Watching the news, reading commentaries and seeing TV specials I find the question raised by the above title is getting a good bit of attention. A certain book author is also presenting interviews in TV specials looking into many topics he ascribes as reasons for America’s greatness. Others have commented on the successful moon visits as evidence showing our greatness. Great individual business magnates are pointed to. Our military contributions to the success of several wars is considered a strong support of our greatness, as is the fact that we became the wealthiest and freest nation ever conceived. Many people point to certain Presidents, such as Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, as evidence of our claim to greatness. But some people, these days, are saying our Founding Fathers were just a group of greedy white men making themselves rich at the cost of slavery for some, and stolen land from others.
These same people, who are so vocal in their criticism of the country they live in, and who somehow think they know what they are talking about, have little to no real knowledge of the founding of our nation, nor of the cost of the freedom that allows them to offer their protest. They are the “useful idiots” such as the Communist leader Vladimir Lenin spoke of in identifying those who helped him take over the Soviet Union, and they are working to do the same to our American Republic. President Trump is being criticized for telling four of them they are free to leave the nation if they do not like it as it is. I, along with millions of others, echo his comment.
What really made America great is a topic we are hearing little about in a positive light, but much in the negative. Look at the first paragraph in our Declaration of Independence; we are “…to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle... ” us. The Founders said God entitles us to certain freedoms. Today’s society seems to think the government provides those freedoms. Founders began the next paragraph with the words; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable* Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious to any thinking person, the Creator they were thinking about is the God of the Bible, to which they make majority references in our Constitution. Numerous Supreme Court decisions refer to our Christian influenced foundation in explaining their decisions. To believe the Founders of this nation desired to separate religion from our Republic is to believe one of the greatest lies the Devil ever created. An early law required all schools to teach from the Bible, but our current law forbids us to mention Christianity in our public schools. Take note; we freely allow those schools to teach the Moslem religion.
Many of our Founding Fathers were actually pastors or Bible-teachers. Most of our citizens were professing Christians and followed Biblical teachings. Our Constitution has survived more than 230 years and given us the most consistent government of any of the world’s nations, whose average Constitution survives about 17 years. We are currently seeing members of our Congress, who have sworn to protect our Constitution, trying to change it, or if not change it, to involve us in treaties and foreign agreements that render it invalid. This Constitution gives “we the people” the power they would like to have and they don’t like it. Our Constitution doesn’t give us laws, it gives us principles under which we make our laws and those laws must conform to constitutional limits.
So what made America great? The simple answer is God made America a great nation. Our formation and our underpinnings built upon the Judeo-Christian foundations gave us the freedom to perform and grow without governmental interference. It made possible the great accomplishments of individuals and groups that built the greatness of the country. Because we honored God we received His blessings. Just as Israel of old was blessed by God until they turned from Him to worship their false gods, their man-made idols. (Even so, after 2000 years He has returned Israel to nationhood as He promised.) Over the last few decades there have been forces within and outside our government working to remove Christ from our culture, and America has found other gods to worship. Some worship America, some worship money, some worship power, some worship sex, some worship sports and many worship self. As a result we watched as our national debt grew beyond our power to control and our officials started apologizing for our greatness while attempting to move us into the one-world-government being established. Where do you stand in the worship category? Considering the current state of affairs what should we do to restore what we once had?
*Unalienable = incapable of being aliened, that is, sold or transferred. These are rights no one can take away and one cannot give away.
Inalienable = may not be taken or given without the owner’s agreement.
**To properly cover this issue would take a book or two. I’ve just touched some elements.