America's Greatness
Sunday 19 Apr 2009
President Obama disappointed many Christians when he said in Turkey recently that America is not a Christian nation. After also telling the world that “words matter”, it is critically important now, therefore that the Church and the Free World seriously consider this statement from the President because, if he is right, it has potentially, serious long term ramifications for the world, and all that we hold near and dear, including our savings and our retirement plans.
In the “war of ideas” that is raging throughout the world, America’s role in the world is at the heart of the debate and whether or not America is a Christian nation or not, is critical to the outcome of that debate. If President Obama is right, then the world is in serious trouble. If he is wrong, then, there is hope that we will recover from this current financial crisis and the dream will still be alive.
The World Needs Christian America
It may be a bitter pill for some to swallow, but the world needs America; and the world needs America to be Christian. It is also important that America consider itself Christian because this is not only the truth; but it is what makes America great and enables America to do all it does in the world. Take away the Christian heart of America, and reduce it to just another country in the world, and hundreds of millions of people will suffer and many will die needlessly.
Nowhere else on this planet, ever, throughout all of recorded history, has there ever been a nation like America that has done so much for the world, purely in the interests of the world. This has been possible, because, nowhere else in the world has the saying been proven to be truer than in America, that: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8: 32) The secret of America’s greatness is that a large number of Americans once knew the Christianity value of individual freedom and planted it in this place.
The American Brand of Christianity
And, it is important that the world understands that it is not just any “brand” of Christianity that was planted and that has flourished in America, but individual free enterprise Protestantism; not just any brand of Protestantism, but that brand of Protestantism that understands and cherishes the “individual work ethic”. The truth is that grass roots Americans love their freedom and they work hard and sacrifice mightily for it.
The truth is that it was European Protestants “separatists” like the Pilgrims, and the Quakers, marching to the drum of Martin Luther who left England because of their separatist beliefs in the rights of the individual and not the state or even the institutional church; they are the people who founded and inspired the America that we know today. It was not Jews; or Muslims; or Buddhists; or Hindus; or agnostics who founded America; but separatist-minded Christian Protestants who lived and breathed the spirit of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and George Fox. They were the ones who paved the way and first lit the flame of the Holy Spirit of individualism that ultimately led to the Boston Tea Party and America’s independence from Britain; and all the freedoms that Americans enjoy today.
The Pilgrims and the Quakers
The Pilgrims, or Pilgrim Fathers, first came to America in the Mayflower in 1620 and settled the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. They were fiercely independent Christian separatists who were driven out of England and Europe by suppressive religious states. Their beliefs and their culture of individualism are central to the history and culture of the United States of America.
The unorthodox Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) who followed were probably America’s first missionaries. Like the Pilgrims, they were also driven out of Europe for their separatist Christian beliefs. Quakers totally believe in the individual’s right to liberty. They were, for example, the first in the world to ban slavery. Quakers were also prominent in setting up and operating the “underground railroad” that delivered many American slaves from the south to freedom in the north. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania was a Quaker. Penn founded Pennsylvania as a place where Quakers could practice their beliefs in peace, because, even in early America, the British crown still had many friends who sought to persecute Quakers. Persecution however, has never stopped Quakers. Susan B. Anthony, who tirelessly championed women’s rights, was a Quaker. Many of the world’s most prominent organizations that fight for peace, we founded by Quakers. This is why, in 1947, the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Founding Fathers of America
It is the truth also that the founding fathers of America; those incredible men who came together to draft and deliver the American Constitution and its Bill of Rights were descended of these early pioneers; and all either were or became, Protestant and separatist in their beliefs. Of the seven who are generally given this recognition, five could be said to have had strong Christian beliefs. George Washington was baptized into the Church of England and was an active freemason; John Adams was the son of a Puritan Deacon; James Madison was Church of England married to a Quaker; Benjamin Franklin was a Calvinist; and John Fay was of French Huguenot descent.
Today, millions of suppressed people, from all over the world, have followed the lead of these pioneering separatists and been drawn to the beacon of freedom that America represents. Despite their differing backgrounds; their racial and cultural differences; what all these separatists shared is the Holy Spirit of individualism; they all wanted the freedom that America offered to express their God-given individual potential. This is the invisible ‘glue” that created what we know today as the United States of America. And this is what is what is under threat in America today; this is what is at the very heart of the division and the “cultural warfare” that is now raging in the USA.
The Great Divide
If you still do not understand; and want to see, touch, and feel what this means, go to the US-Mexican border and look south for as far as inhabitable land exists and what you will see is a sea of Christian people who are drowning in poverty. Hundreds of millions of poor people that hunger for God’s truth live south of the US-Mexican border and yet they struggle every day to put food on their plates and have no such opportunity as their Christian brothers and sisters who live in America. When you can see this difference, go north and look into beautiful and abundant land of Canada and see another 30 million people who are mostly Christian; and then, ask yourself: what is the difference? What is the unique blessing that America received that these other nations did not get?
As a Canadian or a South American, you may take exception to this because you love your country; and you may much prefer it to anything that the USA has to offer. As true as this may be, you cannot deny the greatness of the USA and what it has done for the world. You also cannot deny that the world would not be anywhere near as free or prosperous as it is today, without the USA. This is what we are talking about here.
