The random house dictionary of the English language defines religion in this way; concern over what exists beyond the visible world, differentiated from philosophy in that it operates through faith or intuition rather than reason, generally including the idea of the existence of a single being or group of beings, or a transcendent spiritual entity that has created the world, and governs it. That controls its destinies or that occasionally intervenes in the natural course of its history. As well as the idea that ritual, prayer, and spiritual exercises, are expedient, due, or spiritually rewarding and arise naturally out of an inner need as a human response to a belief in such a being. The Word of God, which is the bible, in the book of James, Chapter 1 verse 27 says that “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their troubles and to keep oneself unspotted from the world”.
Since we live in 21st century America and most Americans call themselves Christians, my primary focus will be on Christianity and how the battle between the Christian worldview and the secular worldview has shaped our society today. A quick look at the history of the United States reveals the birth of a nation founded by Christians based upon biblical principles given to man by God to cultivate a loving peace filled relationship between God and man. Let me be the first to say that while the founding fathers of this nation were indeed my brothers in Christ, they were, as I am, far from perfect in the holiness of our blessed creator to whom belongs glory, honor, and praise forever! Amen. The enslavement of people is a practice that began thousands of years ago and continues on today. The use of the bible by some, but not all, of these particular Christians to justify their sinful hate filled racist actions has left a stain on their testimony and has hindered but not halted the cause of Jesus Christ. Thomas Jefferson, a servant of the Lord, as author of the Declaration of Independence, mentions God in the very first paragraph and in the second paragraph wrote these words that should be etched in the hearts of every American “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. The U.S. Constitution, which is the document that is “supposed” to be the basis by which we make new laws and interpret existing ones, opens with this statement: “We, the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America. By the way, the separation of church and state is never mentioned in the constitution and I challenge anyone that says it does to show it to me. In those days all official government documents once completed were signed and dated and ended with the statement in the year of our Lord. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington are just a handful of men, of the many, who recognized the importance of acknowledging God’s sovereignty and the need to seek his wisdom in the enormous task of governing a nation.
The founders of this country wanted the Lord to reign over this land in his proper place, as God, and they as his servants, thereby pleasing him and as they said securing the blessings of liberty. Liberty means: freedom or release from slavery, imprisonment, captivity or any other form of arbitrary control. The book of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 3 verse 17 says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” There was a time in this nation when God was welcomed in all aspects of our public and private lives. Educational institutions of higher learning such as Harvard and Princeton and many other prestigious universities that still exist today were founded by Christians for the benefit of all. In the public school systems the bible was a required text of literature because it was commonly agreed upon by the people to be the best moral compass to guide children as they grew and progressed toward adulthood. The people of that time understood that education, in and of itself, was not enough to make a person a productive citizen in this society. As we have already seen in the past, government officials readily accepted the bible as their source of direction for handling governmental affairs and made it a practice to pray together before meetings to seek the wisdom of God. As a result America in a very short period of time grew and became one of, if not the most powerful nation on Earth. Collectively speaking in terms of monetary wealth, industrial mass production capability, military might, aid to the world and political influence of other countries, America is truly the lone superpower among the nations.
Subsequently, in another very short period of time, something very terrible has happened and the effects of these terrible causes are now evident in lives of individuals and this post modern society as a whole. What I’m talking about is the spiritual death that has diffused across the macro and micro levels of the American culture. When folks started to kick God out of government, with the imaginary constitutional clause of separation of church and state, liberal and so called progressive lawmakers, with the assistance of jelly back conservatives who were afraid to stand up for truth, began to pass laws that were contrary to the will of God. Article 18 of the Constitution made it illegal to manufacture, sell, transport, import or export intoxicating beverages within the boundaries of the United States. Article 21 repealed article 18 and the sin of drunkenness has been wreaking havoc across the land ever since. It is written that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. In the year 2003, 17,013 people died in alcohol related motor vehicle crashes representing 40% of all traffic related deaths. Drunk drivers kill someone every 31 minutes. Every single year these crashes cost about 51 billion dollars in healthcare, insurance, police man hours and many other costly expenses. Some alcohol producing businesses have the nerve to say drink responsibly in their advertisements. There is no such thing as responsible drinking because it destroys the body by corroding the liver and stomach lining, henceforth shortening a person’s life span. A person who drinks will adversely affect people they know and don’t know.
Switching subjects, in 1973 Roe vs. Wade made the heinous act of abortion legal and now we have an abortion industry, as if it were just another business like making cars, or selling newspapers. Since then in this country 43 million unborn babies have been murdered. There are laws on the books right now in most states that would put people in prison for up to 5 years for performing the exact same abortion procedures on animals. A lot of people say that what a woman does to her own body is her business. I whole heartedly agree. But when a woman is pregnant there are two people with bodies hers and the baby. But there is only one person who has a voice unless another steps in on behalf of that baby and speaks out against the termination of its life. Even criminals are given free legal representation before and after they are found guilty of the most horrible crimes and yet an unborn baby is considered to be less than an animal and a criminal. In the book of Jeremiah, Chapter 17 verse 9 the Lord says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” The Lord goes on to say in verse 10 “I, the Lord search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to every man according to his ways.” Children have little to no value in this land of convenience, where 1.37 million abortions occur every year and 96% of those abortions took place because of social reasons i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient. Because people don’t want God in their affairs anymore he has politely stepped back and withdrawn his hand of protection from this nation’s youth. When prayer in schools and the banning of the reading of the bible took place the crime rate on and around school grounds skyrocketed. Children are massacred at a place where they should be the safest. They are being gunned down left and right in droves because of the big lie that says that God has no place in schools. This has been done in the name of diversity and progress as not to offend anyone. Well I say pooh-pooh on your progress and your diversity if it means the lowering of standards for moral excellence that our God teaches us to strive for to appease some immigrants from a foreign land. I guarantee you that if you moved to Iran or Saudi Arabia or France they would not change their laws to suit your beliefs.
