Posted on 02/20/2011 5:32:29 PM PST by Hope Smith
I have begun reading a new book of Lenten sermons, and have been intrigued to see the application to the state of our nation. Please make these thoughts and ideas a matter of prayer for America:
"...the relation between God and man [is] primarily a personal relationship. But to say that is not to say that it is a lawless relationship. It is both personal and moral. It is a personal relationship in which, ethically speaking, some things are forever obligatory, viz., to love God and neighbor. Moreover, some things are forever to be denied, such as hate, lust, selfishness. In other words, it is a personal relationship determined by law, and law which cannot deny itself. Without the understanding of that law, namely, the Moral Law [of God, as recorded in the Bible], righteousness and sin, atonement and forgiveness, would all alike be words without meaning." [E. Clifford Nelson, "This is Eternal Life"] I was intrigued by that statement that our relationship to God is personal, yes, but it is regulated by His law. This is equally true of nations. In order to be "one nation under God" we must return to our first national resolve to formulate all law within the framework of the law of God, recognizing that His law is supreme and eternal.
The author goes on to quote Elton Trueblood ("Foundations for Reconstruction"): "...the reconstruction of our world is not primarily a problem in engineering and not primarily a problem in politics, important as both are, but the underlying task is to recover the sense of moral order." The American founders knew, and we must remind ourselves today, that the sense of moral order cannot be found or enforced except on the basis of God's revealed law and word, the Bible. As Gouverneur Morris (and many of the founding generation) openly and adamantly testified: "Let mankind enjoy at last the consolatory spectacle of thy throne [America], built of industry on the basis of peace, and sheltered under the wings of justice. May it be secured by pious obedience to the Divine will, which prescribes the moral orbit of the empire with the same precision that His wisdom and power have displayed in the wheeling millions of planets round millions of suns, through the vastness of infinite space." Liberty and justice for all are 'secured by pious obedience to the Divine will.'
I will add my voice to that of the many who have testified that, as we have 'outlawed' God and Christianity in this nation, we have experienced a dizzying decline into the most abject corruption and miserable loss. Nelson also states, "The [Church], as custodian of both the Law and the Gospel, has a unique and oft-neglected responsibility, namely, to be a witness to the 'primus usus' of the Law. This is the obligation of the whole Christian Church... [to smite] the consciences of rulers and others in positions of influence with the Law of God." [cited previously]
"Why do you boast yourself in mischief, O mighty man? the goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises mischiefs, like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. ...God shall likewise destroy you forever; He shall take you away, and pluck you out of your dwelling place, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah. The righteous also shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him: 'Lo, this is the man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.'" [Psalm 52:1-2,5-7]
I am just reading the speeches of Cicero who lived before Christ and he sounds exactly like our Founding Fathers, because he believed all men’s laws had to be based on Natural Law which presupposes a Supreme Being. In other words, the laws had to support and be based on God’s Laws to be just. (That is the belief of our Founding Fathers who believed in Natural Law Theory and also Revelation.)
All other law is evil according to Cicero (Locke and our Founders). It is made for power and control over others. He expounded on this concept and I believe that is where we have erred (intentionally). Holmes and other legal scholars in the early 20th century took our laws and removed morality from them.......to Positivism—Man-based laws could NOT be based on God’s Laws because they are irrational.
This movement was by the Postmodern German philosophers who HATED Christianity more than anything. They are trying to destroy Christian morality to destroy the family which will destroy America...and they can redesign human behavior to go against nature and use Pavlovian/Skinnerean techniques in the schools plus drugs to condition the minds of children to accept this unnatural world and think it is good.....A Brave New World.
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