Revealing Eschatology.

The Power and Glory of God's Creation.

A Short History of the U.S.

Many people today do not realize that America was the first nation in the history of this planet that had freedom of religion. Religious tyranny prevailed all over the world. Only with the founding of America was full religious freedom granted for the very first time. Until that time, this continent was set apart from us by God. So as to separate it by two oceans, and not to be discovered until around the time of the Reformation. Here God established a certain sort of nation, a nation that was founded by the Pilgrims and Puritans, and others who came with strong Christian principles of God's word. Here, in this new world, the Bible was believed and the gospel was preached. It was a Christian and professing nation. As late as 1775, ninety eight percent of the people were of this basic religious persuasion.

What brought this nation's birth about was that the British Colonies in North America attracted a mass immigration of religious dissenters and poor people throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. They came from the British Isles, Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries of the world. The population reached 3 million non-natives by the 1770's. The small native population was greatly reduced by European diseases and by wars with and between the various colonies. British attempts to control colonial trade and to tax the colonists to pay for the costs of colonial administration and defense clashed with traditions of local self-government and eventually provoked the colonies to rebellion. The threat of James 1 to "harry them out of the land" had sent a small band of religious dissenters from England to Holland in 1608. They were known as "Seperatists" because they wished to cut all ties with the established church. In 1620, some of them, known now as the Pilgrims, joined with a larger group in England to set sail on the Mayflower for the New World. In November they sighted Cape Cod and decided to land an exploring party at Plymouth Harbor. However, a rebellious group picked up at Southhampton and London troubled the Pilgrim leaders. To control their actions 41 Pilgrims drew up the Mayflower Compact and signed it before going ashore. The voluntary agreement to govern themselves was America's first written Constitution. In part it read; "In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord,---Having undertaken for the glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian faith, and the honour of our King and Country; a voyage to plant the first colony---; solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid;---." (Signed Nov. 11,1620).

They succeeded in maintaining their Plymouth colony until it was merged with the neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony (the colonies in Mass.) in 1691. A larger colonial venture emerged in the form of the Massachusetts Bay Company, under patent from the Council for New England and chartered by Charles 1 in 1629. Its stockholders transferred the company to Massachusetts where many thousands of Puritans followed. Massachusetts gave rise to other colonies, Rhode Island in 1636, Connecticut also in 1636, and New Hampshire shortly after. All the northern colonies were peopled mainly by Puritans who sought government that would ensure obedience to God and that derived its authority from the people. They believed this was better done in New England than amidst the corruption of Old England. A settlement in Maryland in 1634 became a religious refuge for other Catholics. The Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 passed in the colonial assembly, established freedom of worship for all Christians, Catholic and Protestant, who believed in the Trinity.

But from the 1650's to the 1770's, England brought forth political and economic doctrines, so that the state should dominate and prevail over private or colonial interests. By 1774 the colonists seen these as Intolerable Acts against them. Unless these grievances were addressed the colonists agreed to meet in Philadelphia in May of 1775; after having met in September of 1774. But the battle in Lexington, Mass. between the British and the Minute Men in April of 1775 was to be the stage that would bring about the birth of the U.S. By the time the Second Continental Congress gathered at Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, the delegates were committed to common action. On July 5, 1775, Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition beseeching George 3 to end hostilities. On Nov. 9,1775 Congress learns that George 3 has refused the Olive Branch Petition and is sending 20,000 troops instead. There was now no turning back.

The year 1776 began with the publication of Thomas Paine's article, "Common Sense," the first effective presentation of the American cause against the colonial states imposed by England. Thousands are converted to that cause within a few weeks following its publication. Colonial assemblies and the Continental Congress in Philadelphia begin considering declarations of independence. In July the draft prepared by Thomas Jefferson becomes the official Declaration of Independence seen in part here below.

"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation. 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, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, by laying its foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and Happiness.---We therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do in the name, and by Authority of the good People of these colonies, solemnly publish and Declare, that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States;---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."

