Freedom OF religion, or freedom FROM religion??

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.”

One of the principals spoken throughout the Bible is that God brings blessings upon the nation that honors Him. It is a shame to realize that we have truly become a nation that has forgotten God. I have been rereading “A Christian Manifesto” by Francis Schaeffer, and though I am not in agreement with all of Mr. Schaeffer's doctrine, I have been reminded of a number of things that we should all remember.

The Declaration of Independence, primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson affirms -

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights…”

The confidence of the founding fathers to secure liberty for a nation was instilled by the common belief that there IS SUCH A THING AS TRUTH (It is self evident) and that the witness of that self evident TRUTH demonstrates that we are created by God, and by virtue of that fact, we have rights that are inalienable. I ask you, has this changed? If we remove the “self evident truth” and the “endowed by their creator” from our historical documents, are we not eliminating the very thesis by which our freedoms hang upon?

Dear citizens, how have we allowed the firm voice of our past to be silenced by a secularized, contradictory opinion? As a SELF GOVERNED NATION, how have we gone from a community that once valued divine guidance, to a “civilization” that demands, not freedom OF religion, but (as the FFRF is appropriately named) freedom FROM religion? This has happened because we have forgotten the truth that our Declaration of Independence underscores in its given information.

John Witherspoon (then president of what is now Princeton University, and the only Pastor to sign the Declaration of Independence) preached on the first Thanksgiving Day “A republic once equally poised must either preserve its virtue, or loose its liberty.” William Penn, founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, echoed this very same thought by saying - “If we are not governed by God, then we will be ruled by tyrants.”

Though not all of the founding fathers were Christians, it is recorded in our history that Christian principal is foundational to our nation and its laws. The words of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 read “...religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind...” Chief Justice Kent gave the ruling of the New York state court in 1811, rendering that “We are Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply en-grafted upon Christianity”. A Pennsylvania state court, affirming the conviction of a man charged with blasphemy, stated “...Christianity is, and always has been, part of the common law of Pennsylvania...”

Proponents of separation doctrine today will cite more recent court renderings that nullify everything that I have just shared with you. I ask you to realize what this means. The fact that our law makers and law interpreters have systematically legislated God out of all areas of public life means that we the people have declared that we (you and I) want God out. Yes, YOU AND I. Like it or not (agree with it or not) OUR elected officials are doing this, and by extension this means that WE are doing this.

As bad as this is, we must also remember that no modern doctrine or Supreme Court rendering can change the fact that our nation was founded upon, and flourished through belief in a God who created us and blesses us.

It is my belief that things can still change. We do not have to give the last word to those who would deny and rebel against our history and our God. I would encourage every American to be reminded that God does bless a nation that seeks to honor Him and that must begin in our homes, in our churches, and as a self-governed nation, in our elected officials.