Volume 14 Issue 7 - July 1999

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

"Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him." (Isaiah 51:1,2)

There is much evidence that points to the fact that America is a unique nation amongst the nations of the earth. It is evident that the land itself was preserved for a special purpose in God’s Providence. Although America was prime "real estate" in the earth and filled with natural resources, it remained virtually untapped for thousands of years. You do not see the pyramids of Egypt, the glory of Rome, nor the grandeur of Greece upon these shores. Why is it that there was no great civilization established here until a persecuted people longed to be free to worship the God of Heaven in Spirit and truth? If you can answer that question then you are on the road to understand the vision for America and her destiny that stands in peril today.

Another unique mark upon this nation that is exclusively American is the fact that we are the only nation on earth that was founded on a creed. All the other nations on earth were essentially established upon ethnicity, nationality, or race. Not so with America. Regardless of skin color or any other physical attribute that distinguishes human beings, what makes an American an American is a credo belief system. A creed that is articulated in a document we call The Declaration of Independence.

Before we explore some vital points of that creed, we need to understand, whereas the Constitution is the letter of the law,(that has been twisted, bent, and perverted through judicial activism to subject Americans to legalized evil today) the Declaration is the Spirit of the Law. The Declaration supplies the premise, the presupposition, and the underlying principles that we have forgotten to the Constitution’s harm. You will see this clearly as we examine a few of those foundational principles contained within the Declaration that was to be the heart, soul, and source to establish and sustain our Christian Republic called America.

On July 4th, 1776, the delegates of the Continental Congress voted to ratify the Declaration which began with these profound words, "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitles them..." Stop right there and hold the presses. It is extremely important to understand and it cannot be emphasized enough that our Founding Fathers cited the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God as the sole basis for breaking ties with England and to become a separate nation in the earth. To comprehend the magnitude of that particular phrase utilized by Thomas Jefferson, one must look to Sir William Blackstone who was the first one to coin that phrase.

Sir William Blackstone was a renowned English jurist who wrote the highly influential work called, Commentaries on the Laws of England. He was the third most quoted source, behind the Bible, and I believe, John Locke, whom our Founding Fathers studied and cited as the basis for law in America.

Blackstone defined the laws of nature and of Nature’s God as, "Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being...And, consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker’s will...this will of his Maker is called the law of nature. These laws laid down by God are the eternal immutable laws of good and evil...This law of nature dictated by God Himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this...The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found in the Holy Scriptures...{and} are found upon comparison to be really part of the original law of nature. Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation (Thomas Jefferson penned of nature’s God as a substitute for the law of revelation) depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these."

According to Blackstone who was the inspiration behind the laws of nature and of nature’s God, the creation itself testifies and teaches man that there is a Supreme Designer that created the universe. The immutable laws contained within nature reveal a Creator that man is to be subject to by virtue of being a dependent creature. Apparently, Blackstone was also one who studied the Scriptures in depth, for Romans 1:20 and Psalms 19:1-3 verify this truth. But because man’s reason is corrupted by sin according to Blackstone, (and the Bible) the Lord did not leave revelation to chance, so He made a direct appeal to mankind through what Blackstone called the law of revelation contained within the Bible to which Declaration interprets as "of nature’s God." The Ten Commandments, God’s moral Law, was God’s way of appealing to man objectively to confirm within man what he instinctively knows to be true, but because of sin again, man suppresses that truth and always exchanges it for a lie. Therefore God sent His most perfect revelation of Himself to mankind via the second person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the expressed image of God (Hebrews 1:3). He was the Word, (God’s direct revelation to man) who was God in the flesh and dwelt amongst us. That’s why Jesus could say, "If you’ve seen me, you have seen the Father." In other words, Jesus was the visible manifestation of the invisible God. According to Blackstone, unless laws was based upon these two premises, they were not laws at all and "no human law should be suffered to contradict these."