There is no question that the Declaration of Independence was to those who signed it, a religious as well as a secular act. That is a free religious and governmental kingdom established under the morals, truth and laws of God. Our nation was founded upon the principles of the Bible and a reliance upon Almighty God. As George Washington said in his first inaugural address, "It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect."

Most people today don't realize this, but historians state that the Christian make-up of our country was there and began in its earliest days. Even as late as 1775--150 years after the Pilgrims landed--the make-up of America was 98.4 percent Protestant, 1.4 percent Catholic, and .02 percent Jewish. Until the middle of the 19th century (the 1850's), most of the education in this country was explicitly Christian, and the Bible was the chief textbook, in one way or another. During the very first day of the Continental Congress, Sept. 6,1774, the members held a discussion on whether they should open with prayer, and they agreed to do so. The following day, at the very beginning of Congress, the representatives opened in prayer. And they have been praying ever since.

When the Constitution was finally ratified in 1789, Article111 of the Northwest Ordinance states; "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." Religion and morality, according to our founders, were to be driving forces in school; they were not to be systematically censored as they are so often today. The "seperation of church and state" has never been and is not now a part of the Constitution of the United States. It is a myth that has been brought into that Constitution by others, because of Thomas Jefferson's letter. Besides, when the Constitution and the First Amendment were written, Jefferson was thousands of miles away in France. Thomas Jefferson was the chief author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), served as secretary of state (1785-89) and as President (1801-09).

Today we are told that Jefferson intended the strict separation of church and state. This has been turned upside down and made to be the very opposite of what Jefferson intended. Near the end of 1801, twelve years after the Constitution was ratified, then President, he received a letter from the Association of Baptists in Dansbury, Conn. who were concerned about the threat of the newly formed government. This government they feared, could become a great danger to their Christian faith and to their churches. Jefferson in responding to their letter said that he was greatly impressed that the American people, through the First Amendment had in effect, "erected a wall of separation between the church and the state," so they didn't need to fear that the federal government was going to intrude upon their religion or in any way disturb their faith. He told them that this "wall" to mean the First Amendment, had been erected in its wording, to "protect them." Jefferson used this phrase "wall" to mean the first Amendment, and that this "wall" protected the church, not against hostile people or worldly happenings, but against the federal government's intrusion in the freedom of religion. Today, this has been turned around completely. When you hear this phrase used today, it talks about what Christians can't do, what pastors can't do, what the church can't do, but not what Congress can or cannot do; and that's not what Jefferson meant.

Madison, who introduced the Bill of Rights, said that the government was forbidden from establishing a national religion. The First Amendment was given to do two things. One, to prevent the Congress from establishing a state church, like the Anglican Church in England, from which they had mostly fled; and two, to prohibit interference with the free exercise of religion. Here we see Madison's own words on what's intended by the establishment clause. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion---. "No national religion shall be established by law. And this has been grossly distorted in our day. The whole separation statement of Thomas Jefferson has been turned into a total distortion and perversion, and it is a great lie.

John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the U.S. 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." The First Amendment never mentions "a wall," it never mentions "separation," it never mentions "the church," and it never mentions "the state." The First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof---." As historians and the historical record points out, "The documentary evidence of the Christian origin of this nation is voluminous." The Supreme Court of the United States thoroughly studied this issue, and in 1892 gave us what is known as the Trinity Decision. In that decision, the Supreme Court declared, "These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation."

Yes this is where and how this nation began. Given birth as a Christian kingdom nation under God's morals, truths and laws, religious and political. In the same way it was given by the Lord to Israel when they entered the Promised Land. This nation kingdom called the United States of America, by this birth, fulfilled the Lord's Covenant Land promises given to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David concerning "the grafted in house of Israel." Concerning God's Land covenant promises given to the remnant of the Jews' return to their land in the end time; the Lord fulfilled that promise in 1948 when Israel became a nation again, and would remain a nation until the Lord's coming.

But, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come;----" (2 Tim. 3-1-5).

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