The Separation Myth—The Wall by Our Own Design

[Soldier4Christ]

The Separation Myth—The Wall by Our Own Design

Amendment I:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment X:  The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

I have often wondered that if there were a real separation of church and state articulated in Amendment I of the United States Constitution, why there continues to exist a “White House Press Corps?” The press is, after all, mentioned in the same sentence.  Considering that the very specific prohibition delineated is against the Congress, how then has this transcended into a time when the United States Government is regulating religion in the many states?  Was this the intention of James Madison, who is the chief principal involved with its authorship?  I think not, for history does record that he subsequently issued at least four Thanksgiving Day proclamations!

What has ensued in the intervening years that has so soured the hearts of many ─ that such an upside-down philosophy should have invaded this “one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all?”  Simply put, the Gnostics won!  If we are absolutely honest, we must admit that all (every single one) of the churches founded by the Apostles are but a faint memory ─ each one succumbing to the assertions of the flesh.  What has become of the spiritual offspring of the great awakenings preached by Edwards, Whitfield and Sunday?  Was theirs no lasting legacy?

The methodology that quenched every awakening since the beginning, is the same one now being used to subvert and revise the foundation laid by our forefathers ─ deception.  Today the partial truths of those who would see our Nation separated from the God whose blessings the founders in prayer petitioned are transmitted and replicated at light speed from blog to website to blog until the vilest gossip becomes “fact.”  Then the  talking heads speculate and analyze ad nauseam—seeking to be heralded as the accomplished purveyors of the latest secret truth.  Instead, because of original unregenerate depravity, they have become the “Typhoid Marys” of an infectious disease that spreads the ever-tolerant political correctness syndrome until the societal patient succumbs, unaware of the arrival of his ultimate demise and eternal fate.

Who then shall we believe?  Shall it be the unanimous Supreme Court of 1892 that ruled in Holy Trinity Church v. U.S., while citing 85 precedents, that this is a Christian nation and others will have to make allowances?  Or shall we believe the later Supreme Court who misquoted the Jeffersonian letter (enclosed), and used his vague metaphor (that had no legal standing), cited no precedents, and erected a wall between our government and its Benefactor?  How does this “wall” protect the “free exercise thereof?”  The history since this latter decision has been one of continued suppression.  Perhaps it would have been better for the later court to have quoted Jefferson’s method of discerning original intent:

“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.” (Jefferson in a letter to William Johnson, June 13, 1823, University of Virginia online library).

Justice Joseph Story, of the U.S. Supreme Court, said:

“The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects [denominations] and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which would give to an hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government.”

He also said:

“Probably, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the [First] Amendment...the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the freedom of religious worship.  Any attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation.”

Since this was the original intent, it is not surprising that in 1854 the United States Congress resolved that:

“The great vital and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

So why is it that “the freedom for this” and “the freedom from that” organizations go on tilting at the wind?  It isn’t that they don’t get it!  The problem is, they can’t sell it!  All they can do is tell us poor and unenlightened members of the “third estate” citizenry what our problems are and who is to blame for them.  That is how it becomes the vogue for Hollywood celebrities to call the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ the “Christian Taliban” and “Satan’s Whores,” while at the same time encouraging us to come to the theater to see their new movie, or to be sure to tune in for the next episode of the view from the cesspool!  “However, Christian, don’t you dare impose your morality upon me!”

That, my friend, is how you sell newspapers, win elections, and have a hit television show!  The question that remains though is, “how did this happen?”  The Gnostics won!  How did they win?  Deception!  Will the real Lucifer, son of morning, please stand up!  We fantasize that the god of this world is responsible for all of the evil things that happen, because we have not peered into the vile blackness of our own hearts!  We seem pleased to read John Bunyan’s, Pilgrim’s Progress, with warm pleasure while at the same time ignoring The Holy War and Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.  For therein can be found the cause for this inherent evil ─ it is the face you primp or shave each morning!  The real mission and methodology of the god of this world is to “be like the most high.”  So if you are looking to find his presence in this world, look for the most amazing, beautiful, holy, etc., Christian, who is too good to be true; and you will have found Satan in all his counterfeit glory.  If instead you find a believer struggling each day to find the victory (over sin) that is his in Christ Jesus, then you will have found the genuine believer.  How can I say that?  I didn’t!  Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer said it in his book entitled, Satan.

