National Chairman's Letter
A Christmas Message
December 2004
Dear Independent American friends,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! As I think about the real
meaning of Christmas, our Christian heritage, and the blessings we have received
as a nation, I wish to contemplate over some of the words and actions of our
forbearers that reflected their reliance upon God, especially in challenging
times.
A half-millennia ago, Columbus discovered America and opened the way for
colonization of America. He wrote later in his journal: "It was the Lord
who put into my mind (I could feel his hand upon me) the fact that it would be
possible to sail from here to the Indies.... [H]e unlocked my mind, sent me upon
the sea, and gave me fire for the deed ... who can doubt but that the Holy Ghost
inspired me!"
More than a century later, the Pilgrims came to America. They formed the
Mayflower Compact that recognized God as the center of law and order and that
law without a moral basis was no law at all. They landed at Plymouth Rock, and
their historian wrote: "being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought
safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven."
A century-and-a-half afterwards, there was serious discontent in America.
George Washington was named Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. In his
first order to his troops, he called on "every officer and man ... to live
and act as a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of
his country."
The Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress a few days later. The
document ends with the words: "We, therefore, the Representatives of the
United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the
Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do ... solemnly
publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be
Free and Independent States.... And for the support of this Declaration, with a
firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
At the signing of the Declaration, John Adams said: "There is a divinity
that shapes our ends.... If it be the pleasure of Heaven, that my country shall
require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready.... But while I
do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, — and that
a free country."
The Articles of Confederation were adopted by Congress the next year and sent
to the states for ratification. The last article states in part: "And
Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of
the legislatures we respectively represent in congress, to approve of, and to
authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual
union."
Eleven years after the Declaration, the Constitutional Convention was held.
In an early meeting of the convention, Washington said: "Let us raise a
standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hand of
God."
When the Convention seemed to be falling apart, Benjamin Franklin said:
"I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing
proofs I see of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of man. If a sparrow
cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can
rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings that
except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly
believe this."
The inspiration for our three branches of government in the Constitution came
from the scripture in Isaiah 34:22: "For the Lord is our judge, the
Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; He will save us."
Two years after the Constitutional Convention, George Washington, in his
first Inaugural Address, said: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and
adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people
of the United States."
Washington said: "It appears to me ... little short of a miracle, that
the Delegates from so many different states (which states you know are all
different from each other, in their manners, circumstances, and prejudices)
should unite in forming a system of national Government, so little liable to
well founded objections."
John Adams said: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and
religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Three-quarters of a century later, when America was at Civil War, Abraham
Lincoln, in a Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, said: "We have
been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved,
these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and
power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have
forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and
enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness
of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom
and virtue of our own."
Our nation and our freedoms are at grave risk today. To the question of
whether we can reverse the threat, there is solace in the scripture: "If my
people which are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My
face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will
forgive their sin and heal their land." (II Chronicles 7:14)
May we turn our hearts to our God—not only now at Christmas time but
throughout the coming years—so that He might heal America!
For God, Family and Country!
Bruce Bangerter
IAP National Chairman
