THE ABOLITION OF "OF COURSE" AND "EVERYBODY KNOWS"

General Douglas MacArthur said something that needs our close attention: "History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster."

This is similar to what John Adams, Founding Father and second President of the United States said: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."

THE MORAL LAW

There have been two anchors in America which have held our country morally steady to the extent that they have prevented prevented MacArthur's political and economic decline from happening here. As Romans 2 points out, there is in every person a moral law written in their hearts: "For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them."

Paul restates this truth in Romans 13: "For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil," and "Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.

Because of the moral law written even in the heart of the unbeliever, unbelieving government officials know what's good and right and they understand what's evil and wrong. They may pervert this moral law, but they know right from wrong.

THE PERMEATION

Then America has had the historical blessing of a Bible saturation. We see this to the extent of the Bible's permeating the vocabulary of the American when he talks about how as a youth, he was a "prodigal son," or how he was helped by a "good Samaritan." He describes making a narrow escape "by the skin of my teeth" (Job 19:20). He may deal with a stubborn man and say, despairingly, "A leopard can't change his spots" (Jeremiah 13:23). Or he may speak of some burden as "That's my cross I to bear." He may devote many an hour to some charitable work, saying, "That's my labor of love." All are allusions from the Bible.

ISRAEL'S LAW

But more than that saturation and more than the moral law, The Ten Commandments with their "Thou shalt nots" have planted deep roots in the American heart, even to the extent that a huge number mistakenly think that their keeping of the Big Ten gets them into heaven (Contra Gal. 2:16). Not only that, but biblical concepts soaked the American culture--accountability to God, judgment to come, a holy, personal God, the human being created in the image and likeness of God, a hell to shun, and a heaven to gain.

 BACK TO MAC AND JOHN

But we're living in a post-Christian decay of darkness in America which is so thick that we're seeing the abolition of "of course" and "everybody knows." For example it was not so long ago that Americans would say, "Of course there are two genders. Everybody knows that."

Not long ago, Americans said, "Of course, marriage is between one man and one woman. Everybody knows that."

Not long ago, we said, "Of course it's murder to kill babies; everybody knows that.

NOT SO NOW

Not so today. The moral law is violated with no fear of God before their eyes. The Bible soaking has evaporated. Those topics mentioned above don't come with an "of course" and an "everybody knows that." They're debated, demonstrated against, and mobs form to punish and ruin those who believe and dare to say, "Of course" and "Everybody knows that."We watch as the prediction of MacArthur comes true and John Adam's whale goes through the net.

This is the time when the Christian, dressed in the armor of light, shines in the darkness as never before, making disciples and snatching brands from the burning.

HE SAID, "IT'S CREEPY"

In June of 2018, Dan Piepenbring, writing in "The New Yorker," reported that he had spotted a "creepy infiltration" of his city and felt the need to warn the population.

Infiltrate? That's a strong word. I looked it up in the dictionary and found that it means, "to move into (an organization, country, territory, or the like) surreptitiously and gradually, especially with hostile intent." 

Then I looked up "surreptitiously" and saw that it means, "done, made, etc., in a secret or unauthorized or clandestine manner." 

This led to one more excursion into the dictionary--to make certain of the meaning of "clandestine: "characterized by, done in, or executed with secrecy or concealment, especially for purposes of subversion or deception; private or surreptitious." 

"Clandestine," that's a very strong word, a word that implies evil intent. It must be something so terrible that was happening that the erudite reporter needed to warn the citizens of the Big Apple, so I read farther and found that NYC was being infiltrated by a building which housed a commercial venture: Chick-fil-A, the largest one in the world.

Chick-fil-A? Hostile? Subversive? Secretive? Then I looked up the goals of the company based in Atlanta and learned that the corporation has a mission statement: “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” That's it. 

That's "creepy?" That is its open, not secret, purpose statement. Is glorifying God creepy? Is being a faithful steward creepy? Is having a positive influence on all who come in contact with the company creepy, hostile, and subversive?

Ah, you and I know what's really going on. The writer is hostile to the company because it holds to the absolute moral values and standards (particularly for marriage) in the Bible. 

I felt the need to rush to the dictionary to make sure I understood what "creepy" means and found that it's the, "having or causing a creeping sensation of the skin, as from horror or fear." Holding to the biblical definition of marriage produces a sensation of the skin, a horror, or a fear? From the reporter's article, I suppose it does produce such skin-crawling terror in him. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and suggest that he's not being hyperbolic.

Well, this what our educated elite, our mass media, our celebrities have come to--the state of Romans 1:22: "Professing to be wise, they became fools . . ."

A SAD SIGHT

Of all the evangelists in American history, Billy Sunday was the most flamboyant and the one with the least content. He used no text. He didn’t even open a Bible. What he did instead was to use certain memorized phrases and word pictures that he gave out in Gatling-gun succession to keep the audience listening.

He said: "Lord save us from off-handed, flabby-cheeked, brittle-boned, weak-kneed, thin-skinned, pliable, plastic, spineless, effeminate, ossified three-karat Christianity."

His most famous quote concerns his life-long battle against sin: "I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I have a foot. I’ll fight it as long as I have a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I have a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition."