Our next stop along the way as we explore the Declaration is, "We hold these truths to be self-evident." Can you believe in this moral relativistic age in which we live, that our Founding Fathers actually had the audacity to believe in a concept called truth? Now truth by its very nature lends itself completely to the notion that there is such a thing as absolutes. Obviously, our Founding Fathers would be laughed to scorn today, if they brought that archaic view to our "enlightened" humanistic temples we call public schools. We don’t teach children that there is such a thing as self-evident truth, that there are absolutes, and a definite right and a definite wrong. No! we teach the kids to decide for themselves what is right or wrong with no standard except what their own greedy, selfish, and unregenerated hearts crave. As a result, millions of American children are left to construct their own "truth" and values apart from the God of the Bible that our forefathers trusted in. Can there be any doubt that this mentality has opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box that is savaging our young today? The school shootings are a direct result of rejecting the time honored wisdom of our Founding Fathers and embracing a pagan, moral relativistic philosophy instead. One that is certainly polluting America today. Our Founding Fathers believed in self-evident truth that was not based upon the subjective experience of fallen man, but on God’s objective truth that are outside of man and authoritative over man. Yes, they believed in truth because they longed for freedom. They knew Biblically, you can’t have freedom without truth, for only the truth can make you free (John 8:32). America would do well to remember from whence she came and what those who birthed her believed.

The next important phrase contained in the Declaration goes like this, "That all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights;" Notice it doesn’t say that man evolved into equality and by virtue of evolution that man has certain unalienable rights. Why is it our Founding Fathers believed in Creationism and not evolution, and yet, we can’t even teach our children in America that they were created with with a God-given destiny, instead of being a cosmic accident?. Ideas have consequences, my friend. Evolution has been the intellectual underpinnings of every atheistic, totalitarian government that has committed unspeakable crimes and atrocities against the very people they claimed to serve. Communism and Fascism are just a few of those regimes that rejected the concept of Creator and opted for evolution as a support for their mass murder. Their bloody history aptly displays the bitter fruit of an atheistic state that utilizes evolution as the intellectual underpinning to justify their horrific oppression. After all, evolution teaches that the strong survive, so it is ethical to exploit, abuse, and destroy the weak to get what we lust for in life, right? No! A thousand times no! We see this mentality so clearly manifest with the struggle over abortion. Men use and abuse women by virtue of their superior strength and now women demand to have that same power and right to abuse someone weaker then themselves, their own helpless children. God help us! Christianity on the other hand teaches that the strong are to help the weak, not exploit them. This Biblical concept is what made America great, but since we have officially rejected the Creator and creation that our Founding Fathers believed in, we are now becoming what we fought against in World War Two. We are using our superior strength, political clout, and finances to spew the filth of Hollywood, abortion, the feminist doctrine, and the homosexual agenda throughout the globe. Is it no wonder Islam calls America the "Great Satan"? Can we truly argue otherwise?

The Declaration goes on with these words, "That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (not a guarantee of happiness that the "government as Savior" programs promise). That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Our Founding Fathers believed that man’s rights came from God, the Creator, and that civil government was established to protect those rights. This is the clear teaching of Romans 13:1 which states, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." They understood what Americans today don’t. God is the supreme authority and civil government is a delegated authority established by Him for His pleasure and for our benefit. The Declaration then warns civil government, "that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government." That is why we are crying out for a "Gentle Revolution" in light of this historical truth. Either we have a spiritual, godly, and moral revolution that lands America squarely upon the "Rock" from which we were hewed, or there will be a bloody insurrection to bring down an idolatrous civil government who has indeed become an enemy to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Finally, our Founding Fathers make their appeal, "to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions...With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." In the Declaration, our Founding Fathers acknowledge the God of the Bible as Law-giver, the Source of American Law, Creator, the Source of Life itself, the Judge, the Supreme Authority in America, and the Protector of the Rights He graciously has granted. Without this revelation beating in the heart of every true American, then all the 4th of July represents is eating, drinking, and watching fireworks. I pray that each of you that read this article will consider these historical truths as the righteous foundation upon which America stands. Recognize that those foundations are beginning to crumble as our history has been deleted or rewritten to further the "foes of our own household’s" agenda. We must therefore, look to the Rock that hewed us and the parents that bore us. There and there alone, is the only place that the blessing, soundness, and healing that our beloved land so desperately needs is to be found. God save America!!!

