Who Made America Great?
Who Made America Great?
By Bud Hancock
Introduction
An amazing historical event occurred 240 years ago when a group of people who, after living under the boot-heel of a royal tyrant, and whose ancestors left their home nation of England and emigrated to what we now know as the United States of America, decided that they would no longer live under the rule of a royal tyrant. But, in their new land, they were still suffering the same tyranny from the same royal on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Though they hated that tyrannical control, with their God-given freedoms abridged, they lived somewhat in fear and endured it for some years until the desire for true freedom overrode their fears and that desire bubbled up from within them in the form of a resistance that started one of the most historical revolutions ever known to man. They managed to garner enough support from many citizens of the colonies to form an army that resembled a ragtag militia more than an army. Their army seemingly had no chance at success against the world’s greatest military empire.
Yet, succeed they did, and that success presented to all the colonials the opportunity to start something new in the ‘new world’: a constitutional republic. But their success was not because of their ability to create, equip and train a greater military than the British. There was much more involved in that success than their own desires for freedom, their own capabilities, or their own ability to outsmart the British Army.
The Founding Fathers
Most of the men who were a part of what we now call “The Founding Fathers” were basically very religious men, devout Christians who knew that God’s plan for man is for all to live free of tyranny, in an atmosphere where they could worship God in a way that they could never experience on British soil, because the British Crown ruled every aspect of life and demanded a blind loyalty to everything “royal”.
They knew going into the revolution that they were poorly equipped to take on the most powerful military on earth, and they also knew that they needed a strong ally who could provide whatever they would need to win what was an ‘unwinnable war’. I mean seriously, how could a ‘ragtag militia’ type of army even begin to think about winning a war against Britain?
Anyone reading the memoirs of the Founders, or the Federalist Papers, along with the myriad of communications between these brave godly men, knows exactly what the Founders believed was the key to the victory in the American Revolutionary War. They were not ashamed to give the credit to Almighty God, not only for the victory in war, but in the writing of and acceptance of the documents that publicly declared what was happening in the New World.
They credited the help of God, specifically the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their reliance on His providence, for all that was accomplished, both on the battlefields and in the halls of the Continental Congress. It was there in Philadelphia where the document called the Declaration of Independence was written and signed by all 56 of these mostly godly men.
American Greatness
For many years after the Revolution, America was a growing, expanding nation, which expansion would eventually create the lower 48 states of the Union. Even though the growth was exponential, it was accomplished over a time-frame of many years by people who desired to discover what lay beyond the next mountain or river. They may not have known it at that time, but they were fulfilling the commandment of God when He told Adam and Eve to take dominion over the earth, to be fruitful and to replenish it. As they moved ever westward, they took with them, at least to some extent, their belief that God was supreme and was leading them to their destinations. Accompanied by some of that same dependence on God that the Founders embraced, they forged onward until the United States became the nation that stretched from sea to shining sea. Christianity was their primary religion, and based on the same Judeo Christian principles as the Founders, was still the basis for the laws that they instituted wherever they went, the United States became known around the world as a “Christian Nation”.
The fact that so many Americans not only claimed to be Christians in the formative years of the nation, but lived in a manner that gave truth to their claim, is one of the primary reasons why America grew from a fledgling upstart nation into the greatest, most prosperous, and powerful nation in modern history, all in just 150 years. The early Americans’ Christian beliefs and their corresponding lifestyle was, to a certain extent, responsible for the recognition around the world that we were indeed a nation of mostly Christians who depended on God for our subsistence.
This knowledge of American dependence on God remained in place for most of the past 75 years, since the end of WW 2 when the United States became known as the world’s superpower.
What Happened to the Nation?
In 2008, Barack Hussein Obama, a more or less political unknown, whose somewhat shadowy history showed a leaning more toward Islam that to Christianity, was elected to the highest office in the land, running on a promise to “Fundamentally Transform America”. One of the first things he did, early in his first administration, was to announce to the world that the United States was no longer a Christian nation. That claim did not make Obama’s disastrous statement a fact, but it set the tone and stage for additional actions and events that would severely limit our ability to prosper as a nation. When the leader of the world’s superpower nation publicly expresses his own sentiments as being those of the entire nation, it has an amazing effect around the world., and it is heard in the heavens.
Political Theater, Past and Present
Politics has played a major role, mostly negatively, in the US since its founding and especially in the last 110 years. Many major changes, mostly unneeded and unwanted in our nation occurred in that time-frame, mainly due to politics and its often disastrous effects. The introduction of the Federal Reserve System, in 1913, that effectually removed control over the nation’s money from the people and handed it over to a large central bank that has absolutely no connection to the US Government is probably the best example of unwanted and unneeded change. That event alone has made true prosperity much more difficult to achieve for many Americans, in spite of God’s blessings.
But now, in the year 2020, we have just held an election in which the American voters were to choose which person they wanted to be the next POTUS. On the one side, we had an incumbent president, a formerly successful US businessman/billionaire, named Donald J Trump who, as POTUS for most of the last four years, followed through on many of the promises he made to the American public. He ran on a pledge to “Make American Great Again” and actually made some decisions that seemed to have the nation headed in that direction. I have listened to him make many speeches in which he took credit for the good things that have happened in our economy and other critical areas of American life.