As he got going with his message, he would sometimes throw off his collar, coat, and tie; he would roll up his sleeves; and adopt a pugilistic stance. He might shake his fists in the faces of local clergymen as he condemned the ineffectiveness of their churches or point an accusing finger at his audience as he recited a list of sins in the American society.

It was a performance, a show. As thousands of the mesmerized watched, Sunday, a former major league center fielder, would run, jump, throw invisible baseballs, hit imaginary home runs, slide for home plate, and shout like an umpire, “You’re out,” as he announced God’s judgment on the unsaved.

One reporter estimated that as he preached, Sunday traveled a mile during each sermon and more than 100 miles in every campaign. Indefatigable.

BUT THEN IT HAPPENED

But he began to preach on social topics and to blend his gospel appeal with Prohibition and honest government. His sermons were about draining the swamp and the evils of alcohol. His campaigns became crusades against social evils and in this way he went beyond his contemporaries and even his predecessors. He became more of a performer in his platform gymnastics, offering entertainment as a bait to lure in the unsaved.

During the First World War, Sunday invaded the major cities of the nation, attacking New York in 1917 at the peak of his career and the peak of the war fever against the Germany. President Wilson, who locking people up for criticizing the war, invited him to the White House to ask his personal help on behalf of the war effort because, as he said to Sunday, “You have the ear of the people.” He got that help and the ministry of the evangelist became a tool of the state

Thus, his evangelism was cemented to the state and that always changes the gospel into no gospel at all. His preaching dealt with how many gallons of beer America consumed, how much money the government would get from a tax on liquor and what a profitable industry the liquor industry was. He preached about the deleterious effects of the saloon--no food for the family, no money to pay the rent, children in rags. 

Billy Sunday sold hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of war bonds. His gospel morphed into "Take your stand for God and country." People responded to such appeals by multiplied thousands.

WHEN THE INEVITABLE CAME

But what happened when, inevitably, those two issues, Prohibition and WWI, were settled? What happened to Billy Sunday when Prohibition became the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and Germany surrendered. Billy Sunday’s work began to decline. He was a messenger without a message. The evangelist had made the mistake of becoming too contemporaneous, of identifying the gospel too closely with social issues which were bound to change. He put himself out of the ministry. He had become a Johnny one-note, the inevitable death-knell for a preacher.

By the time Sunday returned to Detroit for another crusade in 1934, the nation's grand experiment with Prohibition had ended. And, the lawlessness and excesses of that era left a bitter taste with many.

Sunday's 1934 campaign was a disappointment. He attracted small crowds and even smaller donations from Detroiters struggling through the depths of the Great Depression. This time he only collected $2,000.

WHAT BILL SUNDAY FORGOT

Paul said, “I preach Christ and Him crucified.” He commanded Timothy, “Preach the Word.” Those texts came to have no impact on Billy Sunday. His messages became devoid of biblical content and the gospel got wrapped in the American flag.

At the end, Billy Sunday was a sad sight to behold.

THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN PUBLIC EDUCATION

All over America we hear, "The public schools are failing. The public schools are failing." But is that the case? Really? Let's examine the goals and purposes of public education.

As we begin our examination, we start with the premise that education has and has always had an agenda. If we were to ask, "What is the purpose of education," most parents would answer, "To make a good living." But would our founding ancestors have agreed? No.

When the Puritans established the first schools in America, they had an agenda for those schools as stated in what's called "The Old Deluder Act of 1647: "Satan tries to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue."

The original settlers of Massachusetts believed that children needed to learn how to read the Bible to receive salvation. That was the agenda for the requirement that any Massachusetts town with more than 50 households was to appoint a town teacher. Towns with more than 100 households were required to set up a grammar school for the town's children.

The 1636 rules of Harvard included the following declaration: Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17.3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Prov. 2,3). Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein."

Over a century after the founding of Harvard in , the state constitution of Massachusetts reiterated the original and continuing purpose of the institution:

"Article I. Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, so early as the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-six, laid the foundation of Harvard College, in which university many persons of great eminence have, by the blessing of God, been initiated in those arts and sciences, which qualified them for public employments, both in church and state: and whereas the encouragement of arts and sciences, and all good literature, tends to the honor of God, the advantage of the Christian religion, and the great benefit of this and the other United States of America—it is declared, that the President and Fellows of Harvard College...shall have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy, all the powers...which they now have or are entitled to have."

It goes without saying that The Old Deluder Act and the intent of a Harvard education are no longer the purpose of American public education. So, what is the agenda? 

The purpose of American education today is to produce the rationalist, an adult whose basic presupposition is that the human being, unaided, can come to a knowledge of the truth. As a result, the Bible is banned from academia--A Wisconsin student has sued her college after she was barred from handing out "Jesus Loves You" Bible-themed Valentine's Day cards last February and the Wisconsin public university system removed all its copies of the Gideon Bible from the campus conference center after the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained of a constitutional violation. These are only two examples; time and space preclude a 360 degree look at the evidence.

The finished product is a rationalist who holds to evolution as the origin of man, who holds to relativism with no absolute standards of right and wrong. The process of American education is to leave God and His Word out. The end result is the rationalist.

On that basis, we can say that American education is a roaring success.