Furthermore, the more significant portion of this nation’s problems doesn’t lie with newly arrived immigrants. The problem lies with individuals who were born and raised here who refuse to accept the fact that there is the absolute truth of right and wrong and good and evil and the consequences that result from doing good and doing evil. The truth of what’s good and what’s evil is determined by the Lord himself and he makes these things known to man so that we can do that which is good in his sight and be blessed. But because people don’t want God telling them what to do, or not do, we have created a culture where almost any and everything goes. The average person feels like they should be able to say, and do, what ever they want and when ever they want. As a direct result of this relativist attitude and so called march for progressiveness and tolerance, the U.S. has the highest prison population of any nation in the world. As of the year 2002 there were 2.1 million prisoners locked up for one crime another committed against society. Of the total worlds prison population 22% is attributed to the United States. No one wants to take responsibility for their own actions anymore. The problem is always because of some past event that has traumatized a person or a gene defect in their DNA. Hogwash, people get drunk because they lust after alcohol. Men have sex with other men because they lust after other men. And women have sex with other women because they lust after other women. A lack of self control is the reason why people do all kinds sinful things. Along with the sexual revolution of the 1960’s came the sexually transmitted disease revolution. People called it the era of free love and along with free love, came free herpes. That era is now in full swing and even celebrated as we shift more towards a consumer oriented society rather than the traditional family based one. The slogan for this materialistic culture is simply sex sells.
Consequently, it seems as though with all the churches and synagogues and temples and mosques, from all these different religions around that everything would be honky-dory. But religion never saved anyone. A religious man who doesn’t love Jesus is like a pile of manure that someone has poured perfume over, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The outside might look good and smell good but the inside is rotten to the core. Today America is a very religious country. She welcomes all peoples, from all cultures and all types of religious backgrounds with open arms and a big smile. People are saying; see look at what we can accomplish if we just come together and be tolerant and compromise our beliefs so that no one will be offended or left out, except those who don’t tolerate our universal brotherhood of man view point. And because of this train of thought an all out war is being waged by ungodly people against anything that has the slightest hint of being good and decent Christian teachings in all American institutions. Now we are left with a morally bankrupt society that is on the brink of utter collapse and ruin. You don’t need to worry about foreign terrorists destroying this country from the outside it’s being destroyed from the terrorist from within.
God is steadily being pushed out the government and now because of greed and wasteful spending we have national debt and deficit in the trillions of dollars. God is being shoved out the workplace to the point that employers are trying to fight against workers having bibles on their own desks. Now corporate scandals are the norm. Money loving executives regularly loot workers pension funds and leave them without a dime. People work their whole lives for those pensions and get left with nothing. And now it seems like every other day I’m hearing about some workplace violence. God is even being kicked out of the pulpit for the almighty dollar. For the love of money, men and women who supposed to be religious leaders, but are not, who supposed to be a light in this dark world, but are not, are robbing people blind without a gun. And the only reason people are being deceived by these false teachers and preachers is because they just want something from the Lord instead wanting to get to know him personally. They just want the blessings and not the one who does the blessing. It has gotten so bad that churches that claim to be Christian are ordaining gay and lesbian bishops. I got news for them they don’t belong to the church of the living God, they belong to satan’s church.
In conclusion, I could go on talking about all woes that has come from our sins, which is disobedience to God. I could go into great detail about the extremely high divorce rates and crime rates and drug abuse and pornographic addictions and so many other seemingly hopeless
circumstances that plague every minute of each day. But instead I’ll close with a message of hope for everyone who hates this world we live in. A message of hope for everyone that hates the sin in their own lives. The message is a simple one, and it comes from the one who is the God of hope and comfort. The God of patience and love. The message is called the gospel, which means good news. The good news is that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. It is written that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He came to his own, but his own received him not, but to as many as receive him to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. He was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission or forgiveness of sins. Jesus was beaten to a bloody pulp because of your sins and my sins. He was nailed to a cross to die for you and me. God raised him from the dead to give those who believe on the name of Jesus the hope of eternal life simply by trusting in Christ Jesus. An eternal life in heaven where there will be no more tears or pain or suffering. No more sin or death or destruction. It’s a promise from the one and only true living God our Heavenly father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t get salvation any where else or from any one else. You can’t buy it or earn it or work for it, it is a gift from God and it’s only given through Jesus Christ.
