A Brotherhood of Christian Patriots
with Comments Closed
By Wayne D. Leeper
December 31, 2010
There is no denying that Christianity, the home, and Judeo-Christians principles are under attack in America today. The progressives (previously called Liberals), unable to deny the godly principles underlying our founding documents, would have us believe that the founding fathers were deist, not Christians. They would have us believe that the only proper place for Christianity today is in the home and the pews of our churches. They have succeeded in having it removed from our schools, the public square and the halls of government. They would claim that America is not, and never has been, a Christian nation. It is to our shame that we have allow this lie to go unchallenged. The pulpits of our nation have remained virtually silent as Christians are being denied the very freedoms for which God-fearing patriots over the past two hundred and thirty-four years have fought and died to preserve. This lie cannot, and must not, go unchallenged. A short review of the history of America reveals the hand of God, from the beginning until today.
One of the early leaders in colonial America was a preacher named John Winthrop who would later become the governor of Massachusetts. In 1630 while still on board the Arbella he delivered a sermon to the small group of passengers. His sermon was taken in part from Matthew 5:14 which states, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” The part of his sermon which has endured for almost 400 years states:
“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken…we shall be made a story and a by-word throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God…We shall shame the faces of many of God’s worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us til we be consumed out of the good land whether we are a-going.”
This understanding became one of the underlying principals upon which our nation would be built. Twenty-two years earlier the settlers of Jamestown had built a house of worship, which was the first permanent building erected on American soil. God was as much a part of the founding of America as were any of the founding fathers.
For the early colonists, not only did the government have its foundation in the consent of the governed, it also represented the Christian ideal. Perry Miller, a 20th century historian wrote:
“The Puritans maintained that government originated in the consent of the people…because they did not believe that any society, civil or ecclesiastical, into which men did not enter of themselves was worthy of the name. Consequently, the social theory of Puritanism, based upon the law of God, was posited also upon the voluntary submission of the citizens.”
This idea of government originating from the consent of the people, unique to the world of that day, was an underlying principal in the founding of our nation. It was an idea they would not silently give up, and which would find expression in our Declaration of Independence which states,
“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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Our founders believed that our rights come from God, not from government. It was in defense of this belief that “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.” Of the fifty six men who signed the document and made that pledge to one another, fifty-two were professed Christians. They were in fact a Brotherhood of Christian Patriots.
The American Revolution actually began ten years before the first shot was fired. The idea that freedom and liberty were rights from God became firmly imbedded in the minds of the American colonist. It was watered by the powerful sermons preached in the pulpits of America by ministers who believed that God had a purpose for America. In 1765 Sir William Blackstone, who taught law at Oxford University, published his four-volume Commentaries on the Law of England. They won instant acclaim in England. In the colonies they were not only a sensation, they became a weapon. Throughout the colonies people began citing Blackstone as an authority on law, rights, and liberties. In the ten years preceding the American Revolution more copies of Blackstone’s Commentaries were sold in the colonies than in England. Blackstone, who believed the purpose of government was the protection of the people, wrote:
“For the principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute rights, which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature…Hence it follows, that the first and primary end of human law is to maintain and regulate these absolute rights of individuals. Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or to destroy them”
This idea of freedom and liberty was proclaimed from the pulpits of America. The colonial preachers were given the name of The Black Robe Regiment by the British, and they were forbidden to preach about the “God given rights, of freedom and liberty.” This declaration by the British only made them bolder in their pulpits. Many were whipped and even killed because of their refusal to remain silent. The observance of a minister being lashed to death for preaching liberty, became the inspiration behind Patrick Henry’s famous speech ending in the words, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Few realize that this same ideal is embedded in the fourth verse of our national anthem, which reads:
“Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved homes, and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land.
Praise the Power that made, and preserved us a nation
!Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be out motto: — “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Not only was America founded as a Christian nation, protected by divine providence; there was a reason for its founding. The hand of God in our founding was not by accident. God had a reason for bringing these early settlers to these shores of freedom. By the beginning of the seventeenth century the Gospel of Jesus Christ had been denied to the populace, and grossly distorted by the teachings of the “Government Ordained” churches of Europe. In the nations of Europe true Christianity was in decline. America’s founding served a divine purpose which is essential to the spread of the Gospel; the freedom to proclaim God’s word in its fullness. These early settlers, as well as our founders, relied on two things; their guns, and their Bibles; their guns for protection, and their Bibles for direction. In America the Gospel of Jesus Christ could prosper, and from these shores American missionaries it would carry it to the four corners of the earth. America not only became a beacon of freedom for mankind, it also became the source of eternal hope to a lost and dying world.
Is that Gospel now to be silenced by a government which is no longer supportive of, and dedicated to, the purpose for which God brought our forefathers to these shores? Are the words “Separation of Church and State,” which are not found in our constitution or the thinking of our founders, to replace the “Freedom of Religion” granted by the first amendment to our Constitution? Will an ungodly government muzzle our pulpits and the ministers who stand in them? Is the Word of God, upon which America was founded, to be classified as hate speech by those who would silence it? Are our grandchildren, for generations to come, to be denied the God given blessings of freedom and liberty which we hold dear? Will our government succeed in eradicating the Word of God from the shores of America? Will generations of children, both here and around the world, be denied the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ as a result of our silence? If so, America no longer serves a purpose in God’s plan for redemption of the human soul, and we will no longer have the right to lay claim to the protection of divine providence.
We today, stand at a crossroads of destiny. Will we, like our founders, rise to the occasion and defeat the influences of Satan upon our nation? Will our ministers stand strong in the pulpits of America and proclaim the whole Word of God, or will they cower to the demands of a secular, godless government, and only preach that which is approved by the government? Is same sex marriage to become as accepted among our children as abortion is among Americans today? Will the Bible, and Biblical principles, become a thing of the past? These are questions which we must answer, then stand before God and give account for our answer.
America, as we know it, stands on the brink of destruction. There are strong forces at work to destroy our nation, our freedom, and the godly principals which have guided us for the past two hundred and thirty-four years. We cannot, and must not, stand silent and allow the forces of evil to prevail. The Tea Party movement is leading the way as it develops into the largest grassroots movement since the American Revolution. There is no shortage of Christian Patriots in America. They are stepping forward daily to defend this land we love. Ordinary people are coming forward as never before. The Constitution, ignored by our present government, is being read on the steps of court houses across the land. America is waking up.
However, there is a shortage of God fearing ministers of the Gospel who will proudly proclaim the God given rights of liberty and freedom from the pulpits of our land. We stand in need of ministers who will condemn that which is evil and who will not allow the word of God to be reduced to politically correct, social sermons. Without a strong God-fearing America the voices of our missionaries will be silenced as well, denying the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. Will the beacon of light that was America be quenched by the powers of evil, or will The Black Robe Regiment be resurrected and once again lead in the fight for freedom?
At stake is nothing less than the future of our children and grandchildren. When they look back on this generation what will they see? What will they think? What will they say? Did we fail them? In the hour of America’s greatest challenge did we rise up as patriots or remain silent as cowards? Will they enjoy the freedoms we enjoy, or will our inaction condemn them to life under a tyrannical, oppressive, socialistic, and ungodly one world government? This need not happen. God has promised,
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. — 2 Chronicles 7:14
May God bless the efforts of the Brotherhood of Christian Patriots, and may God Bless these United States of America.
