|
The Iron Pen #89
"...graven with an iron pen
and lead..." Job 19:24
Pastor David L. Brown, Ph.D. God & CountryWhen I was in first grade, we began each class day by reciting The Pledge of Allegiance. We would stand and say… "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands; one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Previous to 1954, the phrase under God did not appear. But in June of 1954 an amendment adding two words, under God, was made to the 1942 act of Congress establishing the Pledge of Allegiance in this Nation. Then President, Dwight David Eisenhower said this about adding "under God" to the pledge. "In this way we are affirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war." President Eisenhower recognized something that too many Americans have forgotten. That is that our heritage has been that we were, from our inception, ONE NATION UNDER GOD! Our founding Fathers recognized the profound truth that rights, yea, freedoms comes from God. This truth is acknowledged in The Declaration of Independence… "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Thrice more in The Declaration God is referred to! It says in the first paragraph, "the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God." Then, God is called "the Supreme Judge of the world." Finally, in the closing sentence it says, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." The leaders of this nation would do well to ponder carefully the words of Benjamin Franklin… "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God Governs in the affairs of men…We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages." Franklin was correct! May we, as Christians be busy sharing the Gospel, praying for our leaders and practicing biblical Christianity. (To read my full article on this subject, log on to the Logos web site at -- http://logosresourcepages.org/pledge.htm) Live Consistent Lives!We are not only to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth. We tell people the world is vain; let our lives manifest that it is so. We tell them that our home is above and that all these things are transitory. Does our dwelling look like it? O to live consistent lives! James Hudson Taylor Point To PonderIf lips and life do not agree, the testimony will not amount to much. Harry Ironside Evangelist Rodney (Gypsy) Smith said…The way to Jesus is not by Cambridge and Oxford, Glasgow, Edinburgh,
London, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Socrates, Plato, Shakespeare or the
poets--It is over an old-fashioned hill called Calvary. |