By Ray Simmons

My effort in this series of articles has been to present a condensed version of American history that may help the reader see and better understand our history, which he may or may not not have been properly taught. I thought if one realizes the miracle of the government we were given he might work to retain it. At the writing of number one I thought a general overview would be sufficient until a friend said, “Write a series.” Number two was basically comparing a Democracy with a Republic. Number three considered a few of the men who actually wrote our Constitution. Number four was essentially devoted to the religious nature under which the founding fathers were raised and had to deal with in the decisions they were called on to make. Number five was an attempt to show the nature of the Constitution they wrote. I hope in this, number six, to touch on the conditions that made the miracle possible.

I suspect that virtually everyone who might read this has heard the comment “world view.” Everyone has a world view. Have you thought about your world view? Do you have a God in your world view? Do you think God created the world, or do you believe there was a nothing and it exploded and created the universe?

Well, the great majority of early Americans held a Christian world view. They believed that Jesus Christ was born, lived, was crucified, died, was buried and was resurrected, and that He will return. Most of those who may not have held a Christian world view still held a world view that the ten commandments was a proper foundation for a legal system. They believed the terminology in the Declaration of Independence that says certain rights given men are God given and belong to all. There were, even then, strong arguments between founding fathers that slavery was an evil, even though the Bible speaks of slavery without condemning it. But the compromise to keep slavery for a time had to be made to secure ratification of the Constitution. The right to freedom was held dear in the hearts of the American people and was strong in the hearts of the men writing our Constitution. Those freedoms were preserved in the Constitution they gave us. Take a look at the rights given in the United Nations Charter, if you read closely you will find the rights given are only given as long as they agree with U. N. policies. Our Constitution was the first to recognize unalienable God given rights.

For over 200 years it has given us the best and freest government in the world. The freedom it gives us however is not a freedom to do anything one desires to do. It is a freedom that carries with it certain responsibilities. The essence of those responsibilities is contained in the Biblical ten-commandments, something the early citizens firmly understood. Of course all people do not live up to those responsibilities and laws must be made to control or punish those who fail. The Constitution essentially left the making of those laws in the hands of the states. Why? Simply because each state was different and had differing needs and the states were demanding they retain the just right to draft their own legal systems.

There were certain things that were changed over the years. Early on most voting was restricted to men who owned property, later male citizens who did not own property were allowed to vote and finally women citizens were given voting rights. But the rights that essentially did away with the class-system in America was the right of the individual to pursue his goal. He had the right to purchase land and develop it, he had the right to create an invention and patent it, he had the right to manufacture an item and offer it for sale, he had the right to be educated and to educate his progeny. He might have a license to purchase or a tax to pay but he wasn’t regulated to the nth degree. As long as he was operating within existing law he was free to pursue wherever his skill or talent might lead him. Entrepreneurs blossomed forth; look around, see what’s needed, design it, produce it and sell it. The horse and buggy gave way to the “iron horse” and the automobile. Along came bus-lines for passengers… a couple of brothers decided to make flying machines. Freedom to try, freedom to fail and freedom to try again, and freedom to reach your potential; everyman’s or everywoman’s opportunity… that’s what America provided. The world looked on and other folk decided they would like to come here where such opportunity was available. They came and became American and participated in Americanism and helped bring us to more greatness. They didn’t come as African-American or Greek-American or India-American. They came for the freedom to join the American system, not to free-load on American workers.

Up until the 1940s – 1950s we managed to retain our predominately Christian worldview. Maybe not even half of us were regular churchgoers but most everyone perceived us as a Christian nation and probably eighty percent of the people would say “yes” if asked were they a Christian. A lot of them might say “what?” if asked if they were born-again, but we were functioning pretty well as Christians and providence was still treating us well. It was about then that our government started emphasizing the separation of God and State and it seems most of us actually believed the lie they were telling us that the Founding Fathers designed such a separation. The progressive educators had gotten into our schools and were supporting the lie. The humanists had pretty well taken over the teacher colleges in the early 1900s. John Dewey, a signer of the Humanist Manifesto is recorded as having said his goal was to remove Christianity from the public schools. It took a while to accomplish but they finally got it done. Ever since, our nation has been in decline. Oh perhaps you have a little more money, a little more comfort, but you have far more crime and far greater corruption in Washington D. C. and state capitols throughout the country. You have far less real freedom and a government that tells you in hundreds of ways what you can and cannot do. Each of us probably break a dozen laws every day that we don’t even know exist. Government has access to every purchase and every phone call you make, they know where and how much you bank. There is no more privacy.

In the first What Made America Great article I said: “The simple answer is God…”  I stand by that answer. And I say that the only way to protect that greatness is to return to our faith in the one and only true God, Jesus Christ. President Trump can’t do it! It’s we-the-people. Prayer and repentance and a trust. But even God is not forever patient and we may already be over the cliff.

This will end the series. I thank all of you who took the time to read what I had to say.

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