THE GENTLE REVOLUTION CONTINUES

"And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." (1 Kings 18:17,18)

In typical Ahab fashion, the United States government is looking for a scapegoat to blame for the horror generated by the Columbine tragedy. It just seems to be a consistent pattern, both Biblically and historically, that governments who abandon God as the source of law, justice, and order, always need someone to blame for the trouble that inevitably comes upon those who follow the ways of Baal , instead of adhering to the commandments of the Lord. They will look high and low, turn over every rock, swallow a camel and strain at a gnat to find fault with everything and everybody else, except, of course, the government itself and the policies that created this monster in the first place.

In light of this predicament, the stage was set for God to send an "Elijah" to speak to to our Congress in the aftermath of the Columbine shootings. This is the testimony of the father of Rachael Joy Scott, one of the martyrs that was killed at that high school. His name is Darrell Scott and it is clear that God is speaking a consistent message to our wayward nation, if we just had ears to hear. As you read this, keep in mind the press statement that Operation Save America previously sent out. There is no question that God is confirming His Word and that this is not being done in a corner as it were (Acts 26:26).

"Since the dawn of creation there has been both good and evil in the heart of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence.

The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachael Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher and the other children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.

The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain’s heart.

In the days following the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups, such as, the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA-because I don’t believe that they are responsible for my daughter’s death. Therefore, I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachael’s murder, I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy-it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of that blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today.

"Your laws ignore our deepest needs, your words are empty air.

You’ve stripped away our heritage, you’ve outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms, and precious children die.

You seek for answers everywhere and ask the question ‘Why?’

You regulate restrictive laws through legislative creed, and yet you fail to understand that God is what we need!"

Men and women are three part beings. We all consist of body, soul, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our makeup, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreck havoc. Spiritual influences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation’s history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact.

What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God and in so doing, we have opened the doors to hatred and violence. Then when something as terrible as Columbine’s tragedy occurs-politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that continue to erode away our personal and private liberties. (Editors note: One of our Founding Fathers, I don’t remember who, declared this statement and this is a paraphrase, "Those who surrender freedom for security are worthy of neither and will lose both." We need to consider this as the Clinton Administration continues the chant for more gun control. Guns are as much as responsible for the Columbine killings as matches are in a fire caused by an arson.) We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our OWN hearts. Political posturing and restrictive laws are not the answers.

The young people of our nation hold the key. There is a spiritual awakening taking place that will not be squelched! We do not need more religion. We do not need more gaudy television evangelists spewing out verbal religious garbage. We do not need more million dollar church buildings built while people with basic needs are being ignored. We do need a change of heart and a humble acknowledgment that this nation was founded on the principle of a simple trust in God.

As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America and around the world to realize that on April 20th, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your conscience and denies your God-given right to communicate with Him.

To those of you who would point the finger at the NRA-I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before you cast the first stone! My daughter’s death will not be in vain. The young people of this country will not allow that to happen."

VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS VANITY

"Vanity of Vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

The Hebrew word for vanity in this context simply means "breath" or "vapor." Vanity, according to Ecclesiastes, reveals the instability, the transitory state of flux, and the emptiness of life that plagues mankind. In other words, all the groping, struggling, and searching that man expends to give him a sense of purpose, permanence, and substance to his fleeting existence is nothing more than a puff of steam. Here today and poof! gone tomorrow. It is interesting to note that the writer of Ecclesiastes, after making that profound observation, then proceeded to tackle the four main pursuits of man in the midst of his vanity. In chapter two, the writer uses these four pursuits to affirm his observations and expose just how vain life really is and how empty the promise of the world.

