in the name of Freedom of religion, such as child sacrifice, polygamy, etc. These were not allowed under 'freedom of religion'.

    What the courts have concluded since 1962 as to the meaning of this 'separation of church and state' is completely OPPOSITE to what the Founding Fathers intended!

    'Unconstitutional' means the Founding Fathers did not intend something to be implied by our Constitution.

    We will show from following evidence that our Founding Fathers did not mean at all what our Courts have concluded since 1962!

    (D. James Kennedy has compiled much of the following helpful information)


    A number of years ago before the Supreme Court, Madalyn Murray O'Hair successfully fought to remove voluntary praying and Scripture reading from public school classrooms. For the most part, that court decision has been carried out. Now she is litigating for the accomplishment of the next items on her atheistic agenda such as removing the national motto " In God We Trust" from our coins and from our currency, and also the words "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, After those battles, a whole list of more items lies ready to be acted upon.

    Many people, including Christians, are obscure on what the relationship between church and state should be. Many have fallen prey to the propaganda that, by its anti-establishment clause, the Constitution has meant there should be no relationship between God or Christianity and the government. Some of you believe that. No assertion could be further from the historical facts!


    While presenting documentation, I would ask you simply to consider this question:

    Did the founders of this nation intend it to be a secularist, neutral, humanist nation; or did they believe that this was a nation created to the glory of God and that it was to be a godly, Christian state?

    So pervasive has been the propaganda for the first view listed that probably in hearing that last statement, some of you are saying, "Why, of course not. We are to be neutral!" Is it so? I will present the evidence to you, and you can draw your own conclusions.

    THE CHRISTIAN ROOTS OF AMERICA

    The first settlement in this country was the one at Jamestown in 1607. Even before the settlers left England, they drew up the First Charter of Virginia, the official document providing for the settlement of Jamestown. In it we find the first beginnings of America.

    Dated 1606, the Charter nobly declares that "We greatly commanding, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Province of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of His Divine Majesty, in propagating the Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living in those Parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Government ..."

    You might want to learn about the first act performed by the settlers who founded the Jamestown colony. First thing after they had landed at Cape Henry in April of 1607, they erected a large wooden cross and held a prayer meeting! That first act in this new land, my friend, was on publicly chartered landl

    Next, chronologically, the Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower to land at Plymouth Rock. On November 11, 1620, as their ship lay offshore, before they set foot on this new continent, the Pilgrims joined together and signed the Mayflower Compact. This Compact of the first permanent settlement in this land begins with these words: " In the name of God, Amen."

    It continues, "Having undertaken for the gloire of God, and advancements of the Christian faith, and honour of our kind and countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonie in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutualy in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves togeather into a civil body politick ..."

    Governor William Bradford described the first thing the Pilgrims did when they landed on these shores. He wrote, "Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven ....

    The first written constitution which created a government in this land was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut in 1639. This first constitution written in America includes these words:

    "Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Allmighty God by the wise disposition of his divyne providence so to Order and dispose of things ..." It continues, "And well knowing where a people are gathered together the word of God requires that to mayntayne the peace and union of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Government established according to God It further states, that to mayntayne and presearve the liberty and purity of the gospell of our Lord Jesus which we now professe, as also the disciplyne of the Churches, which according to the truth of the said gospell is not practised amongst us ......

    That brings us next to May 19, 1643, when, under heavy attack, the early settlers of this country joined together to form the New England Confederation, the first confederation of the various communities of "New England," as this land was then called. Its document begins with these words: "Whereas we all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and aim, namely, to advance the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace ....

    The first Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges reads thusly, "... And Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights and Spirits; and the Author as well as Object of all divine Knowledge, Faith and Worship, who only doth enlighten the Minds, and persuade and convince the Understandings of People." It concludes: "And that all Persons who also profess to believe in Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World, shall be capable (notwithstanding their other Persuasions and Practices in Point of Conscience and Religion) to serve this Government in any Capacity, both legislatively and executively ....

    FREEDOM BY THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD

    In the providence of God there came forth the Declaration of Independence, which includes in its first paragraph an appeal to the laws of nature and of nature's God. In the second paragraph we find these famous words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

    Notice it says that all men are created equal. It does not say that they evolved equally. They are endowed by their Creator, not by the primeval slime, with certain unalienable rights. Is it not a strange turn of events that a nation born of the Declaration should have come to a place where it is illegal to teach in our schools that we have been created by a divine Creator?