Why is there now a wall of separation between church and state?  Because we built it brick by brick!  We were not pulled off course by turning into a blinding sun.  We were lured off course a half a degree at a time until we were convinced in our own minds that true North was now true South.  The man who became our first President was asked why the Constitution contained no references to the Almighty.  This was his reply:

“I am persuaded you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.  To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation respecting religion from the Magna Charta of our country.  To the guidance of the ministers of the gospel this important object is, perhaps, more properly committed.  And in the progress of morality and science, to  which our Government will give every furtherance, we may confidently expect the advancement of true religion and the completion of our happiness.”  George Washington

In today’s politically-correct world, even the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University edits away the foundational thoughts of their benefactor and replaces them with the stealth dots of the ellipsis so as not to offend those who might invest in their estate.  You won’t find these words iterated in their copy of “The Religious Affections,” but rather they are preserved for us by the Project Gutenberg.  In the forward to this grand book you will find Dr. Jonathan Edwards’ transcendent words:

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“Many will probably be hurt in their spirits, to find so much that appertains to religious affection, here condemned: and perhaps indignation and contempt will be excited in others by finding so much here justified and approved.  And it may be, some will be ready to charge me with inconsistency with myself, in so much approving some things, and so much condemning others; as I have found this has always been objected to by some, ever since the beginning of our late controversies about religion.  It is a hard thing to be a hearty zealous friend of what has been good and glorious, in the late extraordinary appearances, and to rejoice much in it; and at the same time to see the evil and pernicious tendency of what has been bad, and earnestly to oppose that.  But yet, I am humbly but fully persuaded, we shall never be in the way of truth, nor go on in a way acceptable to God, and tending to the advancement of Christ's kingdom till we do so.  There is indeed something very mysterious in it, that so much good, and so much bad, should be mixed together in the church of God; as it is a mysterious thing, and what has puzzled and amazed many a good Christian, that there should be that which is so divine and precious, as the saving grace of God, and the new and divine nature dwelling in the same heart, with so much corruption, hypocrisy, and iniquity, in a particular saint.  Yet neither of these is more mysterious than real.  And neither of them is a new or rare thing.  It is no new thing, that much false religion should prevail, at a time of great reviving of true religion, and that at such a time multitudes of hypocrites should spring up among true saints.  It was so in that great reformation, and revival of religion, that was in Josiah's time; as appears by Jer. 3:10, and 4:3, 4, and also by the great apostasy that there was in the land, so soon after his reign.  So it was in that great outpouring of the Spirit upon the Jews, that was in the days of John the Baptist; as appears by the great apostasy of that people so soon after so general an awakening, and the temporary religious comforts and joys of many: John 5:35, Ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light."  So it was in those great commotions that were among the multitude, occasioned by the preaching of Jesus Christ; of the many that were then called, but few were chosen; of the multitude that were roused and affected by his preaching, and at one time or other appeared mightily engaged, full of admiration of Christ, and elevated with joy, but few were true disciples, that stood the shock of the great trials that came afterwards, and endured to the end.  Many were like the stony ground, or thorny ground; and but few, comparatively, like the good ground.  Of the whole heap that was gathered, great part was chaff; that the wind afterwards drove away; and the heap of wheat that was left, was comparatively small; as appears abundantly, by the history of the New Testament.  So it was in that great outpouring of the Spirit that was in the apostles' days as appears by Matt. 24:10-13. Gal. 3:1, and 4:11, 15. Phil. 2:21, and 3:18, 19, and the two epistles to the Corinthians, and many other parts of the New Testament.  And so it was in the great reformation from Popery.  It appears plainly to have been in the visible church of God, in times of great reviving of religion, from time to time, as it is with the fruit trees in the spring; there are a multitude of blossoms, all of which appear fair and beautiful, and there is a promising appearance of young fruits; but many of them are but of short continuance; they soon fall off, and never come to maturity.

Not that it is to be supposed that it will always be so; for though there never will, in this world, be an entire purity, either in particular saints, in a perfect freedom from mixtures of corruption; or in the church of God, without any mixture of hypocrites with saints, and counterfeit religion, and false appearances of grace with true religion, and real holiness: yet it is evident, that there will come a time of much greater purity in the church of God, than has been in ages past; it is plain by these texts of Scripture, Isa. 52:1. Ezek. 44:6, 7, Joel 3:17. Zech. 14:21. Psal. 69:32, 35, 36. Isa 35:8, 10, chap. 4:3, 4. Ezek. 20:38. Psal. 37:9, 10, 21, 29.  And one great reason of it will be that at that time God will give much greater light to his people, to distinguish between true religion and its counterfeits.  Mal. 3:3, "And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness."  With ver. 18, which is a continuation of the prophecy of the same happy times.  "Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not."