As we explore the four areas this man engaged in to give him some measure of satisfaction, meaning, and purpose to life, keep in mind, that unlike most of us, he was a man who had incredible resources, power, and time available to experiment with all this world had to offer and yet, concluded, it was all vain, the grasping at wind. His first pursuit was pleasure-seeking. That is always a soft spot, particularly for men who try to escape the harsh reality of responsibility. So many men in America today live in a fantasy world of sensuality to try an assuage their sense of incompetence. Most men seek to vicariously live their lives through Hollywood celebrities and heroic sports figures on TV, rather than bridle their sensual passions to lead courageously themselves. Regardless, whatever the writer of Ecclesiastes eyes saw, he did not withhold from his lustful appetites. What is interesting about this is he did not fall sway to seduction in order to follow this hedonistic course. He did this with eyes wide open, almost as an experiment to see if pleasure was the meaning to life. This man knew life was short and he wanted to know whether pleasure, unrestrained and uninhibited, might fulfill man’s limited engagement here on earth. It did not. His conclusion, "This also is vanity."

From there, he proceeded to build for himself an empire. He turned his undivided attention to all the trappings of materialism. Obviously, America is a nation that pursues this idol with a vengeance. Even in some segments of the Church, materialism has become a gauge to measure our spirituality and godliness. This is an amazing situation, when one considers the Bible strictly forbids this mentality amongst Christians, and yet it flourishes today (1 Timothy 6:5-21). According to those who make merchandise of men’s souls by deceptively mishandling the word of God for filthy lucre’s sake, our faith is weighed in the balance, by how much health, wealth, and prosperity we can amass from God in this earth. Surely that is not the criteria that God uses to judge whether our faith is genuine or not and yet a lot of "Christians" are deluded by these seductive doctrines. This accounts, at least in part, for the lack of resolve in the Church to fight the battle and to make the necessary sacrifices that will turn the tide of evil in America. Obviously, if materialism is a heaven-sent sign of God honoring one’s faith, then who in their right mind would risk stepping out of God’s will to jeopardize His blessings in their lives? The answer, no one. That is why the Church is losing the battle for the soul of America. We are losing by default and thinking we are doing God’s service in the agonizing process. Help us Jesus!!! Any way, back at the ranch or should I say empire, our brave explorer is trying to keep up with the material Joneses to see if if this will solve the problem of vanity. Alas, this also left his soul empty.

Our next stop in our journey leads our man to become a legend in his own mind. Undaunted by the failures of pleasure and wealth, he presses on to try his hand at position-seeking. Surely fame, power, and influence will alleviate the underlying sense of vanity that gnaws at the souls of men. In verse 9 of chapter two, he said, "he became great." He became a man of great personage that wielded considerable sway in the affairs of men and his community. We can be assured that the people were courting his favor, vying for his endorsements, and seeking a privilege place in relating to this powerful, influential man. Though it may have temporarily boosted his ego, he found to his utter amazement that all the power of the world was powerless to satisfy his longing heart. This, too, was a painful reminder of the constant vexation of vanity that stalked him.

Finally, our man turns to education as the cure-all for what ails mankind. He will now become a learned philosopher. He will distinguish himself as a man who gave himself to study wisdom, folly, and madness. Though, he concludes that wisdom is beneficial and that wisdom does far excel folly as far as light excelleth darkness, there is still an inherent defect that leads him back to vanity. The same fate that awaits the fool is the same fate that awaits the wise. We all have to cross that great threshold and leveler of mankind, death. Ah, there is the rub for this man. Why strain his brain trying to be wise and understand, when in the end, he is no better off than he who squanders his talent, skill, and ability to become a fool? Both will die and soon be forgotten. How many years, regardless of his contribution of wisdom to mankind does his name fade to be nothing more than an entry in the vital statistics in some computer? Such is the melancholy thoughts that drove this man to despair. Why knock himself out? Everything he gave himself to ended in futility. Everything he held on to that would hopefully add something of substance and of lasting value in his life evaporated before his very eyes like the morning mist.

