Posted: 06/30/08

The Supreme Court said it…didn't that settle it?

This is a Christian Nation!

By Eric Barger

www.ericbarger.com

Anyone who has attended our seminars probably remembers that I am an ardent believer in "Christian" education. Once we were delivered from the drug culture and the secular music scene, Melanie and I sent our daughters to Christian schools and now we are blessed to see our two oldest granddaughters attend a good Christian school as well. But that's not really what I mean when I say "Christian education." It is one thing to be educated in a Christian setting and to have the advantage and blessing of being taught the Bible and related issues. But equally important is our obligation to pass on our historical heritage as a Christian people and to make certain that our lineage and virtually all who come in contact with us are given the opportunity to understand the tremendous, even astounding truths that frame the freedoms that ALL Americans share.

Today's secular education establishment is littered with glaring inaccuracies. That statement will upset many but please don't misunderstand. I am grateful for Christians who teach in our public schools and who attempt to instill absolute values in our kids. It is the sometimes-inaccurate curriculum that concerns me most. Though arguably the curriculum deficiencies may be numerous, I wish to focus on one in particular here. In the case at hand, it is not that curriculum writers have necessarily introduced erroneous information. Instead, they have ignored an entire historical aspect so crucial to our American birthright that we should all wonder just what else might be missing in the year-by-year plan brought forth by these so-called "keepers of knowledge."

Today's public school students are taught to varying extents about the Revolutionary War. They hear about Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and others from our history. But they hear precious little about what our Founding Fathers believed spiritually, about the enormous importance which faith played with them and about the very core reason why they fled England and declared themselves independent of its tyrannical rule.

OUR SPIRITUAL ROOTS

According to an intense study from the University of Houston 52 of the 56 most influential men who founded our nation were not just believers in a deity but were real, Bible-believing, born-again Christians! This remains one of the most disregarded or distorted facts by the secularist in our day. Regardless of all of their human failures and other inconsistencies, it is obvious that the Founder's goal for a new nation was to live in physical and religious liberty – a value that seems lost in the thinking of organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, the NEA and others.

What better way is there to see a society abandon historical truths than to allow them to be revised, misshaped or omitted from school textbooks? Mark my words, our Founders lofty and spiritually inspired ideals are slowly fading from view at the hands of those who publicly boast in their pledge to

do damage to the centuries-old goal and privilege of experiencing Christian freedom, standards and evangelism in our land.

Make no mistake; it is NO accident that the curriculum is mum on who we really are as a nation. With the spirit of humanist educator John Dewey leading from his grave, the secularists have fought hard to accomplish their goal of "Christianity free" textbooks. At very least they desire to play down religion and do injustice to the historical significance of the faith of our Founders.

"THIS IS A CHRISTIAN NATION"

Upon reading those five words the prevalent atheist, liberal mindset would decry the statement as a "right-wing, fundamentalist plot." However, when one examines where this statement originated it is hardly that.

In rendering its decision in the case Holy Trinity Church vs. the United States, our Supreme Court stated, "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." In fact, in making the decision on February 29, 1892 (accomplished by sighting a whopping 87 precedents) Justice David Brewer concluded: "Our laws and institutions must necessarily be based upon and include the teaching of the Redeemer of mankind." That is enough to cause today's liberal judges, politicians and educators to keel over in a dead faint! Perhaps this is why so many have taken the tact of ignoring and eliminating the Christian heritage of America from the view of our children?

In my seminar and DVD "The Rise, Fall and Redemption of America", I explain the deadly path that secularists have led us down and suggest that it is our Christian responsibility to initiate change. In doing so, I sight many inspirational facts and quotes from the Founding Fathers. One of the most thrilling details, which is virtually ignored by today's school curriculums, is that the Founders saw Isaiah 33:22 as a basis for what would become the three branches of our US federal government and the separation of powers therein.

"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us."
– Isaiah 33:22

Judge - Judicial

Lawgiver - Legislative

King - Executive

Perhaps one reason facts such as this are being eliminated from public view is, that as second President John Adams stated, "America's Constitution was made for moral and religious people. It will not work for any other people.

The secularists despise the identity which our Founding Fathers held dear and have systematically attempted to delete our Christian history in any way they can.

It is truly in our hands to see that succeeding generations understand, respect and are given the opportunity to live by the principles that truly guided our nation to the past greatness which we still enjoy remnants of today.

Allow the words of Noah Webster, the father of American education, to resound in your heart. They are still the truth today.

"Education is useless without the Bible...The Bible was America's basic text book in all fields."

"In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed. . . . No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."

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Warnings for a Wayward Nation

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."
- Patrick Henry

"The patriot who feels himself in the service of God, who acknowledges Him in all his ways, has the promise of Almighty direction, and will find His Word in his greatest darkness, a lantern to his feet and a lamp unto his paths.' He will therefore seek to establish for his country in the eyes of the world, such a character as shall make her not unworthy of the name of a Christian nation."
- Francis Scott Key, writer of "The Star Spangled Banner"

"America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture."
- New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson (May 7, 1911 before his election to President of the United States)

"Feel and acknowledge that all the good you have ever received, that you now receive, or ever will receive is of grace through Jesus Christ. Trust in Him for all which you need, both for this life and the life to come. Rely on His merits, imitate His example, and in view of every blessing give Him and the Father and the Holy Ghost all the glory."
- George Washington (Rule 17 from his "Seventeen Rules of Life" <Read them here>)

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
 – Psalm 33:12

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
 – Jeremiah 6:19

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
- Psalm 9:17

Copyright 2008, Eric Barger

By Eric Barger Click here for bio and archived articles