It is by the mixture of counterfeit religion with true, not discerned and distinguished, that the devil has had his greatest advantage against the cause and kingdom of Christ, all along hitherto.  It is by this means, principally, that he has prevailed against all revivals of religion, that ever have been since the first founding of the Christian church.  By this, he hurt the cause of Christianity, in and after the apostolic age, much more than by all the persecutions of both Jews and Heathens.  The apostles, in all their epistles, show themselves much more concerned at the former mischief, than the latter.  By this, Satan prevailed against the reformation, began by Luther, Zwingli, and company, to put a stop to its progress, and bring it into disgrace; ten times more, than by all those bloody, cruel, and before unheard of persecutions of the church of Rome.  By this, principally, has he prevailed against revivals of religion, that have been in our nation since the reformation.  By this he prevailed against New England, to quench the love and spoil the joy of her espousals, about a hundred years ago.  And I think I have had opportunity enough to see plainly that by this the devil has prevailed against the late great revival of religion in New England, so happy and promising in its beginning.  Here, most evidently has been the main advantage Satan has had against us; by this he has foiled us.  It is by this means, that the daughter of Zion in this land now lies on the ground, in such piteous circumstances as we now behold her; with her garments rent, her face disfigured, her nakedness exposed, her limbs broken, and weltering in the blood of her own wounds, and in no wise able to arise, and this, so quickly after her late great joys and hopes: Lam. 1:17, "Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries shall be roundabout him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them."  I have seen the devil prevail the same way, against two great revivings of religion in this country.  Satan goes on with mankind, as he began with them.  He prevailed against our first parents, and cast them out of paradise, and suddenly brought all their happiness and glory to an end, by appearing to be a friend to their happy paradisiacal state, and pretending to advance it to higher degrees.  So the same cunning serpent, that beguiled Eve through his subtlety, by perverting us from the simplicity that is in Christ, hath suddenly prevailed to deprive us of that fair prospect, we had a little while ago, of a kind of paradisiacal state of the church of God in New England.

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[Soldier4Christ]

After religion has revived in the church of God, and enemies appear, people who are engaged to defend its cause, are commonly most exposed, where they are sensible of danger.  While they are wholly intent upon the opposition that appears openly before them, to make head against that, and do neglect carefully to look all around them, the devil comes behind them, and gives a fatal stab unseen; and has opportunity to give a more home stroke, and wound the deeper, because he strikes at his leisure, and according to his pleasure, being obstructed by no guard or resistance.

And so it is ever likely to be in the church, whenever religion revives remarkably, till we have learned well to distinguish between true and false religion, between saving affections and experiences, and those manifold fair shows, and glistering appearances, by which they are counterfeited; the consequences of which, when they are not distinguished, are often inexpressibly dreadful.  By this means, the devil gratifies himself, by bringing it to pass, that that should be offered to God, by multitudes, under a notion of a pleasing acceptable service to him, that is indeed above all things abominable to him.  By this means he deceives great multitudes about the state of their souls; making them think they are something, when they are nothing; and so eternally undoes them; and not only so, but establishes many in a strong confidence of their eminent holiness, who are in God's sight some of the vilest of hypocrites.  By this means, he many ways damps and wounds religion in the hearts of the saints, obscures and deforms it by corrupt mixtures, causes their religious affections woefully to degenerate, and sometimes, for a considerable time, to be like the manna that bred worms and stank; and dreadfully ensnares and confounds the minds of others of the saints and brings them into great difficulties and temptation, and entangles them in a wilderness, out of which they can by no means extricate themselves.  By this means, Satan mightily encourages the hearts of open enemies of religion, and strengthens their hands, and fills them with weapons, and makes strong their fortresses; when, at the same time, religion and the church of God lie exposed to them, as a city without walls.  By this means, he brings it to pass, that men work wickedness under a notion of doing God service, and so sin without restraint, yea with earnest forwardness and zeal, many with all their might.  By this means he brings in even the friends of religion, insensibly to themselves, to do the work of enemies, by destroying religion in a far more effectual manner than open enemies can do, under a notion of advancing it.  By this means the devil scatters the flock of Christ, and sets them one against another, and that with great heat of spirit, under a notion of zeal for God; and religion, by degrees degenerates into vain jangling; and during the strife, Satan leads both parties far out of the right way, driving each to great extremes, one on the right hand, and the other on the left, according as he finds they are most inclined, or most easily moved and swayed, till the right path in the middle is almost wholly neglected.  And in the midst of this confusion, the devil has great opportunity to advance his own interest, and make it strong in ways innumerable, and get the government of all into his own hands and work his own will.  And by what is seen of the terrible consequences of this counterfeit religion, when not distinguished from true religion, God's people in general have their minds unhinged and unsettled in things of religion, and know not where to set their foot, or what to think or do; and many are brought into doubts, whether there be anything in religion; and heresy, and infidelity, and atheism greatly prevail.”

The reason a lost and fallen world calls us the “Christian Taliban” is because that is who, in their eyes, we have become!  We no longer are here to “seek and save the lost” but rather to enlighten the masses to the plan that God has for their life—“Gospel-lite.”

  In Dr. Edwards’ words is found a great rebuke!  But also there appears an earnest hope!  The lost are not the enemy!  They are the souls for whom Jesus died!  When we are, by Grace, able to see them thus, then will our Savior give blessing again to our Land.  This, not because we deserve such providence, but because the virtues of the people will be that of “faith, hope, and charity” that come from Christ Himself.  Maranatha!

[Soldier4Christ]

The Letter to Danbury Baptists from Thomas Jefferson

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction.  My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and State.  Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.  Thomas Jefferson