The Protestant Work Ethic
What then is this Protestant Individual Work Ethic? What is this "Inner Light" or the "Light of Christ within" that blue collar tradesman, George Fox (1624-1691) spoke about, that so inspired Quakers to believe that despite the suppression of the state that decreed that people should believe otherwise; that they could develop individual religious beliefs arising from their personal conscience and revelation coming from "God within"?
In his book, “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, world-renown German economist Max Weber (1864-1920) wrote that Capitalism evolved when the Protestant (particularly the Calvinist) individual work ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own enterprises and engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment. In other words, Weber said that the Protestant ethic was the invisible force behind an unplanned and uncoordinated mass action that influenced the development of Capitalism and the growth of the essential middle class.
Adam Smith (1723-1790), who is widely recognized as the father of modern Capitalism and Capitalist economics also wrote extensively on the morality of this ethic of self-interest, as he called it. In his most famous work, The Wealth of Nations” Adam Smith expounds the belief that the free market, while appearing chaotic and unrestrained, is actually guided to produce the right amount and variety of goods by a so-called "invisible hand". The “invisible hand” that Smith referred to is seen when an individual pursues his self-interest; in doing so, he promotes the good of society more than so if he consciously intends to benefit society. By pursuing our own interests, Adam Smith said, we do more for society as a whole than all those who say that this is their purpose. Self-interested competition in the free market, Adam Smith argued, benefits everyone.
Biblical Truth
The morality of self-interest that Adam Smith wrote about; that the Pilgrims and the Quakers lived and died for; that is otherwise known as the Protestant Work Ethic, is Biblical; it is natural Law. This is its power. “Six days shall you labor, and do all your work,” God said to Moses on Mount Sinai; “for in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.” (Exodus 20: 9-11) “This we commanded you,” the apostle Paul said, “that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”(2 Thessalonians 3: 10) “With quietness they should work, and eat their own bread.” (2 Thessalonians 3: 12) This is why individual self interest works.
This is the truth that the prophet Samuel told the children of Israel when they came to Samuel and asked him for a king to rule over them (read Chapter 8 of the First Book of Samuel). It is also the mystery of Samson, the strong man with the long hair, who lost his strength when they cut off his hair. (Hair is a Biblical symbol of individual spirit. See: 1 Corinthians 11: 15 and Judges 14: 14) It is the story of the Nazarites who consciously cut off their hair and separated themselves unto God (See Numbers 6: 2). It is the story of Jesus Christ who was prophesized to “be a Nazarite (a separatist} unto God from the womb.” (Judges 13: 5) This is why Jesus was said to be a citizen of Nazareth. “He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 1: 23)
Special Power of Individualism
All these Biblical stories are prophesies. Their common purpose is to tell us loudly and clearly that there is something special that we need to know and understand about Protestant Christianity and the power of the individual over the state – the power of One (1). This is what all the great men and women of history have fought for; this is the Holy (1) Spirit that Christians cherish and worship; their one-to-One (1) relationship with God who “is One (1).” (Galatians 3: 20) This is the power that inspires ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
It is also the invisible spirit of America that is now under attack in America and throughout the world today. And, if you doubt that this is true, read what Samuel said to the children of Israel when they asked him for a king to rule over them instead of taking responsibility for their own lives and ask yourself if this is not the spirit that is rampant in America today. If you are a Christian, ask yourself why Cain killed Able? What was the blessing that Esau squandered; that his brother Jacob cherished so much? It is important that you do this and understand these things because, as we are hearing more and more these days, people who ignore history are bound to repeat its mistakes.
The Spirit of Man
The truth is that the spirit of man has not changed since the first days when Cain killed his brother Able in a jealous rage; it’s still all about fear and greed. This is why prophesy works. This is why politicians fan the spirit of jealousy between rich and poor people, because they know what stirs the spirit of men. Today we call it “class warfare” or “cultural warfare”, but it is no different to what was going on between Cain and Able and Jacob and Esau.
Class Warfare is the most powerful weapon that the Devil has in his arsenal. He uses it continually to trap and enslave people. Read history and you will know that this is true. This is the weapon that Marx and Engels used to light the spirit of Socialism and Communism that killed and enslaved millions of people in the 20th Century that is still thriving in the world today. It is the weapon that every dictator uses to rob the people of their God-given right to liberty and the pursuit of personal achievement.
A Passing Fancy
Some say that what we are seeing in America today is just a passing fancy; they say that Americans will ultimately come to their senses and rediscover the spirit of liberty that made them great. This, of course, is what every nation has said before it fell into ruin. This is what the people of Britain said before the collapse of the British Empire; this is what the Tsars of Russia said before their lost their heads; this is what they said in Moscow before the collapse of the USSR; this is what they said in France before the French Revolution fell upon them. “Pride comes before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall,” (Proverbs 16: 18)
For every American who proudly says it cannot happen here, consider how much America has changed in the past 50 years and look at the trend; it is deeply rooted in anti-Christian secularism that is totally opposed to everything that the founding fathers of America believed. Today, more than 50% of Americans get a handout from Government. This does not auger well for the Holy Spirit of individualism that we otherwise call Christianity.
