VERITAS ET VITA
A Column by Bernie Lutchman
The War against Christianity began, on earth, in the Garden of Eden with the serpent causing the Fall of Man. However in the United States of America, that war actually began at the Founding of the Country! This is odd, as the country was settled by Pilgrims in New England and other Christians in Jamestown, Virginia! In this column, we will go back to how beliefs and actions of the most important of these Founders, laid the foundation for where we are today. This will come as a shock to most Americans reading it for the first time, because of who these men are! But the truth is the truth,and as believers, we are to deal ONLY in Truth.
The following is not to be seen as an attack on these great men who led the Great Continental Army into victory over the British during the War of Independence, wrote the greatest Constitution ever devised by man, and created the Greatest Country EVER on the face of the Earth –The United States of America!! It IS an examination of their private and personal beliefs to show how these beliefs shaped the post-Independence foundation of modern secular society and thereby, the basis by which liberal anti-Christian 20th and 21st Century Federal and Supreme Court Justices used to take away Religious Freedoms from Christians, seemingly granted and allowed BECAUSE of the Declaration of the Independence and other documents. There is a coming Persecution of Biblical Christians, in the United States, which will rival that of Rome’s under Nero, so an understanding of how we got here will place it all in a historical context.
What these fine men did as leaders and later Presidents was bring freedom to the US, speak about God, the Providence and even Sovereignty of God, support the Freedom of free Christian worship and religion etc. and God bless them and their descendants for that. However in their private lives they believed something else. It was their real lives which affected how our institutions from Maine to South Carolina at the time, and the influence makers, changed the direction of the Country even back in those tender first days of the American public arena.
The first time I read about this, years ago, it so shocked me, I refused to believe it. But now the Spirit of the Lord has opened my mind to honestly follow the thread from the Country’s great beginnings to how we got were we are today, under heavy artillery from the enemy of old – Lucifer, through the media, universities and schools, Federal Judges and politicians.
These opening paragraphs are in a different color font for the reader to see that the purpose of this column is not to sully some of the great Founding Fathers of the United States but to honestly examine how we got where we are, because above all else, we are accountable to God and God alone for what we believe and teach to others. We must call things as they are. We say so in truth and in Love, but most definitely, in Truth. Thank you.
Here is a word you will read a lot about in this column and thrown about nationally by secularists who want to deny this country was started as a Christian country. The word is DEIST. Definition: a movement or system of thought advocating natural religion, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe (Merriam- Webster Dictionary, emphasis mine).
Two things to notice here: one, “NATURAL and religion”….whenever you see the word “natural” with religion, ACHTUNG! Beware! HALT! This is a totally secular and man made “religion”! It worships the creation like the Unitarians do, which is why in the second part of Webster’s definition; they “deny” the interference of the Creator!
The bad thing about this Doctrine is the fact it was just like socialism, another heresy was imported from Europe, a continent already in permanent decline and standing ready for Harsh Judgment from the Lord on the Day of Wrath!
One of my heroes growing up was the brilliant Thomas Paine, the intellectual British-born giant behind the U.S. Independence movement. I loved his writings on Freedom and Liberty etc….even though he was NOT an American and left this country after the US kicked the Brits out of here and declared Independence in 1776.
But what changed my opinion of Paine was the recent discovery of his actual core beliefs as a man. His writings on Liberty were one thing; his views on God and Christ were an abomination. This 180 degree out of phase contortions marked the first few presidents of the US, as well as men like Benjamin Franklin.
The Bible warns there is coming a time when even the Chosen of Christ will be deceived. ("For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." Matthew 24:24 NJKV). Sure that can happen and they ARE many false prophets in Christian media today, but what we as believers need to concern ourselves about is the full frontal attack on our Faith right here in these United States!
Sometimes we do not need to go far outside of our churches to find out who our enemies are, but when there is a concerted, concentrated attack by the forces of evil against us by an entire system, End Times Believers (ETB) had better be on our collective faces before a Holy God, seeking wisdom, strength and deliverance!
As mentioned, one of America’s Founding Fathers was Thomas Paine, a nonbeliever if there ever was one! Paine rejected everything about Christ and the Bible. As one of the original Deists in America, he poured scorn on the Word of God and those who believed in Christianity in his writings called “Age of Reason”. Paine believed the “true” word of God was nature!! One of his most famous sayings was “these are the times that try men’s souls”….as America struggled to achieve Liberty from the British Crown.