On the other side of the political spectrum, we have a man suffering from what seems to be advanced dementia, who was the vice president under Barack Obama, a man who, though he spent more than 30 years in the US Senate has little lasting legacy to show for it. He is obviously a socialist-leaning politician who has already given indications that he will undo the many good things done by Trump since 2016.
Now, we have witnessed what is arguably the most corrupt, lawless and fraudulent election in US history, and that fraud and lawlessness has shaken the confidence that most Americans had in anything with which the US government is involved. As of this date, no one knows yet who the next POTUS will be, and that decision will likely come out of legal hearings that will be presented to the US Supreme Court. A lack of confidence citizens have in their leaders and the government of which they are a part indicates that we may be living in a nation that is cursed rather than being a ‘blessed nation’. We are witnessing a grieving for what our country seems to have lost, and indeed will be lost, possibly forever, if the wrong man becomes the next POTUS: the joy of being a ‘united’ nation, one that still experiences God’s blessings. The writer of the proverb in chapter 29 stated it this way: “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn” (Proverbs 29:2 KJV). That grieving may soon turn into a time of national mourning.
Even though, as a Christian, I have supported President Trump, both during his campaign and his time in office, his claims of being responsible for the good things sort of irritated me, sounding more like egotistical bluster than truth/facts. I have long doubted the capability of any lone person, man or woman, to affect an entire nation for good solely because he or she is the leader. History has proven that to be a false claim in most cases, so, why would it be true here and why now?
So, Who, or What Really Made America Great?
That the nation we call our home was conceived in, and built on, the foundational belief that we are a people who believe on and trust in the God of Israel, is a more or less well accepted premise. The position that belief places us in, the position of being blessed by God, requires more than just claiming to be Christian, celebrating Easter by dressing in new clothes and hiding ‘Easter eggs’ once a year, and it requires more than putting up Christmas trees and singing Christmas carols once a year. It requires a conscious acknowledgement of the God who actually does the blessing. It requires giving the credit for our blessings, both personal and national, to the person who is worthy of the credit. We have reached a point in the US where those who should be aware of the real reason why we have been so blessed have not only failed to give proper credit to Almighty God, where it is due, but seem to have forgotten God entirely; a majority of Americans no longer recognize that we were a nation created by men with a desire to have a strong relationship with the God on whose providence we still must rely in order, not only to be blessed, but to even exist. In the past, when that point has been reached in many areas, the nations that forget God have indeed ceased to exist.
Consider Israel, the ‘apple of God’s eye’, who, when they were the most blessed nation in history with their awesome God fighting for them, increasing them in every area, looked to other gods and forgot the God who “Made Them A Great Nation”. As a result of their failure to give God His glory, and their desire to go after other gods, the entire nation was dispersed throughout all the world and for nearly 2000 years, they have suffered unbelievable persecution and cursing. If God is so jealous of the worship due Him from His earthly people, why would he not also require the same from any other nation, even the United States of America? And why would any other nation be spared the loss of blessings from a jealous God?
God is not One who will ever share His glory with any man. He knows exactly Who He is, what He has done, and what He is capable of doing, and every believer in Christ should know that as well. The Bible makes no secret of God’s wisdom, His strength, His power and His ability and desire to bless those who recognize and honor Him as God. We are told in Psalms 33:11-13, “The counsel of the LORD standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men”. (Read the entire 33rd Psalm)
Conclusion
There are still millions of strong Christians in this nation, but the voice of those people, once among the loudest in giving God the glory and credit for our personal blessings, our national prosperity and prominence around the world, has now been compromised and weakened, and appears to be weakening further day by day. The voices of pastors in thousands of what were previously strong, growing churches have also been compromised and now are not nearly as adamant, or as loud, about who should be getting the credit for all our personal as well as our national blessings.
Could it be that their voices have been somewhat silenced, compromised and muffled by an acceptance of a ‘tax-free’ status that a former POTUS, Lyndon B. Johnson, ensured was placed into law as a means to control the Church and determine to some extent what that voice could utter? I am not saying that is a fact, but I do remember the words that Jesus uttered: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21 KJV). By insisting on keeping what is Caesar’s, one might easily be placed in the position of rendering one’s free voice to a government, and that negates that voice’s ability to freely speak on behalf of God.
As much as I admire and support President Trump, he will NOT make America great again. The power and ability to do so has not been given to him, or to any man who has failed to recognize God and give him ALL the credit and Glory for the awesome blessings this nation has experienced. Until the voice of the Church, the Body of Christ, is strengthened, renewed and used to proclaim that, in spite of the false claim from a previous leader to the contrary, we are INDEED a Christian nation, and we still rely on and trust God for not only our blessings but for our very existence. But more than that is required. There must be a return to the moral values that were the underpinning of a free and godly nation, a nation that still must look to God, and God only, for its subsistence and sustenance. What is needed is a revival that will sweep from border to border and coast to coast and will bring an awakening to the reality that we are blessed ONLY as long as we acknowledge God and give Him all the credit.
I truly hope it is not too late for that revival to happen. Nevertheless, Lord, not our will but thy will be done.
Blessings!