    Humanistic, atheistic secularism has become in effect the religion of our land. Creation may not be taught in the schools created by this Declaration. Hopefully, the time is not far off when someone will have the courage to take this situation to the courts and challenge it. Twice the Supreme Court has declared that humanism is a religion, yet it continues to be taught as the very fact, fabric, substance and substratum of all our education. When shall we stand up and say, "No more!"?

    The Declaration of Independence concludes,

    "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

    Finally, we come to the formation of the Constitution. The representatives had been meeting together for three weeks, struggling and wrestling to come up with something. They had surveyed all the governments of Europe but had found nothing that would suffice. Finally, having made little or no progress, an elderly gentleman stood up and looked through his spectacles at them. His name was Benjamin Franklin. (This man is often accused of simply being a deist. A deist believes that God has nothing to do with the affairs of men, that He is an 11 absentee landlord" who winds the clock and lets it run down, that He certainly does not answer prayers or deal with providence.) Franklin plainly said in the convention that met to draw up the Constitution,

    "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His Notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that 'Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel."

    FROM THE BEGINNING A CALL TO GOD

    George Washington who, according to his own prayer diary, was unquestionably a Christian, assumed the first presidency of this nation. In his first inaugural address he said, "it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations ... In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own He finished, saying, "I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities ... so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measure on which the success of this Government must depend."

    One of his early official acts was the First Thanksgiving Proclamation which reads, "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor ...... It goes on to call the nation to thankfulness to Almighty God.

    All the Presidents refer to the Almighty God, who is Author of our liberty, or to His providence, upon which our hopes depend, in their inaugural addresses.

    As I read these all recently, I was impressed that down through the years and centuries, President after President, without exception, made references or appeals in their inaugural addresses to the aid of Almighty God to fulfill the offices which they held.

    In reading over the Constitutions of all 50 of our states, I discovered something which some of you may not know: there is:

    In all 50 state Constitutions, without exception, an appeal or a prayer to the Almighty God of this universe.

    In testimony and evidence of that I quote the following: "We, the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for the preservation of the American Union and the existence of our civil, political and religious liberties The Constitution of the State of Vermont says, " That all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences .... I' That of the State of New York says, "We, the People of the State of Now York, grateful to Almighty God for our Freedom, in order to secure its blessings, DO ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION." Through all 50 state Constitutions, without exception, there runs this same appeal and reference to God who is the Creator of our liberties and the preserver of our freedoms.


    MONUMENTAL EVIDENCE

    Having looked at the documents by which our land was founded, the inaugural addresses of all the Presidents, and the Constitutions of all 50 of our states, I was brought at last to look at the monumental evidence in Washington, D. C. I am particularly thankful for it to Dr. Hodge, who had done a wonderful work at the end of the last century, and also more recently to Dr. Weiss, who had made an outstanding collection of evidence of this sort.

    If you were to look at the various national buildings and monuments in the capital of this nation, you would find unimpeachable evidence of the official commitment of this land to a belief in the living God, the Word of God, and His Son Jesus Christ.

    For example, hovering over our nation's capital is that magnificent Capitol building, a symbol of the national life of our land. The cornerstone had been laid by George Washington himself. Later a box containing a number of documents was inserted, including a manuscript in the handwriting of Daniel Webster, Secretary of State of the United States, which concluded, "And all here assembled, whether belonging to public life or to private life, with hearts devotedly thankful to Almighty God for the preservation of the liberty and happiness of the country, unite in sincere and fervent prayers that this deposit and the walls and arches, the domes and towers, the columns and the entablatures, now to be erected over it, may endure forever. God save the United States of America."

    If you were to go into the House of Representatives and look above the chair where the one who presides over that house sits, you would find in large words etched in the marble our official national motto, approved by the Senate and by the House of Representatives: IN GOD WE TRUST.

    You may then want to go and sit in on the Supreme Court and listen to its proceedings. Before they begin their deliberations, the crier comes forth, and his voice shouts these official words: "Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! All persons having business before the Honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States, are admonished to draw near and give their attention, for the court is now sitting. God save the United States and the Honorable Court." I am afraid, however, that since those words were first penned, different sentiments have crept into that Court. Maybe we should have the crier cry instead, "God save the United States from this Supreme Court."

