INTRODUCTION TO 'A NATION BROKEN'
This is the opening pages of my book, available on Amazon or B & N
INTRODUCTION
Allow me to share with you a little history. This took place in California in 1854. The scene was a public meeting where several leading men of the State were gathered in front of a school house, along with many others, celebrating the fourth of July.
The crowd quieted, and Benjamin tensed as Wilmington said, “It gives me great pleasure to introduce a man who came to California in 1846, before gold was found….a man who worked for California statehood from the beginning… a man who to this day works for law and order… a father, uncle, and brother to some of our residents… a grandfather to my grandchildren… a friend, who instead of cursing the darkness, tries to light a candle… Benjamin Talbot.” Once atop the platform, Benjamin surveyed the crowd with quiet satisfaction. “I thank you for your encouragement. It is a mighty undertaking to speak after the Declaration of Independence has been so movingly delivered. Nonetheless, 1776 was only the beginning. We have come a long way in the seventy-eight years since then, not all of it commendable. But before we go forward, let us go back-ward in time again. What happened after the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War ended?”
“The Constitution!” several of the students shouted.
“Right, the Constitution of the United States of America was written. In the summer of 1787 representatives met in Philadelphia for the purpose. They struggled over it for weeks and had made little progress until eighty-one-year-old Benjamin Franklin rose and addressed a convention that was about to adjourn in anger and confusion. Here is what Franklin, once an avowed agnostic said.
“In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending Providence in our favor. Have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that except the Lord builds a house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning.”
“And thus,” Benjamin Talbot said, “our Constitution was written with prayer. Even earlier, in 1620, the very purpose of the Pilgrims coming here was to establish a government established on the bible. The New England Charter, signed by King James 1, confirmed their goal of advancing the enlargement of Christian religion, to the glory of God Almighty. Governor Bradford, in writing of the Pilgrim’s landing, describes their first act: ‘being this arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven…’ The goal of government based on Holy Scripture was further reaffirmed by individual colonies. The Rhode Island Charter of 1863 begins, ‘We submit our persons, lives, and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of His given to us in His Holy Word.’ Those ‘absolute laws’ became the very basis for our Declaration of Independence. George Washington put it well when he said that it would be impossible to govern this nation without God and the Ten Commandments. If we here in California or anywhere else sever those roots, it shall be impossible to rule this great land. President John Quincy Adams said, ‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly adequate for the government of any other.’ He also said, ‘The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.’”
Benjamin told of the de Tocqueville, the noted French political philosopher who visited America in 1831 to find the secret of her greatness. “He examined our young national government, our schools and centers of commerce, but could not discover our strength in them. It was not until he visited the churches of America and witnessed the pulpits of the land ‘aflame with righteousness’ that he found the secret of our greatness. When he returned to France, he summarized his findings with this: ‘America is great because Americans are good; and if Americans ever cease to be good, America will cease to be great.’
“Today we must look at our community, our state, and our nation in that godly light,” Benjamin said. “Will it cease to be godly? Will it cease to be great?”
I researched ‘American Christianity’ across the States from 1992 to 2011 and was truly alarmed, to say the least. I had seriously studied the bible before I moved to America to do this. The churches across America are NOT teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ! His gospel turns sinners into saints but today’s ‘Christians’ all unashamedly confess to being sinners!!
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And IN HIM IS NO SIN. NO ONE WHO LIVES IN HIM SINS. No one who sins has either seen him or known him. 1 Jn. 3:4-6
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