The bottom line is, even if we deceive ourselves into believing that these four pursuits will unlock the mysteries of life, the question then arises, what happens to it once we shuffle off this mortal coil? What happens to the memories of pleasure, our accumulation of wealth, our standing in the community, and all our great learning when you pass from this life into eternity? What becomes of all the mastery that we worked so hard to attain? How many generations does it take to squander our accomplishments? How many years does it take for our posterity to move from any riches we may have amassed back to poverty again?

By now, you may be ready to pull the trigger of the gun that you searched for as you read this article and simply try to end it all. You may be saying to yourself, "What a bleak and fatalistic view of life, so what is the use?" Well, before you seek to get off this seemingly endless treadmill to oblivion, I would encourage you with a revelation that is a real kicker. The truth is, the God who created the universe, purposely subjected His creation to vanity. In Romans 8:20, the Word of God states this profound reality, "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope..." Did you catch that? This life was made subject to vanity. Vanity is now king of the world and we are all his loyal subjects. Notice that God did not do this willingly. In other words, that was not His original intent. God created man, Adam and Eve, to be His Vice-Regents over His paradise. Man, instead of remaining faithful to that call, rebelled and committed high treason against their Creator and sin, death, and hell fell upon man like a ton of brick. The world, as a result of man’s treachery against God, was plunged into the dark void of vanity. Since then, man has wandered aimlessly trying to somehow find meaning and some sense of permanence in a world that can only heap more vanity upon our empty souls and longing hearts.

Keep in mind, God did this by reason of instilling in His creation a HOPE! You may be thinking, "What possible hope is there in a life that has been subject to vanity?" The answer, PLENTY! The bottom line is, the God who knit us together in our mother’s womb with a God-ordained destiny subjected creation to vanity with a hope. A hope that man will one day awake from the spell that sin has cast over us and finally recognize that life doesn’t work apart from God. Mankind simply can’t live a contented, meaningful, and lasting existence without God. We need Him to save us, deliver us, heal us, and to be our source of life in this poor, dying world. Otherwise man will continue on the same treadmill of vanity that repeats the same sins, falling for the same lies, and experiencing the same fate of eternal destruction that generation after generation has suffered since the beginning of time. My friend, it was the resurrection of Jesus Christ that broke the power of sin, hell, and death that this vain life apart from Him has spawned. It is the Kingdom of God that breaks the endless cycle of a circular life view where man is condemned to repeat and replay the same folly over and over again. It is the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ alone that brings to man a progressive life view that is actually moving forward in a meaningful purpose that will last forever.

How about you my friend, are you tired of plotting and scheming, only to find life slipping through your hands in disappointment? Are you sick of banging your head off of the same old wall, with nothing of lasting value to show for it? Are you fed up with expending so much energy, only to find everything you worked for disappearing like the morning mist before your very eyes? Do you desire to get off the endless treadmill that has led you to repeat the same destructive behavior over and over again which inevitably will lead to your eternal demise? Listen carefully to these words from Psalms 127:1, "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain." Did you catch that message again? Unless your life is submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you can labor, but in the end, find nothing but vanity. My friend, you can actually gain everything this vain life has to offer and yet Jesus asks this profound question that you need to answer today, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul." For the sake of your eternal soul, for the sake of your children’s future, for the sake of receiving your destiny upon earth, for the sake of the advancement of the Kingdom of God, for the sake of going to heaven and shunning a burning hell, give your life to Christ today and follow the Master. For the Lord says in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know my thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." God desires to give you a future and a hope and deliver you from this vain life. Open your heart and let Him do it in Jesus’ name!

IN KING JESUS’ SERVICE,

Rusty Lee Thomas