    Enter the White House, where our President lives, and see the words placed over the fireplace by the first President to inhabit that building, John Adams, which says, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this White House and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it ....

    Go then to that monument which rises hundreds of feet in the air over the District of Columbia, and is dedicated to our first President. If you were to climb the stairs of the Washington Monument you would read the following words: "I God and our native land," "'The memory of the just is blessed:' Proverbs 10:7," "Search the Scriptures," "Holiness to the Lord," "Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God," "Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it," "in God we trust," "May heaven to this union continue its beneficence." If you were able to get to the top of the Washington Monument on the outside, you would read on that metal cap these engraved words: "Praise be to God".

    If you were then to visit that repository of the greatest collection of human knowledge ever amassed in one place by living human beings, the Library of Congress, and if you were to note carefully the walls of the various rooms of that library, you would see such sentiments as these: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handywork," "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding," "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God," "One God, one element, and one far-off divine event, to which the whole creation moves," 11 Nature is the art of God," and "That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

    If you were then moved in your heart, desirous to sing praises to God for what He has done in this your native land, you might lift up your voice with millions of others to sing the National Anthem of our country', The Star Spangled Banner, which concludes with these words:

    Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

    Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;

    And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall I wave

    O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

    For the first 200 years of the great Country, children were taught to read from the NEW ENGLAND PRIMER.

    Published in 1690, this was the standard used to teach children in America to read. In teaching the ABC's and sentence structure and what we call 'phonics' today, the Alphabet was listed next to a phrase describing that letter, and the phrase used was always....every time for every letter of the alphabet....a verse from the Bible!

    For example:

    A - A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son....

    B - Better is little in fear of the Lord than great treasures....

    C - Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy burdened, and He will give you rest...



    Every letter had a BIBLE VERSE next to it!

    At the end of the book were questions such as:

    What is the 5th Commandment?

    What is the 6th Commandment?

    What does it mean not to steal?

    What is murder?

    And so on.

    The Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled in 1846 (and was never over-ruled by the Nation's Supreme Court):

    "What constitutes the standard of good morals" Is it not Christianity? There certainly is none other. Say that cannot be appealed to, and I don't know what would be good morals. The day of moral virtue in which we live would, in an instant, if that standard wee abolished lapse into the dark and murky night of pagan immorality."

    John Jay was the first Chief Justice of our Supreme Court and one of the 3 top men in the formation of our Constitution. He said Americans should 'select and prefer Christians as their rulers"

    When is the last time you heard a Supreme Court Judge say that?

    The University of Houston was commissioned to do a 10 year study on the Founding Fathers and their writings to see their intentions and if they intended America to be founded on Christian Principles and the Bible or complete separation from religion.

    They surveyed over 15,000 documents of the Founding Fathers during that 10 year period. They found 3,154 direct quotes from the Founding Fathers themselves.

    34% of those direct quotes were from the Bible itself!

    60% were from men who were directly influenced by the Bible. One example was Gladstone, whose law books were considered the basis upon our Supreme Court and Judiciary System were built, and were the Law Books of Reference for about almost 120years. Gladstone quoted so many Bible verses in his law books that a law student named FINNEY was saved and became a great evangelist......from reading Gladstone's Law books!

    So they found that 94 % of the quotes of the founding fathers were either directly or indirectly from the Bible!

    "A TIME TO SPEAK"

    From our discoveries we realize that all the documents that formed our country, the ideals of those who framed them, the convictions of those who settled this land, all the Constitutions of the various states, the inaugurals of all our presidents, the statements on all the monuments, unmistakably testify that this is a nation under God founded for the furtherance of the Gospel and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Those are but a few of hundreds of examples that could be mentioned. On them I rest my case. Again I ask you, does the separation of church and state mean that God is to have no place in our land? Does it mean that this nation was not founded for the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, as as e n repeatedly stated? Does it mean that our government is to be secularist and humanist in nature? Does it mean that our children are to grow up without any knowledge of the God who brought about the founding of this country?

    In 1929, the Communists issued a protocol which said that the concept of the separation of church and state should be pushed to the extremist position, that all religion should be removed as the underpinning for the government of this nation in order that, eventually having grown so weak and flabby and convictionless and fearful, this government might fall. We have moved a long way already on that path.

    SOMETHING HAPPENED IN AMERICA IN 1962

    When our Courts ruled completely opposite to the Religious Principles our nation had been founded upon in 1962, our society has went into a moral freefall.

