bahmer

America’s Christians – Ashamed and Afraid
By David Jolly - May 19, 2019

The state of the Christian church in America today is nothing like it was when I was young and the change is not a good one.

When I was young, many Christians boldly stood up for Jesus Christ and their faith in Him. They weren’t embarrassed to pray over the meal when eating in a restaurant or in front of other people. They weren’t afraid to stand up against the social recognition of sins and perverse lifestyles.

Sadly, over the past 50 years, millions of American Christians began to compromise with the decaying secular world. Rather than continue to stand up for their faith, they didn’t want offended anyone and they wanted to be inclusive.

Believing they were witnessing to perverse sinners, they opened their doors to them and then began catering to them. Afraid that hearing the truth that they were sinners living a life that God calls abominable, many churches watered down their teaching of God’s Word.

In my late 20’s, I was sick one Sunday morning and stayed home from church. I turned the television on and found the church service of a well-known pastor of a huge church in California. As I sat and listened to him, I was absolutely shocked when I heard him tell his auditorium of several thousand that he was intentionally compromising the Word of God so that they (his parishioners) would feel better about themselves. He repeated telling them how he compromised the Word of God for their sake and the audience applauded him. I later found out that he refused to preach about sin because he didn’t want people to have a poor self-image. He also stated that when Adam fell, he lost his self-esteem and that when we are saved by Jesus Christ that we regain our self-esteem.

I was appalled to learn that this preacher was leading thousands of gullible people to eternity in Hell by teaching them a false Gospel, and sadly, he wasn’t nor has he been the only preacher to teach a false Gospel. Jesus warned us about such false teachers in the following verses:

Matthew 7:15-16: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”
Matthew 24:10-12: “And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”
Matthew 24:23-25: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.”
There are other warnings about false teachers and false prophets, but what I want to know is why so many people who claim to be Christians are embarrassed and/or afraid to stand up for what the Bible really teaches?

We’ve all seen far too many examples where a Christian will remain silent or refuse to confront false teaching or preaching. When a Christian stands up and defends homosexuality, they are sharing a false Gospel. When someone stand up and says that everyone who leads a good life will go to heaven is teaching a false Gospel and the list goes on and on.

There is far too much emphasis in our culture today about not offending others and being all inclusive, but that is NOT what the Bible teaches and it’s not what Jesus taught. Far too many Christians are afraid to be a true follower of Jesus Christ, especially when He warned us:

Matthew 10:17-22:

“Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Are you willing to endure the hatred and treatment of the secular world for Christ’s sake or are you one of those who is afraid of offending someone or losing everything you own? Be honest!

If Christians lived their faith the way Muslims live theirs, America would still be a Christian nation and many of the problems we see in our nation today would not exist. America is the way it is today because too many Christians are afraid or embarrassed to stand up for and live their faith.

Zemirah Loc: Sojourner En Route...

The Supreme Court betrayed the American people with three landmark cases that changed the meaning of the First Amendment (Freedom of Religion) as it was previously understood and practiced in America.

In each of these three cases a parent of a child in school petitioned the courts to stop the school from "exposing" their child to prayer in school and reading the Bible in school.

Citizens whose ancestors came to this land to be able to freely worship their God as they saw fit were deeply shocked and saddened, but their religious leaders also betrayed them, by failing to react or protest.

http://www.free2pray.info/2schoolprayerrulings.html

ACLU Lawyers used Thomas Jefferson's letter in the argument for the plaintiffs. They argued that the founding fathers wanted a "wall of separation between church and State"; therefore, the government should be neutral to religion in schools, and as a result the Warren Court ruled that their would be no prayer in school or Bible reading. The court's "majority ruling" reasoned that being neutral or not favoring one religion over another was the same as not allowing religious practices in school.

Justice Potter Stewart, the one dissenting vote blasted the ruling saying, "It led not to true neutrality with respect to religion, but to the establishment of a religion of secularism."

Secularization is 1. the social or political process of rejecting all forms of religious faith.
2. the elimination of any religious elements with-in public education and other civic institutions.

The court's ruling favored atheism over all the religions of the world that believe in God. Atheism has been declared a religion by the U.S. Supreme Court, so the Court did not act neutrality, but instead favored a godless religion over all others. A recent national poll indicated 85% of Americans believe in the existence of God, yet the court ruled with the minority, atheist.

If the Court had really been true to its intention of neutrality ; it would have been impartial to the students, by neither forcing non believers to pray, nor prohibiting believers from prayer. The court's actions were not neutral.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair, a militant left wing atheist with close ties to the American Communist Party, took the school board of Baltimore to court for allowing prayer in school. The local court judge J. Gilbert Pendergast dismissed the petition stating, "It is abundantly clear that petitioners' real objective is to drive every concept of religion out of the public school system." The case went to the Maryland Court of Appeals, and the court ruled, "neither the First nor the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to stifle all rapport between religion and government."

The case was then heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Leonard Kerpelman addressed the court saying the Constitution had erected a "wall of separation" between church and state", at which point Justice Potter Steward interrupted, asking where this wording appears. Kerpelman was stumped and an embarrassing silence followed. When he regained his composure, he stated that the text was not explicit on the point but that it had been interpreted to mean so.

