Rewriting History

          The dictionary defines revisionism as an “advocacy of the revision of an accepted, usually long-standing view, theory, or doctrine; especially a revision of historical events and movements.”

          Revisionism attempts to change the way people see our history and long held traditions. Modern historians and text books have so blatantly revised the history of the founding of this nation, that people have come to accept the false premise that the founding fathers actually were trying to establish a secular form of government. Or as some suggest, a government that embraced god as a sort of universal deity, worshipped under many names. Nothing could be further from the truth.         

Revisionists have removed nearly every reference to the God of the Bible from textbooks, and painted our nation’s founders as money hungry atheistic slave traders. Who came here for no other reason than to line their pockets at the expense of the indigenous peoples. Now someone might ask, why any historian would deliberately seek to misrepresent our nations heritage?” Basically, the facts simply do not substantiate the paradigm of many  historians’ secular worldview. For example, have you ever read or been taught that 24 of the 56 signers of the Declaration held the equivalent of a modern Seminary degree.         

When did you ever read in a modern textbook of the role of the early American clergy in the forming of our government? John Adams, himself contributed Rev. Jonathan Mayhew and Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper with the influence, awakening and revival that lead to America’s Independence. Little known to most Americans today is the fact that the pulpits of America were the guiding light of American politics in the early stages of American history. Preachers regularly delivered sermons that addressed the moral implications of various laws under consideration, and gave council to lawmakers on a regular basis.         

Today we are told that the primary reason for the Revolutionary War was taxation without representation. However this was reason number seventeen out of the twenty-six listed. Some of the primary reasons for the Revolution were religious issues. For instance, the king of England refused to allow the colonies to start their own missionary society apart from the Church of England. He also refused to allow them to print their own English language Bible.  

One of the primary reasons for independence  was slavery, as several of the American colonies were moving toward abolition. While it is true, that not everyone in America was Christian. It is clearly evident in the writings of our founding fathers, and the initial  constitutions of our states, that Christianity was the guiding light, and foundation upon which this nation was established. To interpret American history in any other fashion, can only be done if one blatantly revises (or lies) about the past. While the founders certainly understood that God created people as free moral agents, who could choose to receive the truth of Christ, or reject it, they never intended our government to be lead by any other individuals than Christians. Christianity  is not the cause of the sordid examples of wickedness throughout our history. Rather, these serve as examples of the  neglect of biblical principles and commands.         

Noah Webster said, “The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all civil constitutions and laws. All the vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.”The problem with America, is that since the 1930s, until today, Christians have for the most part  abandoned the government, and allowed secularists and atheists to shape the moral laws and climate of our nation.          

(Proverbs 29:2)  When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.         

A recent gallop pole reveals that 84% of our nation firmly believes in Jesus Christ. Over 80% approve of voluntary school prayer.  Over 80% of our nation  opposes homosexual behavior, and nearly 90 % opposes the use of abortion as a means of birth control. It is clear that this nation is far more Christian than our media would have us believe, and yet we see a constant opposition to these values, simply because secularists have been allowed to dominate our courts and media. Like it or not, America was founded as a Christian nation, and needs to return to God.Now if you are not a Christian, you are given the freedom under the constitution to believe whatever you so choose. However, you are not given the freedom to deny the expression of Christianity in the public arena of our schools, or institutions of government. The very idea of the separation of church and state is an affront to Almighty God! To imagine that man can disallow God from the affairs of any nation is the height of human arrogance, and woe to every nation throughout history that has attempted to do so.         

Now for those of you who shudder in your boots at the very thought of such a nation, let me ask you one simple question. Which nations on earth have enjoyed the greatest prosperity, and freedoms throughout history? Those, which embraced and espoused the God of the Bible, or those that embraced and espoused other religions, or no religion at all? If you consider me mad, then bear in mind the words of President Abraham Lincoln. “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”  

Cultural Subversion

In his book ‘The American Covenant,’ historian and author, Marshall Foster, recounts a historic meeting that took place in a loft above Pecks Restaurant, in Manhattan, NY, on September 12, 1905.

Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, J.G. Phelps Stokes, and Charles Darrow (all prominent men) were gathered for the specific purpose of instituting the overthrow of the Christian world-view in the United States of America.These men were all disciples and proponents of the teachings of Karl Marx, the founder of Communism.Through a method called gradualism, which they learned from the Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximums, they would slowly infiltrate Marxist ideas onto college campuses, “by promoting an intelligent interest in socialism among college men and women.”By the mid-1930’s their organization, called the League for Industrial Democracy had managed to establish 125 chapters, on college and university campuses, and John Dewey, the founder of progressive education, was the vice president.

Because of the efforts of this small group of men, and their strategic infiltration of our colleges and universities, we have seen the Christian world-view which founded and shaped our nation replaced by a secular philosophy which can be traced directly to the teachings of Marx.

We can clearly see that the cultural shift away from the absolutes of Christianity began to occur in the 1930s; however it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the full scope of this revolution began to take shape.By the 1960’s, college campuses became the breeding grounds for Marxist Socialism, and open rebellion against the absolutes of biblical Christianity.

Proponents of this era called it a revolution against the establishment, but in all reality, it was no more than a social declaration of war against the God of the Bible, and His authority.You see, the Bible is a book of moral absolutes. These moral absolutes foster social order, and give equal value to all human beings who are made in the image of their Creator. These absolutes teach us that freedom is gained by the restraint of our sinful debased appetites, not their gratification. The idea of moral absolutes stands in direct opposition to the communist anarchist movement of free love, free thinking, and the whole so called freedom mantra that became the cry of the this new generation.

Socialist ideology gave birth to groups like Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, and the Yippies (all proponents of Marxist ideology). Organizations like these became the cultural terrorists of the era.Jerry Ruben, founder of the Yippies, and author of the book Do It, (which the publisher called “the Communist Manifesto of the era.”), called for kids to leave their homes, burn down their schools, and build a new society upon the ashes of the old.

By the end of the sixties it was obvious that the biblical world-view had for the most part been replaced on campuses by the Marxist humanist ideals of moral relativism. From that time forward, every impressionable student that entered a college or university in the U.S. would be exposed to the influence of Marxist ideology.Is it any wonder that college campuses and universities have become some of the greatest disseminators of anti-American propaganda, and socialist propaganda? While many of these same universities claim to be centers of free speech, and free thinking, they are openly hostile toward Christianity.

By the seventies we began to see the full effects of this new post-Christian era.  Teen pregnancies, violent crime, abortion, divorce, rampant alcohol and drug abuse, and every other form of social decay skyrocketed. America soon found itself going from moral template for the world to follow, to the leader and propagator of the moral decadence of a culture totally out of control.

The late Francis Schaeffer in his book ‘The Great Evangelical Disaster’ put it quite concisely. “We live in a society today where all things are relative and the final value is whatever makes the individual or society “happy” or feel good at the moment. Nothing is fixed, there are no final standards; only what makes one “happy” is dominant… The Bible is bent to the culture instead of the Bible judging our society and culture.”  

Our Founding Fathers established this nation upon the ideals of biblical freedom. They believed that freedom brought with it the responsibility of individuals to govern themselves. They realized that no amount of law would ever be able to adequately restrain a society where the individual would not allow the moral absolutes of the Bible to control them.

While America has not been perfect in our holding to these principles, we should ask ourselves, are we better off since abandoning them altogether?

The wicked will go down to the grave. This is the fate of all the nations who ignore God. (Psalms 9:17 NLT)