    Before 1962 Unwed births to girls ages 10 to 14 were steady and relatively rare. After 1962, the graph shows an increase of 325% .....

    Sexually-transmitted Diseases to High School students were relatively rare before 1962. Since then STD's are at epidemic proportions in our kids.

    Violent Crime since 1962 has shot up 995%!

    In 1950's a survey of teachers showed the biggest problem in schools was chewing gum and shooting spit wads. Can you believe it?

    The Divorce rate since 1962 has steadily risen 111% to where America is leading the World now in divorce.

    The SAT test as a standard measurement of education achievement for our children was began in 1926 and later standardized in 1941 as the same test we have had up until recently when it had to be 'dumbed down'. The SAT rates were steady up until 1962. Since God and prayer was kicked out of our schools in 1962 and the children were taught they evolved from mud and slime, the SAT scores declined 18 years in a row! Unprecedented! For the first time in history, the students scores were 80 points less then the previous generation of their parents! Just recently our 'Educators' from the NEA had the SAT dumbed down because boys and girls in America were scoring so poorly!

    Is this a coincidence?

    I believe that the time is long past for Christians to stand on their feet and say, "Thus far and no more!" and declare, as a decision of the Supreme Court has said, that this is a Christian land. All its documents, all its constitutions, and all the beliefs of its founders, indicate that this is true.
    We must no longer tolerate the movement to reduce this nation to a secularistic, atheistic, humanistic state. My friend, are we to be spineless? Are we to allow these things to go on without protest? Or are we to take steps as individual Christian citizens to see that the rights and privileges emanating from the free exercise of the religion which founded this nation are not abridged and expunged, as numerous efforts are now underway to do.

    God grant that we may not be so weak, vacillating and fearful. May God grant us the courage to take our stand while there still is a place to make that stand.

    And Montgomery Alabama is the place right now.
     
  14. rsr

    rsr <b> 7,000 posts club</b>
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Dec 11, 2001
    Messages:
    11,852
    Likes Received:
    1,085
    Faith:
    Baptist
    No separation of church and state (actually, state and religion)? We may disagree as to exactly the limits of that separation (check out the poll discussion Clint posted earlier), but it was a concept well understood by early Baptists and the Founders.

    John Leland

    John Leland

    James Madison
     
  15. ScottEmerson

    ScottEmerson Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2002
    Messages:
    3,417
    Likes Received:
    0
    It is obvious that you have never study the Treaty of Tripoli. Did you know that the ambassador added that phrase to the treaty AFTER John Adams signed it. NO. At the very last minute the muslims want that phrase stuck in there or they would not sign it. So he did it without permission. If he would have had to go back and have Adams sign it(which he would not have done so), this fellow would have lost a lot of money on this trade agreement that he selfishly pushed for. </font>[/QUOTE]Outright lie. Article 11, from which the treaty came, did indeed include the quote in question, which was unanymously ratified by the Senate in 1979. In fact, the treaty was printed in many US newspapers with the aforementioned quote.

    Article 11 actually says: "As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of Musselmen; and as the states never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever produce an interruption of harmony existing between the two countries. "

    The president, secretary of state, and Congress ratified this treaty. The phrase was NOT added later.
     
  16. Clint Kritzer

    Clint Kritzer Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2001
    Messages:
    8,877
    Likes Received:
    4
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Your continued presentation of fabricated and biased information prevents me from stopping.

    Please cite a source for this information. I found text that disputes it:

    This treaty with the Islamic state of Tripoli had been written and concluded by Joel Barlow during Washington's Administration. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on June 7, 1797; President Adams signed it on June 10, 1797 and it was first published in the Session Laws of the Fifth Congress, first session in 1797. Quite clearly, then, at this very early stage of the American Republic, the U.S. government did not consider the United States a Christian nation.
    - http://www.theology.edu/journal/volume2/ushistor.htm


    You're preaching to the choir here! I went to a military school for 5 years here in my rural Virginian hometown. We not only carried guns to school, they were issued to us. I always had a shotgun in the car during hunting season.

