We must regain the conviction that biblical principles are vital to national success, and be willing to pursue their reinstatement. In recent decades, we have wrongly allowed the very principles which produced morality and virtue, and thus national stability, to be restricted in public life.

 

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is...executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.
- Samuel Adams

It was the plan and intent of our founding fathers for godly people, and thereby godly principles, to be intimately involved in the political, judicial and educational realms.

The founders believed that only the godly would understand the unalienable freedoms provided by God and thus protect them in our government. They never intended for Christian principles to be divorced from public affairs.

Unfortunately, over the years, Christians en masse have voluntarily removed themselves from the political, social and legal arenas. Whenever the godly depart from any arena, their godly values depart with them.

A person in office always legislates according to his personal beliefs and convictions, and herein is the wisdom of Proverbs 29:2 made evident: "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."

Christians, through bad doctrine, political inactivity and apathy, handed over the reins of the nation to leaders who awarded potentially lifelong appointments to justices eager to uproot Christian values that had been the heart of this nation for centuries.

Quite frankly, the court's religion-hostile decisions were merely an outgrowth of what the Christian community at large had permitted and encouraged in the decades preceding those rulings.

A biblical description of how this process worked is given by Jesus in Matthew 13:24-26. In that parable, good people had a bountiful field. However, an enemy came in and planted bad among the good, thus contaminating the entire field.

What afforded the enemy such an opportunity? The stark answer is found in verse 25: "While [the good] men slept, [the] enemy came [in]...."

Jesus never faulted the enemy for doing what he did, for it was his task and purpose to destroy. Jesus placed the fault on the good men who went to sleep, thus allowing the enemy the opportunity to contaminate the field.

To put it bluntly, what has occurred in America happened first because the church went to sleep—and then because the enemy came in and caused the damage.

First Things First
The problems we have created for ourselves, although colossal, can be solved. The first thing we must do is to put first things first: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for [leaders], and for all that are in authority" (1 Tim. 2:1-2).

This is not an arbitrary, haphazard plan given by God. God wants every individual to pray for civic leaders first, because civic leaders and their policies affect every individual.

For our own benefit, we should be praying regularly for our leaders at local, state and federal levels, in each branch of government. Prayer is the first key to effecting significant change, for situations do not change on earth until they have been changed in the heavens.

Additionally, we need to pray that God will uproot the wicked from office and raise up righteous individuals to replace them. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," and having the right individuals in office will prevent the enactment of damaging policies.

Christians Are A Majority
The political realm, formerly dominated by Christians, is still available to us. The elimination of religious activities and acknowledgment of God from public affairs occurred through the political system; it can therefore also restore those principles.

While it might seem easier to empty the ocean with a thimble than to change politics, it is not as difficult as you may think. You've probably heard, or perhaps even made statements such as: "My vote won't make a difference anyway. It does us no good to vote. As Christians, we're already in the minority."

Sound familiar?

The fact is, such statements are not true.

A recent Gallup Poll shows that 84 percent of this nation firmly believe in Jesus Christ and a separate poll indicates that 94 percent believe in God.

Polls have also shown that:

• More than 80 percent approve of voluntary prayer in school
• 81 percent of the people in this nation oppose homosexual behavior
• 89 percent oppose the use of abortion as a means of birth control

Additional findings could be cited, but the conclusion is inescapable: although we have been led to believe that we, the 94 percent who believe in God, are the minority—we most definitely are not!

Imagine a hypothetical vote in the U.S. Senate where the final tally was 94 to 6. It would be untenable for the 6 to be declared the winner and their policy enacted over the votes of the 94.

Yet this is exactly what happened when public acknowledgment of God was prohibited! Can such an act truly be appropriate either in a republic (to which we pledge our allegiance) or in a democracy (which we most often claim to be)?

Certainly not! Unfortunately, this travesty occurs on a regular basis today.

While polls show that the overwhelming majority seems ready to return godly precepts to public affairs, it is clear that a vast number of our elected officials are not. Whose fault is that?

Notice President James Garfield's answer to this question:

Now, more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.

If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature....If the next centennial does not find us a great nation...it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.

Positive change actually rests in the hands of us the citizens, not our leaders. This has been proven time and again over recent years. For example, in U.S. Senate races a decade ago, five candidates who stood for returning godly principles to public affairs were defeated by a collective total of only 57,000 votes-less than 12,000 votes per state.

Yet in those five states, there were more than 5 million Christians who did not even vote! If only 1 of every 100 nonvoting Christians—1 percent—had voted for the godly candidate, those five would have been elected resulting in a 10-vote swing in the Senate toward godly policies.

Imagine how different America would now be if those godly leaders had been working in the Senate for the past decade.

If only Christians had returned those five to the Senate, partial-birth abortions would now be banned, religious liberties protected, and many other measures reflecting biblical values would have been passed over the past two years.

This is not the disheartening report it seems—it is actually encouraging in that it shows godly candidates are most often defeated not by activists and radicals, but by inactive Christians!

This means the ability to change the current situation is in our hands. As Edmund Burke explained: "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

Believers To The Ballot Box!
There is much that "good men" can do to stop the triumph of evil. And one of the most important is to vote, and to vote biblically.

Founding Father Noah Webster delivered this admonition: "Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God [Ex. 18:21].

"If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted...If government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws."

And Charles Finney, a prominent minister in the early 1800s, succinctly declared: "The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them....

"God cannot sustain this free and blessed country which we love and pray for unless the Church will take right ground."

It is time to believe and to behave differently. We are not a minority—we are the majority! It is time to declare at the ballot box that we will no longer allow officials who embrace the values of the 6 percent who do not believe in God to repeal the rights of the 94 percent who do.

We must remove officials who do not comply with traditional, historical and biblical principles and replace them with those who do. Our vote does count!

We must regain the conviction that biblical principles are vital to national success, and be willing to pursue their reinstatement. In recent decades, we have wrongly allowed the very principles which produced morality and virtue, and thus national stability, to be restricted in public life.

We need once again to recognize the truth so well understood by George Washington that: "The propitious [favorable] smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained."

We must become convinced of the principle expressed by Abraham Lincoln and then accept the civic responsibilities implied by his statement: "The truth announced in the Holy Scripture, and proven by all history [is] that, 'Those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.'"

WallBuilders (www.wallbuilders.com)
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