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The Dutch pastor, scholar and church leader Marinus Burcht van ‘t Veer [1904-1944] examined the conflict, depicted in 1 Kings 16-21, between the prophet Elijah, King Ahab, and Queen Jezebel in his book “My God Is Yahweh: Elijah and Ahab in an Age of Apostasy.”
With regard to ancient Israel’s abandonment of God he noted, “Now that Israel was no longer interested in her calling, the Lord took away her privileges,” befittingly adding, “The privilege of being God’s ally would now be enjoyed by others.”
Modern American Christendom finds itself in a similar predicament. The nation’s Founders disembarked at Jamestown in 1607, erected a cross, took communion and pledged “to reach the people within these shores with the gospel of Jesus Christ and raise up Godly generations after us.” Sharing a spiritually robust English Puritan kinship, the founders possessed the kind of unshakeable faith that nowadays is hardly ever seen.
It has been asked that if America’s founders wanted to establish Christianity as the official religion of America, why didn’t they just say so? Well, they did.
A straight answer to that question can be found in the 13 Original States Charters and Constitutions of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland.
But much like ancient apostate Israel, America frittered away its Judeo-Christian heritage and shattered the well-ordered, systematic biblical bedrock and culture laid down by the early Founders.
Now unmoored from its foundation, 21st-century America is drifting further and further afield as the nation enters the darkest recesses of woke, vulgarian territory. Ignoring or disregarding God’s divinely ordained dictums and dictates will have serious consequences, for God not only keeps His promises but also follows up on His warnings.
Contemporary culture is but the public manifestation of the immoral, crude and irreverent profession of secular faith, whose evangelization of America’s youth in public education is undoubtedly a stench in the nostrils of God.
After a century-long battle, secularism finally wrenched culture off its biblically solid base that the Founders had erected for the purpose of law and order. Under the false pretense of achieving ‘religious neutrality,’ secular overlords and courts realized this, among others, by prohibiting prayer in public schools in 1962, removing the Bible from public education in 1963, and outlawing the Ten Commandments from schoolhouses and government buildings in 1980.
Since no such thing as ‘religious neutrality’ exists, America’s Christian forefathers insisted on being [and staying] involved in society and politics. They declined to turn civil government—the making, enforcement and adjudication of laws—over to Satan and those who serve him. They would neither surrender the ministry of civil government nor give in to those who live in rebellion against God. Civil government was to be based upon God’s unquestionable truth. And so it was.
With that we come to Donald J. Trump’s recent comments and annoyance with the lack of early Evangelical support for his 2024 presidential reelection campaign, which he described as “a sign of disloyalty.”
Lets place Trump’s displeasure with Evangelical leaders against the background of his Dec. 2022 Log Cabin Republicans “Spirit of Lincoln” gala that he hosted at Mar-a-Lago. As POLITICO reported: “Hundreds of guests in tuxedos of all styles—sequined, quilted, velvet—and colorful gowns sipped on Trump-branded champagne and martinis. Between courses of steak and bite-sized key lime pie, they danced to ‘YMCA’ and ‘Macho Man’, the disco anthems at Trump rallies.
“Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago beachfront club was a joyous celebration of gay rights and—in a case of ironic timing—the historic same-sex marriage law signed by President Joe Biden days earlier.” Trump led the crowd in formal cheers, advocating to joyous revelry that “we are fighting for the gay community, and we are fighting and fighting hard.”
In considering the upcoming 2024 elections, Evangelicals are mostly interested in candidates with a faculty of core beliefs. If former president Trump is to gain traction with believers, we encourage him to focus once again on what’s of key importance to the nation: the battle for the soul of America, and the spiritual rehabilitation of the biblically based culture initiated by the Founders.
Because virtue and liberty are inseparably linked, liberty cannot long be preserved in the absence of virtue among the people and their representatives.
Gideon’s and Rahab’s are beginning to stand. {eoa}
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David Lane is the founder of the American Renewal Project.
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