Not a single Christian organization filed a brief in support of school prayer, so the case went virtually uncontested before the Court. The Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in favor of abolishing school prayer and Bible reading in the public schools.

Justice Tom Clark wrote, "religious freedom, it has long been recognized that government must be neutral and, while protecting all, must prefer none and disparage none." Atheism has been recognized by the federal government as a religion, and this Supreme Court ruling preferred Secular Atheism, and therefore failed to be neutral as Justice Tom Clark suggested.

A foot note on this case: This case was centered around Madalyn Murray O'Hair's son, William Murray. Madalyn O'Hair was murdered in the 1990's, and her son William Murray became a Christian and is now a pastor.

The Apostate National Council of Churches and several Jewish organizations favored Madalyn O'Hair's case!

After the June 17, 1963 ruling the Wall Street Journal commented that atheism was now "the one belief to which the state's power will extend its protection."

With standard jurisprudence the Court cites previous cases in making its rulings; however, not one previous case was cited in this ruling. Why was no other case cited? Because, there were none which would support its decision. For 170 years following the ratification of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, no Court had ever struck down any prayer, in any form, in any location.

The Pennsylvania school system complied with a state law requiring that ten verses of scripture be read every day. It was voluntary without coercion, and the Schempp girl never asked to be excused and even volunteered to read the Bible on occasions. (This point was not brought up when the case was before the Supreme Court.) Yet the parents brought the case to court on grounds that it was coercion. This case came to the Supreme Court at the same time as the Murray v. Curlett case, and the court ruled on them together.

After these last 2 cases were decided, the courts ruling stated that Prayer and / or Bible reading was a violation of the establishment clause of the first amendment. In so ruling the court established a secular religion for our school system, thus violating the "establishment clause" itself, which the Court was so carefully trying to protect.

And thus the First Amendment has been completely revised with regard to religious freedom, putting the restrictions on the people and not the government. The First Amendment was written to protect the people from government interference of religious practice, but the Court violated it and turned the First Amendment on its head.

The Posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms was deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980.

The Ten Commandments are the cornerstone of American Law. In the Ten Commandments it instructs us not to lie, cheat, steal, or kill. The Ten Commandments are posted in the Supreme Court itself, and on the front freeze of the Supreme Court is depicted Moses holding the Laws which form the basic framework of American society. So when the Court forbids children from learning that it is wrong to lie, cheat, steal or kill, the Court is in effect promoting a lawless society totally ignorant of right and wrong. It is either foolhardy or just plain evil to do so.

The laws of 46 states making abortion illegal were rendered unconstitutional on January 22, 1973.

In a historic decision in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes abortion, rules in Roe v. Wade that women as part of their constitutional right to privacy, can terminate a pregnancy during its first two trimesters. Only during the last trimester, when the fetus can survive outside the womb, would states be permitted to regulate abortion of a healthy pregnancy.

Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.

American Christians who have been taught the Scriptures were torn. All understood that they were to obey
all lawful state and federal authority, as the Bible teaches, but in doing so ignored the instruction of the Apostle Peter that we must please God and not men.

Had the ordained ministers behind the nation's pulpits confronted their politically elected representatives in Washington D.C., great pressure could have been brought to bear on the Judiciary of the Supreme Court.

For whatever reason, this didn't happen.

As for the nation's suddenly bereft Christian citizens, the leaders in their churches to whom they were to submit had deserted them. No earthly person ordained by God had their back.

The nation's unborn infants could now be savagely, cruelly and legally slaughtered with impunity.

The nation's Christians should have gotten onto their knees in sackcloth and ashes but that didn't happen.

That was the beginning of a downward spiral in Godly moral virtue throughout their land.

Dave Jolly, the author of Bahmer's posted editorial is a former U.S. Representative from Florida who was born in 1973. He never experienced the United States before these three devastating Supreme Court findings took place.

He may well not understand their long term effect or the changes that have taken place as a result of them.

Muslim children must memorize the Qur'an. The entrance to Islam's most prestigious university, located in Egypt, requires applicants to be able to recite the entire Qur'an from memory.

Thus, they internalize its teachings at a young age.

Generations of our children have grown up unschooled in the Bible and often ridiculed if peers learn they are attending Sunday School.

Before the 1963 and 1973 decisions, the nations children did not obtain rifles and plot to kill fellow school classmates.

A lack of persecution or even oppression toward American's Christians had lulled them into an apathetic slumber, like the proverbial frog in boiling water.

Today, in this time, that is about to change as Satan's minions have been increasingly emboldened for decades, with little resistance from anyone. Our Godly hedge of immunity no longer defends us, and Christians are being openly attacked as never before in this country.

Before we can boldly stand, we must approach God on our knees en masse.

"Before his own Lord he stands or falls. And he will stand, because the Lord is able to make him stand."
(Romans 14:4)

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Greek.
For the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith." (Romans 1:16-17):

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Well done Zemirah!!!

Rose42

Good info Zemirah. I didn’t realize that.

Another good one bahmer. There’s so much compromise about Christ. People only want to hear about a feel good Jesus and preachers want to fill seats. They don’t want to hear that God is also a just God and a God of judgement. Or that Jesus spoke more often about eternal punishment.

People try to make the bible say what they want it to say.

bahmer

Excellent information there Zemirah thanks.