You cannot plumb the depths, or scale the heights, of the glory and power and knowledge and wisdom contained in God's Word. But in diligently seeking to do so, you will be transformed, from glory to glory, into the image and likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself over to the tormentors out of love for His Father and for you, and rose from the grave to show heaven and earth that you, in His sight, stand justified.
I do politics every day, and some criticize me for posting things like I just posted above. They think I'm foolish for doing so. It's just not "politic," you know?
But, as Jim Elliott famously said:
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose!”
But if we as a people, and as a church, continue to thumb our nose at God, the moral foundations of the American Republic will be, finally and completely, gone. And the spiritual, moral, and physical wreck of America that follows will be one of the most frightful tragedies in human history. The city set on a hill will have finally been brought down to the agonies of a hell on earth. And the whole world will suffer greatly for that fall as well.
"Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle... In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity... That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants."
-- U.S. Congress, U. S. House Judiciary Committee, 1854
"It becomes a people publicly to acknowledge the over-ruling hand of Divine Providence and their dependence upon the Supreme Being as their Creator and Merciful Preserver . . . and with becoming humility and sincere repentance to supplicate the pardon that we may obtain forgiveness through the merits and mediation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."
-- Samuel Huntington, signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of Congress, judge, Governor of Connecticut
"Condescend, merciful Father! to grant as far as proper these imperfect petitions, to accept these inadequate thanksgivings, and to pardon whatever of sin hath mingled in them for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Savior; unto Whom, with Thee, and the blessed Spirit, ever one God, be rendered all honor and glory, now and forever.
Unto Him who is the author and giver of all good, I render sincere and humble thanks for His manifold and unmerited blessings, and especially for our redemption and salvation by His beloved Son. . . . Blessed be His holy name."
"Mercy and grace and favor did come by Jesus Christ, and also that truth which verified the promises and predictions concerning Him and which exposed and corrected the various errors which had been imbibed respecting the Supreme Being, His attributes, laws, and dispensations.
By conveying the Bible to people . . . we certainly do them a most interesting act of kindness. We thereby enable them to learn that man was originally created and placed in a state of happiness, but, becoming disobedient, was subjected to the degradation and evils which he and his posterity have since experienced. The Bible will also inform them that our gracious Creator has provided for us a Redeemer in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed – that this Redeemer has made atonement “for the sins of the whole world,” and thereby reconciling the Divine justice with the Divine mercy, has opened a way for our redemption and salvation; and that these inestimable benefits are of the free gift and grace of God, not of our deserving, nor in our power to deserve. The Bible will also [encourage] them with many explicit and consoling assurances of the Divine mercy to our fallen race, and with repeated invitations to accept the offers of pardon and reconciliation. . . . They, therefore, who enlist in His service, have the highest encouragement to fulfill the duties assigned to their respective stations; for most certain it is, that those of His followers who [participate in] His conquests will also participate in the transcendent glories and blessings of His Triumph.
I recommend a general and public return of praise and thanksgiving to Him from whose goodness these blessings descend. The most effectual means of securing the continuance of our civil and religious liberties is always to remember with reverence and gratitude the source from which they flow.
The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.
[T]he evidence of the truth of Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce conviction in candid minds... they who undertake that task will derive advantages.
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
-- John Jay, First Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Co-Author of the Federalist Papers, President of Congress, diplomat, Governor of New York