Both Paine and other Deists unknowingly set the stage for what is happening to Biblical Christianity today in America. It would surprise you to learn that these Deists (people who believe there is a Supreme Being, but He is not God, definitely not the Holy Trinity) were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin!!
These are the foremost Founding Fathers of America. The not- too- well know fact is Deism was the ‘in-thing’ amongst the upper crust of the Intellectual and ruling class elite of the U.S. at the time of these fine men of valor, who started this great country. This is akin to what the pagan religion of Kabala (an ancient mystic Jewish divination) is to today’s Hollywood elite like Brittney Spears, Madonna, Demi Moore and their type!
Jefferson is the most flagrant example. He called himself a Unitarian in a letter to Waterhouse in Jan. 8, 1825. (Unitarians believe that God is not the God of the Bible, but in everything – the tree, the rock etc….basically, they worship the creation, NOT the Creator.) But above all he was a Deist, which actually came to the upper classes of America from Europe and emphasized human reasoning rather than divine revelation.
Speaking of revelation, here is what Jefferson thought of the Book of Revelation: “merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.” (from Charles B. Stanford’s book ‘The Religious Life of Thomas Jefferson.’) 1 …Wow…what heavy stuff!
Ben Franklin proclaimed himself a deist and as most of the Founding Fathers, he was also a Freemason as was the first George W – (President George Washington, also a Deist). In fact in his book “Washington and Religion”, Paul F. Boller writes in page 92 that Washington personally believed in a Supreme Being, but along the deist lines!
His actual belief was not for show, but real…only it was real wrong, my friends! Ashbel Green, a Presbyterian minister at the time personally knew Washington (see Washington and Religion by Paul F. Boller). It is recorded in the same book by another Presbyterian minister Arthur Bradford that "often said in my hearing, though very sorrowfully, of course, that while Washington was very deferential to religion and its ceremonies, like nearly all the founders of the Republic, he was not a Christian, but a Deist." 2
This is all very sad to comprehend. The god of this world blinded these most prominent of men right at the beginning of the country to set the table for the heavy measure of bias and hatred in the 21st Century. It began as a seemingly harmless phrase by Jefferson in his letter of October 7, 1801 to the Danbury Baptist Association “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”3
Unlike what people think, the words “Separation between church and state” never existed in the founding documents. Modern opponents of our Lord have used those five words as the Sacrament of the Left in order to take away our churches’ influence, or take away the Bible or Prayer in school and other such related things.
Jefferson was just offering a word of comfort to the Baptists of Connecticut, to the effect that they had nothing to worry about! He basically said the United States does not have a State-run Religion, as in our former masters – Great Britain – so they were free to worship! Nothing more than that! Like Washington and other founders, he was friendly to the free exercise of Christian worship, one of the more pleasant attributes of these generally great men of History.
This is not an easy thing to write, my friends. These are the men whom all Americans know are the foundation of this country for over 230 years.
Patrick Henry, another great Founding Father of the United States was a member of First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia which recently offered a friend of mine – Pastor Donald Tabb, a job as Interim Pastor there. Pastor Tabb, a retired former Evangelist with the Billy Graham Crusades, and himself the founder of the Chapel on Campus at Louisiana State University and a satellite mega church in Baton Rouge, La., turned in down as it was only a one year job.
On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry said this: “should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, WHICH I REVERE ABOVE ALL EARTHLY KINGS!!” 4 Later on in that speech, Patrick Henry made the most famous statement of the War of Independence: GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!! All of us who speak Truth are revering Heaven like Patrick Henry did!
Patrick Henry is the most revered Christian of all the Founding Fathers and for good reason as you can see from this previous quote! What would lead such intelligent, cutting edge brilliant men like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Ethan Allen, Thomas Paine etc…to commit themselves to beliefs such as these? Well the answer can be found in Paine’s “THE AGE OF REASON” which influenced them all. He writes in part of Deism which teaches that the only word of God is the Creation
"But some, perhaps, will say: Are we to have no Word of God - no revelation? I answer, yes; there is a Word of God; there is a revelation.
