As our society embraces ever-growing godlessness and lawlessness, hostility and hatred toward Christians will only intensify.
What a sea change that is from when God-fearing men gathered in Philadelphia 240 years ago to sign the world’s greatest document of freedom, the Declaration of Independence.
Just listen to what some of our Founding Fathers had to say about God’s place in our nation:
“Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society.”
—George Washington, first president of the United States of America
“The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”
—John Jay, first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. … Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
—John Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence, second president of the United States
The Christian faith that inspired such men and formed the foundation for our republic is under such intense attack today that I do not believe we can keep our republic much longer without a grassroots revival of godliness that will spread across our land.
Should the godless forces in culture succeed, this nation will cease to exist as one nation under God. Wherever Christianity flourishes, freedom flowers. Wherever it is marginalized, tyranny, despotism, and eventually anarchy will inevitably follow. …
In 1620, pilgrims seeking to practice Christianity in a land with true religious freedom wrote a document called the Mayflower Compact. The ultimate goal was stated this way, as they headed from Europe to the shores of the New World; “For the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith.”
That land, of course, became the United States of America, and God has shed His grace upon us for so long. With God’s help, I intend to pray and work as long as I can and as hard as I can to keep it the land of the free.
America the beautiful? Only if God continues to shed His grace on us. And that will happen only as we turn from our wicked ways and call on His Name.
Excerpt taken from “America the Beautiful?” by Franklin Graham, Decision magazine, July 2016.
