In my lifetime, I can point to the "When" we began to lose our national soul. I can trace the decline of faith as a governing factor in our American persona to the 1962 decision by the Supreme Court that prayers organized by public school officials were unconstitutional. Since then, the Supreme Court has also ruled that "voluntary" prayer in our schools is unconstitutional because it makes some students feel uncomfortable and left out. Those decisions soon resulted in God being increasingly removed from more and more aspects of our culture and society. Challenges to His place in our country are now commonplace.
We've come a long way since our nation, which was once considered the "New Israel" by the Pilgrims, has seen a momentous decline in faith and belief in God. For over 300 years after the Pilgrims landed, the Church and the Gospel were a guiding force in this land of freedom and opportunity; they were a benchmark by which the affairs of this land were conducted. From the pulpit, the Church taught the Gospel and how it should affect the nation's decisions regarding its form of government, education, commerce, morality and yes, even politics. The Church and the influence of the Gospel shaped America, and therefore the world.
But for [at least] the last 60 years it seems that the world has shaped the Church. In America, we have let the world tell the Church that God doesn't belong in our schools; we have let the world tell the Church that life does not begin at conception; and we have let the world tell the Church that faith has no place in the halls of our governing institutions.
In 2012, I watched a broadcast of a group of American pastors who were boldly calling out America's churches for their failings. They challenged the Church for the decline in faith in our country and for the appalling statistic [at that time] that 49.5% of our children, ages 8 to 17 have never been inside a church! How did that happen in a country that is known for being founded on Judeo/Christian principles, and what must the statistic be these 12 years later?
One of the pastors quoted Aleksandry Solzhenitsyn, famed Russian author (Nobel prize for Literature) and a survivor of the Communist regime. During a 1983 address, Solzhenitsyn gave a dissertation on the Russian revolution and the Communist takeover. He explained that the Marxist ideology successfully infused Russian society with an atheistic mentality through systematic secularization of the culture. It became very easy to alienate the people from God and their traditional Christian morality and beliefs. Solzhenitsyn simply and succinctly pronounced judgment on his countrymen ..... “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”
And now, I'll present the "How" our loss of faith and soul came about. And again, it was Aleksandry Solzhenitsyn who shined the light on how creative Satan works in nations and cultures. He revealed the methods by which the Communists were able to separate their people from God. First, they were patient and calculating. They started with the elite and the educated circles; by the time their Revolution occurred, faith had virtually disappeared among the academics and universities. Sound familiar? Hatred of God and the Church were the driving force behind Communism and at the heart of the ideology. If a movement is going to take control of a society, they must destroy religion/faith.
If the people have access to the Creator, and recognize that there is a power higher than the Government, then they can never be enslaved. And as repressive as the Communist regime was, it was not able to eradicate Christianity; in fact, Solzhenitsyn proclaimed that his countrymen's awareness of God and His saving grace became even more acute under the severe persecution. I believe that has happened throughout history among persecuted Christians. [Think of the Disciples and Believers in the First Century Church, through the attempts to wipe out the Christian faith during the Middle Ages; the genocides during the Ottoman Empire, and the current war on Christians in the Middle East and Africa]. The willingness of these Christian believers [and sadly, martyrs] to suffer for their Lord is a testimony to the strength of their faith.
In addition, we cannot deny that Christianity in the West -- and I would say we are guilty of this -- has been watered down. In 1938, Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer escaped to the U.S. when Hitler began his campaign against the Christian churches in Germany, only to return to war-torn Germany because he found the Christian Church in America operated in "Easy Grace". How much further have we slid since 1938?
Let me share a quote I found from someone who responded to an online poll by Quora that asked the question, "What caused religion to decline in America"? Here is the respondent's answer ... "I can only give you my perspective. I was a Christian for forty-two years. I know the Bible inside and out. I was always troubled by the disconnect between how Christians treat other people and the words of the guy they claim to follow. Apparently, to be a good Christian in 2024 you have to hate, “all the right people.” Their sense of entitlement is the very definition of pride. Pride is supposed to be sinful and Christians are very proud of themselves. There are more and more people like me, people who have had enough of the lies and hypocrisy and just left the whole thing behind. I searched deep within myself and discovered that the reasons that I had for my faith were not good ones. With more and more people leaving the church, it is becoming obvious that atheism doesn't lead to lives of emptiness and despair. That is frankly, bull----. My life has been much more full and meaningful since I left the fear, superstition and empty promises of Christianity".
Does that offend you? It should because that's not how I want to view Christianity. But that testimony is coming from someone who says he believed for 42 years. He obviously has experience being in the Church, and this is what he's left with. So, I ask you -- how do we reclaim our Christian soul in America; our mind dedicated to God's will on earth, the deep heartfelt and emotional recognition that we need Jesus in our lives to be truly fulfilled, and the [free] will to discover our purpose for being here? How do we turn the hearts of the aforementioned ex-Believer back to his first love? We must repent for all that we and the generations before us have done [or not done] to set this decline in motion.
We must see that, as a nation, we voluntarily embraced (and encouraged) our own turning away from God! We Christians, (and the Church!) failed in our commission. We did not safeguard the teachings that Christ gave us, and we did not faithfully teach them to each successive generation. We let the spirit of Pharaoh (enslavement through false teachings in the universities and our church buildings), the spirit of Jezebel (sexual perversion and immorality), and the spirit of Herod (killing innocent, unborn children) invade our land. We have ignored the only spirit that can save us ... the Holy Spirit. Now it is up to each of us and every pastor in every pulpit throughout the land to get back to our real purpose. We are here at this time, in this place, to reclaim this territory for God!
I know there are many Christians who are dedicated to this restoration. And we must examine our methods to see if the old patterns have led to our decline, or if they must be faithfully protected. Are you willing to accept that following true Christianity may not look like it has in the past? Do you have the courage to follow our Savior, who also encountered pushback from the religious establishment? Consider that Jesus came, bringing a new model for obeying YHWH and spreading a Holy Spirit-inspired servanthood to mankind. But He also prophesied that Satan would battle against us and we would be persecuted and called upon to stand and occupy. I declare that we yet have the opportunity to re-establish our national identity as a steadfast nation in Christ. And through employing His power and authority, it will be done! Amen!
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1 Kings 18:37 "Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."
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