The United States and Virtue

Here are the thoughts shared with us by some of our founding fathers. Just a little something to ponder about liberty and our country's future.

"Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The general government . .  can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any despotic or oppresive form so long as there is any virtue in the body of the people."
George Washington

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
Benjamin Franklin

"Laws without morals are in vain."
Benjamin Franklin (Motto of the University of Pennsylvania)

"It is in the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigour. . . . degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats into the heart of its laws and constitution."
Thomas Jefferson

"When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community."
Montesquieu (written by Thomas Jefferson in his Common Place Book).

"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."
James Madison

". . . Virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone that renders us invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed . . . so long as our manners and principles remain sound, there is no danger."
Patrick Henry

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles."
Patrick Henry

"The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now. They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.
John Adams

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale goes through a net."
John Adams

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John Adams

"Liberty can no more exist without virtue and independence than the body can live and move without a soul."
John Adams

"Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics."
John Adams

"[I]t is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue."
John Adams

God help us all,

 

Kathi Linz

The End of the World

In the last five months, the world has NOT ended three times.

Jesus did not come back on the Feast of Trumpets last September.  The Mayans hadn't actually predicted the collapse of civilization. And 2012 Asteroid DA-14 did not cause an extinction level event.

I found myself watching each approaching time and holding my breath in a way, wondering how it would play out.  I was pretty sure we were wrong about the Mayan calendar for a very Biblical reason. But I wasn't sure about the other two events.

Jesus said, "...The son of man will come at an hour you do not expect him." Luke 12:40

I wasn't wrong to be looking for Him to come back.  The beginning of that verse says, "You also must be ready..."  I was ready.  I was eager.

But, looking back, I managed to tie myself up in knots thinking about what I still needed to do before the end.  I made myself anxious for nothing. I admit that I'm an expert at doing that. It causes me grief - and all for nothing.

Jesus says we won't be especially aware of the time when He will come. I ought to make that part of my daily understanding and do whatever I know or believe I should do for those around me and to spread God's glory. Then I won't have to wonder if I've done what I was supposed to do when He does show up.

God bless us all,

Kathi Linz

Judgment of Abandonment

I recently ran across a teaching about Romans 1.  On a quick reading of the passage, one would think that God punishes homosexuality or a society that condones homosexuality.  But look again. That isn't the thing that brings about judgment.

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  Rom 1:18-20  NIV

God's wrath is incited when people ignore Him as being the Creator.  At that point, God turns them over to their own desires - none of which are righteous. 

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.  Romans 1: 21-25 NIV


God "gave them over".  He left them alone to fall into the ditches they themselves have dug.  God abandons the nation that abandons Him.

Ladies and gentlemen, haven't we arrived at this point?  Do you see the judgment of God in the leadership of our country?  In our slavery to debt?

Our founders set up a nation under God with freedoms built in for a people who were dedicated to faith  - or at least morality.  We used to know right from wrong.  We sent out missionaries as a national passion. 

Then evolution crept in and undermined our thinking about God.  It was swiftly followed by secular humanism.  Humanism was not properly declared to be a religion by the Supreme Court, but at least one justice added it into his notes in this case:

"In the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, Justice Hugo Black wrote in a footnote that:

Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God is Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism, and others.

As a footnote, this statement qualifies as an obiter dictum — this means that it is simply a personal observation of the judge and hence is only incidental to reaching the opinion. It has no real weight when it comes to legal precedent and cannot be properly considered the "decision" of the court. "
http://atheism.about.com/od/churchstatemyths/a/SecularHumanismReligion.htm

The more our country figures out ways to eject God from our society, the more we as a nation will come under judgment.  If falling prey to our own sinful natures (children having children, children killing children, "bread and circuses" mentality, etc.) doesn't make us draw back to God, then the judgments to come will be worse.

It's worth thinking about.

Kathi Linz