This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Generations to Come.
Will some historian one day write The Rise and Fall of the American Empire?
We should not want for our children and grandchildren a nation that is wealthy and morally bankrupt. We want one nation under God. How are we going to keep Christian America alive?
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.
One of the major responsibilities of fathers and grandfathers is to teach history. If we do not remember what God made us to be, or understand what God has done for us—and if we do not teach this to the younger generation—we are one generation away from paganism.
Some say, “I won’t force my views upon my children.” While you are giving them that freedom of choice, plenty of forces are working to mold your children into their image.
The original colonies of America were founded because of the Christian religion.
Those who came over on the Mayflower wrote a statement called the Mayflower Compact. It begins:
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN…Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia… (Mayflower Compact; November 1620)
The founding fathers believed that sovereign God is the Creator of mankind, and that our rights are from Him. They closed the American Declaration of Independence this way:
…For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. (Declaration of Independence; July 4, 1776)
Of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration, fifty-five were captured by the British and tortured. Twelve had their homes sacked and looted. Two lost their sons in the army. Two had sons who were captured. Nine died in the war themselves. These were not poor men—most had ensconced themselves in comfort, but were willing to forgo that so that free-born Americans might be here today.
George Washington said in his first inaugural address in 1789, “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained…”
Daniel Webster said in a speech on December 22, 1820, “Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.”
Americans believe in the separation of Church and State—if you mean that there should not be a state church. But Americans have never believed in the separation of God and government.
Your kids are not hearing this in school. God depends on fathers and grandfathers to teach this spiritual heritage to the next generation.
You think, “I really know very little of the history of America.” There are bookstores.
Not only should you teach our national history to your children, but Church history. Teach them the spiritual heritage of your family, too. It would be a great exercise for you to sit your young people down and say, “Here is what God has done for our family.”
Why do we teach them our Christian history?
That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments; and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
You have to teach the history, but then they are not to forget it. God warned Israel, “Beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Deuteronomy 6:12).
The strong tribe of Ephraim was defeated in the day of battle because they forgot God. (Read Psalm 78:9-11.) America, strong as she is, can be destroyed if we forget Almighty God.
Homosexuality and sexual immorality are paraded. Unwanted, unborn—sometimes even born—children are casually disposed of. The breakup of the family, the consuming obsession of self. American civilization is suffering from an erosion of Christian values.
How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
That means they drew a circle around God and said, “Now stay in there. There are certain areas, God, where you are off-limits.” Does that remind you of America?
Have you ever asked yourself why homosexuality is on the rise? Why is it endorsed and promoted in the name of democracy?
Why is feminism such a powerful force today? Why “goddess spirituality”?
Why is abortion an important part of the feminist manifesto?
Is ecology a neutral concern about the planet, or does it too have a religious agenda?
Why is multi-culturalism and political correctness so important now?
Are these disconnected issues—or are they really part of a coherent, pagan ideology, meant to impose its religious belief system on the twenty-first century?
What is our destiny?
Israel was God’s chosen nation. Yet God abhorred them.
We should not afraid of what the terrorists might do. Be afraid of what Almighty God is going to do. God is our only hope, and God is our biggest threat.
When God heard this, He was furious, and greatly abhorred Israel, so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had placed among men, and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand.
We sing “God Bless America,” but are we asking God to bless indolence, greed, perversion, and blasphemy?
Look at your little children. What kind of a world will they grow up in? There is no price too high for us to pay for Christian America.
1. Look Up. God is the only one strong enough to save us—but He is strong enough. God would rather forgive than judge. We need to confess sin, because God will not bless sin. And we cannot use prayers as a smokescreen to hide sin.
2. Stand Up. Come from out under the rock and say some things. Understand what the issues are, and speak up while we have time. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
We do not know whether the republic that was born in 1776 will survive, because we cannot control the hearts of other people. But two things we know: one, Jesus is King of the universe; two, we can give our hearts to Christ Jesus and teach our children.
Psalm 78; Deuteronomy 6:12; Romans 8:31
But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me, and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt— then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land.
That this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, “What do these stones mean to you?” Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.
When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the LORD our God has commanded you?” then you shall say to your son: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand…”
Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you: when the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.
