WHO SILENCED GOD IN AMERICA?

By W Carlson

"In the beginning was the word and the word was with God
and the word was God." (John 1:1)
For Christians worthy of the name,
God and his word are the same thing.
God is revealed to us through the study of his word
contained in the holy scriptures of the Bible.
This is pretty straight forward
that few claiming faith in Jesus Christ would deny.

I think that most Christians agree that God's people
are to be governed according to his law and nothing else.
"The law" was revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai
and was inscribed in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy,
yet it seems to me that few Christians are familiar with these teachings.
Most of the clergy in our churches today
focus almost exclusively on the New Testament,
virtually ignoring much of the rest.
Why is that?  Does not Jesus say in Matthew 5:17-18
"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets:
I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.
For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away,
not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished."
In light of this wouldn't it be fair to say
that Christians are to be governed according to this "law"?
If so, what are Christians to do when the law
under which they are governed is at odds with the demands of their faith?

We are told by many today that America was neither founded as,
nor intended to be, a "Christian nation."
These kinds of claims, however,
are uttered in the face of all historical evidence to the contrary.
Somehow our government school history classes fail
to make this truth known to our children.
Does anyone wonder at the cause of this omission?
Could it be merely an oversight?
I think you know better.
In truth, nothing could be more important to an understanding of our history,
and our culture, than the religious faith of the people.
Could the history of Israel be understood correctly
apart from the religion of its people?

Now, if our study of history reveals
that we were meant to be governed by God's laws,
(and the inscription in stone of the Ten Commandments
on the Supreme Court Building would certainly suggest this is so)
what are Christians to do?
That we are no longer governed by God's precepts,
but by the arrogance and foolishness of man
was driven home during the Senate confirmation hearings for John Ashcroft recently.
It is crystal clear that Mr. Ashcroft's orthodox Christian faith
and orthodox understanding of the Constitution was the source
of most of the attacks upon his worthiness to serve as
the government's top law enforcement officer.
It is worth noting, and noting well,
that his views are condemned as incompatible with our secular law.
How much clearer can our leaders make it?
The basis of our law comes from them, not God.
Make no mistake; an affront to God's law is an affront to God,
for which his people have always passed into judgment.
Deuteronomy makes it clear what happens to such a people saying,
"If thou do at all forget the Lord. ye shall surely perish."
Leviticus 26:14-32 says, "But if ye will not hearken unto me,
and will not do all these commandments.
I will bring a sword upon you.
I will send the pestilence among you.
and I will bring the land into desolation."

 Our failure to enforce God's Law has to be viewed
as the worst thing that could befall our people.
Yet, many sincere Christians, and many well-meaning ministers today,
fail to discern the open rejection of God's laws
on which our Republic was established.
I believe that the increasingly intractable problems bedeviling this society
are the fulfillment of God's promise to hold his people accountable.
If we are to stay God's punishment we cannot afford
to follow after the false God's and humanistic philosophies,
so pervasive today.
As Deuteronomy 30: 16-19 reminds us, "Love the Lord.
Keep his
commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments and.
God shall bless thee in the land. But if thine heart turn away,
so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away,
and worship other gods, and serve them.
ye shall surely perish and. ye shall not prolong your days upon the land.
I have set before you life and death, therefore choose life,
that both thou and thy seed may live."

I'm afraid many of our churches have failed to teach the whole truth,
and the whole law.  They have conformed their faith
in accordance with man's law.
They have forgotten that ours is a jealous God
that demands obedience under penalty of judgment.
Their failure is seen all around us today.
The answers to our social problems will not be found
in ever more Orwellian penumbras of man's law, but by a return to God's remedies.
One such remedy our people have sought twice before in 1776 and again in 1861.
 Ezra 10:11 says, "Now then make confession to the Lord God of your fathers,
and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land."
Has the time come again?  I welcome comments at wcarlson@i-plus.net

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