Persecution has begun here in America…And it starts with our Armed Forces!

Good efternoon everyone.  It is with a heavy heart that I write this post.

Persecution of Christianity has officially begun here in the Unitied States and it begins in the Department of Defense.  This would include ALL armed forces that report up through the DOD.   See the article… So here is the deal… According to the report the gentleman who is responsible for drafting the verbiage that would actually imprison a service member for sharing his faith has stated this “Christians–including chaplains–sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”

To see what he really thinks of Christians CLICK HERE

It appears that the official verbiage, as confirmed by the Pentagon states the following:  “Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense…Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis”

And so it goes.  The government has now made it illegal to evangelize in the Armed Services.  This puts our Christian brothers and sisters in the armed services on another front line for Christ, as they risk imprisonment and dishonarable discharge for simply caring enough about their fellow soldiers to offer Christ to them.

The Great Commission is our single charge directly from Jesus.  Because we love Jesus we obey His command, which is to go forth and to make disciples.  We cannot go forth and make disciples without proselytization.  Because we love our brothers and sisters we tell them about the salvation that awaits them.  To ask a Christian to not evanglize is to simply ask them to not be a Christian, and to disobey an order from God Himself.

We are no longer protected, and are now officially a persecuted group from our US Government.  It is time to be prepared mentally for the sacrifice that we are going to be asked to make here in the very near future.

Were the founding fathers Christians?

Were these men Christians?

So I was setting out to write something for the 4^th.  I thought to myself…. ”Self, why not write a post that talks about the faith of the founding fathers.  It should be pretty easy to do.  Common knowledge is that the founding fathers were religious.  Piece of cake.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.  What I discovered is that there are some misconceptions surrounding the faith of our founding fathers.  To be honest, I understand the misconception.  The word “God”, is used in the Declaration of Independence.  The manner in which it is used lends it’s self to this misconception.   There are letters written by the founding fathers calling on a Supreme Being, or God.  But does that mean what we think it means?

Before we go forward it is important to define the word deism.  Deism is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without the need for either faith or organized religion.  Deists do not believe in miracles.  They do not believe in the Trinity.  They do not believe that Christ is the Son of God.  They do not believe in atonement or the resurrection.  I look at deism as the intellectual’s view of Christianity – It’s agnosticism in that it believes there is a god, but that god cannot be known. 

Why is this important?  Because, MANY of our founding fathers identified themselves as or communicated in a manner that was deistic. 

Take a look at the following charts I found on THIS WEBSITE. 

	Communion	Confirmation	Attendance	Vocabulary
Washington	No	No	Yes	Mostly Deist
Adams, John	not applicable	not applicable	Yes	Both
Jefferson	No	No	Yes	Deist
Madison	No	No	Yes	Deist
Monroe	No	No	Yes	Mostly Deist
Franklin	No	No	Yes	Deist
Paine, Thomas	No	No	No	Deist
Adams, Samuel	not applicable	not applicable	Yes	Orthodox

 

Beliefs: Resurrection, Christ-Divinity, Trinity, Miracles

	Resurrection	Christ-Divinity	Trinity	Miracles
Washington	?	?	?	?
Adams, John	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Jefferson	No	No	No	No
Madison	?	?	No	?
Monroe	?	?	?	?
Franklin	No	No	No	?
Paine, Thomas	No	No	No	No
Adams, Samuel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

 

As you review this chart think about the definition of deism.  Of the 8 listed founding fathers (some of the most popular) 6 were deist…not Christian.  3 do not believe in the resurrection or the divinity of Christ.

To avoid diving too far into this rabbit whole let me just say this.  We have to be careful in how we characterize our founding fathers.  In looking at the above charts the statement that “The founding fathers were Christians” might not hold as much water as you think.  Of those mentioned here Samuel Adams was the only one who identified himself as a Christian (as we identify with today).

Now, is it fair to say that America was founded on Christian ideals?  Sure I believe it to be.  The Nation may have been founded on Christian Ideals, but not by Christians… However, this is not reason to despair! The religious underpinnings of our country’s foundation matters very little in comparison to our present circumstances.  Remember this… what makes America great (or not) is you.  What can make America better?  You living in and living out the Word of God.  What can destroy America? A continued moral decline and turning away from the God of the Bible. Will you stand up for THE CAUSE of Christ? Our nation depends on it.

Funny Thing About History… It Repeats

Have you ever wondered why Israel failed at their job to evangelize the world (Scripture calls it being a priest nation) and why they missed Jesus as their Messiah? And, are we falling into the same trappings in the US, now?!?!?! I think so…

I posed these questions to one of my classmates and this is what she said (I think she’s right):

I believe Israel looked inward partially because they were an “obstinate people”, as God declared through Isaiah (Isaiah 65:2), but also because they walked the fine line of not mingling with the Canaanites and other peoples they encountered during the Exodus and as they conquered the Holy Land, yet living life as the apple of God’s eye and slated to be a kingdom of priests. It can be hard to understand how to follow God without becoming legalistic. The same holds true today in the US today. One need not look far to find Christian groups that have separated so far from the rest of the world that they cannot possibly be a witness to those around them that don’t know Christ. Even just by spending almost exclusively time in our Christian circles, we can easily get caught up in a separate world.

Personally, I think that they focused in on the tangible aspect of the covenant – the land – without thinking about the purpose of the covenant (or rather they mistook the purpose of the covenant). I think they thought that they were so cool with God that He just loved blessing them for their own prosperity and enjoyment rather than the prosperity being a sign/proof to glorify God and make it possible for Israel to engage in the ministry of reconciliation.

I think we do the same here and now… We get so caught up in the tangible (the physical/material prosperity God has allowed this nation to have) and we get so comfortable in our own exclusive Christian circles that we become useless for the Kingdom (I say “we” on purpose, because I’m including me). I heard a quote somewhere that, “money (blessings) is (are) like manuer… it’s no good unless you spread it all around (like fertalizer)”… What God blessed Israel with and what He has blessed us with (corporately and individually) wasn’t just for our enjoyment and ease (why would there be so much about suffering in the NT if that were the case)… Instead it is for us to be a blessing to others in order to share God’s message of Love, forgiveness, righteousness, etc… You know, the ministry of reconciliation (spoken of in 2 Corinthians 5).

Like I said, I’ve been thining about ancient Israel’s failures for several years and somewhat paralelling that to the US. But, the stats Dr. Wheeler shared in my personal evangelism class were so shocking (i.e. some 90% + of Christians don’t actively share their faith AT ALL) that it shook me out of my stupor… I think now way more than ever that personal evangelism and world missions is not just an important aspect of the Christian life, but it is THE most important aspect of it… Greg Stier of Dare2Share ministries calls it “THE Cause.” I just hope we, as the Body of Christ, take our calling in Matthew 28 and 2 Corinthians 5 so much more seriously and that we get on board with God’s program so that we do not continue to flounder away in the same old rut that ancient Israel did.