    "My earlier views of the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them."
    -- Abraham Lincoln, to Judge JS. Wakefield, after Willie Lincoln's death


    "Mr. Lincoln was not a Christian."
    -- Mary Todd Lincoln


    "I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible)." -- Thomas Paine

    I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. (Richard Emery Roberts, ed. "Excerpts from The Age of Reason". Selected Writings of Thomas Paine. New York: Everbody's Vacation Publishing Co., 1945, p. 362)
    Regarding the New Testament, he wrote that:


    I hold [it] to be fabulous and have shown [it] to be false...(Roberts, p. 375)


    "The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy."--George Washington, 2000 Years of Disbelief , James A. Haught



    "It may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to unsurpastion on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will best be guarded against by an entire abstinence of the Government from interference in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect against trespasses on its legal rights by others."--James Madison, "James Madison on Religious Liberty", edited by Robert S. Alley, ISBN pp 237-238

    Here's some more Madison quotes for your edification: http://home.comcast.net/~rkamlet/madison.htm

    Nor does the Constitution coantain mention of "God" or "Christianity." Religion is mentioned twice: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust" (Art. VI). "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (First Amendment). Even the presidential oath does not contain the phrase "so help me God" or the requirement to swear on a bible (Art. II, Sec.1) This ommission of Christian nomenclature is quite telling.

    So this was no more than a rumor, not a fact.

    It is also interesting that one who claims to be a Baptist would present as part of their argument the Jamestown and Massachusetts settlements. The Virginia colonists were loyal to James I and in the following century were well known for their persecution of the Baptists, Quakers, or whoever else did not concede to the will of the Anglican church. The Puritans (with whom you seem more in line) ruled with even more oppression than the Anglicans.

    BTW, as a Virginian and one who has studied Virginia history a large part of my life I can assure you that very, very few of the original Virginia Tobacco company were here for religious reasons. They wanted to make money. I have joked before that when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, there was probably a represenative of Phillip Morris there waiting to sell them a carton of Marlboros. [​IMG]
     
  17. Jailminister

    Jailminister New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2003
    Messages:
    907
    Likes Received:
    0
    Here is the truth from "America's God and Country" by William Federer: "The Congress of the United States of America June 4, 1805, during Thomas Jefferson's presidency, drafted a Treaty of Peace and Amity with Tripoli, ratified April 12, 1806. Congress deleted from the previous June 7, 1797 treaty an unauthorized phrase that the United States "is not, in any sense founded on the Christian religion...," (An insertion intended to clarify that the American government was not like the Mohammedan, Buddhist, or Hindu countries, where government controls the religious life of its people). Of note is the fact that this phrase is also not found in the Arabic version of the 1797 treaty, and appears to have been an unauthorized insertion of Joel Barlow, the American Consul at Algiers who oversaw the translation process from Arabic to English." So the quote, while historical, is unauthorized, unofficial, and officially repudiated by the Congress.
     
  18. ScottEmerson

    ScottEmerson Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2002
    Messages:
    3,417
    Likes Received:
    0
    From http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary/bar1796t.htm:

    Treaty of Peace and Friendship, signed at Tripoli November 4, 1796 (3 Ramada I, A. H. 1211), and at Algiers January 3, 1797 (4 Rajab, A. H. 1211). Original in Arabic. Submitted to the Senate May 29, 1797. (Message of May 26, 1797.) Resolution of advice and consent June 7, 1797. Ratified by the United States June 10, 1797. As to the ratification generally, see the notes. Proclaimed Jane 10, 1797.

    The treaty was ratified in 1797 by Congress with the words "not a Christian nation." It only took 8 or 9 days from being presented to be ratified. They must not have had much of a problem with the whole phrase, huh?

    Oh, and I hope you know that "One Nation Under God" and "In God We Trust" did not come around until the 20th c., right?
     
  19. ScottEmerson

    ScottEmerson Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2002
    Messages:
    3,417
    Likes Received:
    0
    Aha! Did you know that there was another Treaty of Tripoli that was completely separate from the one ratified in 1797. This treaty, which was indeed passed by Congress in April 12, 1806, concluded the Tripolitan War, which commenced in 1801. The new treaty in no way negated the first treaty. Here are some primary documents proving that this is true.

    And your second point is also untrue. Congress ratified the English version with the 10th Article in it. We must therefore conclude that they did not have a problem with the proclamation that America was not a Christian nation.
     
  20. Jailminister

    Jailminister New Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2003
    Messages:
    907
    Likes Received:
    0
    Scot, Scott Scott [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
Loading...