"The Word of God is the creation we behold and it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man." 5
Paine continues, "It is only in the Creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a Word of God can unite. The Creation speaks a universal language, independently of human speech or human language, multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing original, which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this Word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God." 6
Therein, my dear friends lay the modern day secular movement, even the New Age movement! Except, it is not “New” at all! Universalism, one world religion and so-called Unity….this is where the world is headed. The only thing stopping it from succeeding is God’s People!! We are His Remnant….a large, strong and growing Remnant, but the last hope to spread the Gospel before the Return of our Lord and King Jesus Christ!
While all these shocking revelations about these Great Men from America’s birth in the 18th Century are what they are, there were other events in the 19th Century which hastened our decline as a Christian country and these will be examined next time. HOWEVER, while all this was taking place, never lose sight of the fact that God was (is) still in control and used Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and company to bring to earth this great Country – the only bastion of Christ left on Earth! ALL of these fine heroes did stand for Biblical Truth in their PUBLIC lives, even if it did not translate into their personal beliefs. We thank God they did though, because the Founding Documents stand as a legal testament to the GOD of the Bible!! AMEN!
America is the only country capable of sending the Gospel of Christ FEARLESSLY to EVERY corner of the Globe, the only country with a current President and leaders who OPENLY acknowledge Christ as the One True Savior of All Time. The past 30 years have also given us other Presidents who have stood on the Foundation of Christ, as the Son of God, and these have stood us well, as a nation.
To that effect, we salute thee America, America, God shine His Grace on Thee and grant Thy Good, with Brotherhood, from Sea to Shining Sea!
The elite of the World, whether here in the US or in Europe, constantly mock the people of God. They do not understand the Holy One of Israel who has made all things with the Power of His Word (He spoke and the earth came into being).
They are full of their own self-importance and theories, just like the Evolutionists. Charles Darwin, who is now regretting what he started with the Theory of Natural Selection (which became Evolution) as he is eternally separated from God, is an obvious outflow from the “Age of Reason”…which Tom Paine simply adapted from European rationalism.
Here is what the Lord has to say about all that in 1 Corinthians 1: 27-28 “but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are”
Isaiah 55: 6-9 (NKJV) says:
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,
and He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
for He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways,
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV) says:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, there are so many Scripture references which turn us from worldly reason and false logic towards Him that I can go on and on. But suffice it say thus, on the Day of Wrath, the only Reason will be His. All mankind from time present, past and future will stand before Him to be judged. The dead in Christ will rise to be with Him, those who follow the logic of mortal men will stand before the Great White Throne of Judgment.
His Ways are not our ways, so seek Him now. God’s plan has always been simple, direct and NEVER changes. He does not need pop psychologists or the things of mortals to interpret Him. On that Day – the Day of Wrath, Jesus will claim His before the Father and it comes from us putting our complete trust and lives in His Hands…nothing else. The wise of the world will never get the Meaning of the Blood on the Cross. They will never understand our complete submission to His Will.
They will never be His because they demand something God in His Sovereignty chooses not to give. We, who are called by His Name, know these things. If we are simpletons and fools for Him in their eyes…PRAISE THE LORD!! Bring it on!
If there is someone reading this first installment on the War On Christianity and its beginnings and can not find that inner peace which comes from being a child of His and having His Sabbath rest at all times, you too can become one with the Master. Lean not on your own understanding or that of the world, but Trust only in Him….and take seriously Isaiah 55:6 and “seek Him while He can be found!” Because should you die without the Saving Knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be too late!!
DON’T WAIT, DON’T LINGER, THE HOUR OF REDEMPTION IS NEAR!! If anyone has any questions about Salvation, Heaven, Hell or the contents of this column, please call or email us at the address below. Should you seek more teaching on His Word, call a Christian friend or visit a Bible-preaching church! Shalom, until next time.
ENDNOTES:
All Scripture are taken from the New American Standard Bible, NASB, and (Lockman Foundation, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995)
All Scripture from the New King James Version of the Bible (NKJV) copyright 1982; Thomas Nelson Inc.
Footnotes:
1. www.wikipedia.com (public domain)
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine; Chapter 9 (published 1795 and available at http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_paine/age_of_reason/part1.html#10)
6. Ibid