“ONE GOD, ONE COUNTRY, ONE DESTINY.”
Eph. 2:13-16
Int: It was the spirit of Christianity that changed the face of the ancient world. No other event has so impacted the human race as did the coming to earth of Jesus, the Christ. His message was so totally different from the prevailing world view of His day that it literally turned the world upside down within a few hundred years. By becoming a man, Jesus demonstrated the dignity of the individual that had been made in God’s own image.
The influence of Christianity literally brought a civilized spirit into the minds of men and women. The idea that government and the State were made for the individual and not the individual for the State, threatened the very core of the established power systems of the day. Through Jesus, God’s law was written on the heart of each person. Through this law in the heart, the capacity for self-government under God was restored and true liberty was experienced. Men and women learned that true freedom begins in the heart, and that once the heart is free, it can be carried out into the public realm.
The principles of Christianity were so deeply entrenched in the establishment of America that one must conclude that without Christianity, there would never have been a country such as the United States of America. This nation is the first nation in all of recorded history to be established for the express purpose of acknowledging the sovereignty of God and the dignity of man.
Among those principles that came straight from the teachings of the Lord Jesus, are the rights and responsibilities of the individual, the necessity for a spirit of unity and an overall sense of union. Jesus taught that the greatest commandment of all is for each person to love God with all of his being. He showed us that this is the beginning point of all that matters about life and existence. He also showed us that the second greatest commandment is to love others as we would love ourselves. It is only when we have the proper relationship with God that we can fully and appropriately relate to our fellow human beings. This is the type of framework in which the government of the United States was formulated.
I. THE COMMON THREAD THAT RELATES CULTURES INTO A UNIFIED WHOLE.
Early in my life, I saw this principle demonstrated. My grandmother had a large wooden frame that was suspended from some hooks in one of the rooms in her house. More than once I saw her and some of her friends bring together several pieces of cloth. They were of different colors and different sizes, but under the skillful fingers of the ladies, from these pieces, a beautiful patchwork quilt would emerge.
A. The vast Diversity of our early American Ancestors.
The early settlers of the United States were people who ranged from rugged frontiersmen to polished and cultured aristocrats. Some had been trained in the best universities of the world, some had received their training by carving a living from an unfriendly wilderness. Some had come from strong and powerful families on the European continent, some came from those who had known nothing but mistreatment and abuse at the hands of others. Some came from the highlands of Scotland and Ireland, some from the seafaring peoples of England, France and Spain. Some came from peoples whose manner had been to engage in great wars, some came from people who lands had been overrun by powerful forces. Some came from a background of a strongly structured religion, some came from people whose religious preferences ran contrary to the state sponsored religion. Some came from famous people, some came from unknown people. They all desired to be free!
B. The strong Convictions of our early American Ancestors.
The overwhelming conviction that was predominant in the minds of our ancestors was that one’s basic rights are God-given. They do not come from man! The understanding that each must relate to a higher authority and at the same time, relate meaningfully to his fellowmen grew out of this conviction.
Each citizen is a citizen of the United States, while at the same time, he is a citizen of one of the states. Each state is a member of the United States, and at the same time, has a meaningful relationship to each of the other forty-nine states that make up the union we know as the United States of America. When this kind of unity exists between the citizens that make up the states and the states that make up the United States, the result is a Union that is strong and dynamic and cannot easily be broken. This principle of the union of the whole with the unity of its citizens brought about the Declaration of Independence, as well as the Constitution. Had it not been there, England would have put out the spark of liberty before it could be fanned into a flame. 1700 years of Christianity contributed to bringing the reality of the United States into existence.
II. THE SUBTLE ASSAULT THAT UNDERMINES OUR NATION’S ESSENTIAL STRENGTH.
Unity within union based upon reverence for God and respect for each other is rapidly being replaced with a concept called multiculturalism. This mindset emphasizes the differences rather than the similarities between American citizens. Dr. James Dobson writes: “I wish I could say that this term (multiculturalism) referred to respect for the entire human family, regardless of nationality, race or ethnic identification…Each culture has a rich heritage from which we may gain something beautiful and valuable…No longer! The term “multiculturalism” is a way that some would smuggle the concept of moral relativism into the heartland of our culture.”
A. The Two great Dangers of Multiculturalism.
The first danger is a redefining of the nature of truth. Multiculturalism is that proposition which says there is no such thing as right or wrong. Those who promote this view say that each of the varied cultural and ethnic groups in our country has its own unique value system or ethical code. Whatever is accepted as truth for some may not be considered truth for others. Whatever is right for some may not necessarily be right for everyone else. What is true or what is right depends on one’ s personal view of things. The end of this kind of mentality is an “anything goes” atmosphere in society. Books such as “Daddy’s Roommate” and “Heather has two Mommies” have appeared in some of the libraries of our elementary schools. These teach that homosexuality is simply an “alternative lifestyle.”
The second great danger is the effort to bring about a nation of separate and competing special interest groups struggling mightily against each other. These prefer that people identify not with the nation as a whole, but with tribes, races, national origins, religions, sexual preferences, and other sub-population. The result is that we have tensions now “between Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, Caucasians, homosexuals, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, macho men, and feminist women, the poor, the wealthy, handicapped people, southerners, northerners, easterners, westerners, mid-westerners, etc.”
B. Maintaining Unity within our Union can prevent the Dreaded Collapse of our Country .
George F. Will, a U.S. journalist, writing for Newsweek magazine, in 1994, “Multiculturalism is a campaign to lower America’s moral status by defining the American experience is terms of numerous cruelties and their victims. By rewriting history, and by using name calling to inhibit debate, multiculturalists cultivate grievances, self pity and claims to entitlements arising from victimization.” Liberal politicians gain critical support in elections by splintering the culture, by giving special breaks to one group as opposed to another. To do this is the primary source of their power and influence. They know that a unified nation is difficult to dominate. Shirley Chisholm , U.S. Congresswoman, in 1973, wrote “We Americans have the chance to become someday a nation in which all radical stocks and classes can exist in their own selfhood’s, but meet on a basis of respect and equality and live together, socially, economically, and politically. We can become a dynamic equilibrium, a harmony of many different elements, in which the whole will be greater than all its parts and greater than any society the world has seen before. It can still happen.”
III. THE IMPERATIVE OF ORDERING OUR SOCIETY BY THE PRINCIPLES OF GOD!
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” This simple pledge, was written originally by a minister, Mr. Francis Bellamy for A “pledge of allegiance” for U.S. schoolchildren to recite October 12 in commemoration of the discovery of America. It was altered from the original in 1954 when President Eisenhower modified it to read “One nation under God.”
These 32 words contain four themes which account for much of the greatness of our land. They are loyalty to country, unity of the people, reverence for God and freedom for all. What is known as the “American idea” is woven into those four themes. Though we are a nation of immigrants who came to these shores from various regions of the world, we have been forged into a national community by the principle of democracy. We are the United States!
Conclusion: There was a time in the history of the world when some powerful and wealthy rulers of the world representative of all of the important peoples of the world, along side some illiterate and common shepherds representative of all the lesser known peoples of the world, came together and showed their allegiance to the One who could relate them to each other. In addition, there was an honest, hardworking man representative of all the industrious people of the world, and a young virgin representative of all the people of the world with high moral standards shared an intimate bond through the One who brought them into a family status. In other words, people who otherwise may not have been able to relate to each other meaningfully, found that ability provided in the One who is still able to keep all Americans “one nation under God, indivisible.”
