Does God Have A Plan For The USA? Part 2

One God - Three Religions - Israel 

I have never done this before, a series in a series.  So we are going to look at the potential plan that God has for the United States.  In the first post, I mentioned One God and Three Religions.  Since we will be talking about God's plan, we might run into more situations like this and we can run in a focused direction for a mini-series.

I have stated I am a Christian and I am a practicing Catholic.  I think this does give me a good handle on the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible and thus we do feel connected to the Israel nation and it's history.  After all, Jesus is a descendant of the Israel nation.

I am not familiar with Islam so this journey and understanding will be interesting for me and I hope all of us.  Along the way I do hope to learn why I have always felt the United States is a player in God's plan.

I do not think God would have put all this in play without knowing the outcome - he made a covenant with Abraham, with Ismael, and with us Christians.  The end game is what we want to understand.  Looking through God's eyes might help provide an answer.

Let's go back just to review the start of Judaism.

Judaism

 The call of Abram; as he was originally known, happens in Genesis 12:1-4.

1 Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee:
2 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make they name great; and be thou a blessing;
3 and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

So God called Abram and made a covenant with him - looks like there is a promise of land and a great nation.

In 1948 the world established the current Israel.  This story will be a post all by itself as this event is such a significant event historically and what I think is part of God's plan.  I will look at the events that occurred during this formation and also what it might mean in God's overall plan.

As we start some of these time lines we have dates with labels, BCE, CE, BC, and AD.  

Anno Domini (AD or A.D.) and Before Christ (BC or B.C.) are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term Anno Domini is Medieval Latin, translated as In the year of the Lord, and as in the year of Our Lord.:782 It is sometimes specified more fully as Anno Domini Nostri Iesu (Jesu) Christi ("In the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ"). This calendar era is based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus of Nazareth, with AD counting years from the start of this epoch, and BC denoting years before the start of the era. There is no year zero in this scheme, so the year AD 1 immediately follows the year 1 BC. This dating system was devised in 525, but was not widely used until after 800.

Common Era (also Current Era or Christian Era), abbreviated as CE, is an alternative naming of the traditional calendar era, Anno Domini (abbreviated AD).  BCE is the abbreviation for Before the Common/Current/Christian Era (an alternative to Before Christ, abbreviated BC). The CE/BCE designation uses the year-numbering system introduced by the 6th-century Christian monk Dionysius Exiguus, who started the Anno Domini designation, intending the beginning of the life of Jesus to be the reference date.  Neither notation includes a year zero, and the two notations (CE/BCE and AD/BC) are numerically equivalent; thus "2013 CE" corresponds to "AD 2013", and "399 BCE" corresponds to "399 BC".

From Abraham to Moses - Jordan Promised Land

The deal with Abraham and the Israelites appears to involve land that is promised or a place where the Israel Nation can go and freely worship God as he desires and as they desire.  However, there are times that God appears to be asleep and he is not with the Israel Nation.  This could be perceived as retribution and sometimes it might be.  There are other times that while appearing to be away from the Israel nation - he is  actually building a place for them.

Abraham is considered to start in 1812 BCE.   There are many stories that occur throughout Abraham's life.  He lived in and among the Philistines and had a son Issac.  Issac has twins, Jacob and Esau.  It was Isaac's dream to make Esau the inheritor of the Covenant with God.  But through some trickery, Jacob stole the blessing from Esau.  Jacob was considered the faithful and Esau was considered the strong warrior. 

Jacob then had two wives and 12 sons.  The 11th son, Joseph, is considered to be the first son of his favorite wife.  A long story - trust me, it is the truth according to the bible.  Jacob later changed his name to Israel - the first time we see God and Israel now closely linked and Jacob started the Jewish Nation.

Esau, who embodies the power of might and sword, will, through his descendants, give rise to the Roman Empire or "Edom" as the Bible calls it. The power of Rome clearly lays in its ability to conquer, dominate, and build an Empire.

So far Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have all been loyal to God and yet they were moved around and forced to leave their land by the Philistines.

But the next major event that lead to the movement of the Israel nation to the promised land was 10 of Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery and he made it to Egypt.  In Egypt, Joseph interprets some dreams and becomes the second in command in Egypt.  There is a drought and Jacob and his family are driven to Egypt.  

This might be one of those times God seeing the future placed Joseph in harms way but saved him in Egypt so he could save the roots of Israel.

The family of 70 individuals that arrived in Egypt at the time of Joseph has grown to a nation of about 3 million people.

The supernatural, rapid increase in the Jewish population made the Egyptians nervous -- "there are too many of them, what if they rise up against us" -- and Pharaoh issues a genocidal decree: Kill all the Jewish boys. (This is a classic anti-Semitic pattern -- the Jew the in Diaspora is always loyal to his host country, yet can never escape unfounded suspicion of treachery.)

Most of us are very familiar with the Movie Ten Commandments.  We know that Moses was a son of an Israelite but grew up as the grandson of the Pharaoh, murdered an Egyptian and was banded from Egypt.  He cam back under God's direction to lead His people to freedom and the  Promised Land - across the Jordan.

Let's roll through history quickly for this post.

1312 BCE is the time of Exodus so it has been nearly 500 years from the time of Abraham and the Exodus.  So what transpires over the next 3,000 years can be rolled forward to the establishment of Israel in 1948.  We are all aware of some of the tragedies the Jewish nation has endured, maybe the most horrific was the genocide attempt by Hitler.  

To get there, lets take a look at some of the major events in the Jewish nation.

1272    BCE Conquest of Promised Land

879      BCE Saul anointed king

877      BCE Time of King David begins

796      BCE Israel split into two kingdoms

422      BCE Babylonians conquer Israel and destroy Temple

347      BCE Time of the Great Assembly begins

312      BCE Greeks conquer Israel

167      BCE Revolt off Maccabees begins

37        BCE Herod the Great begins his rule

67        CE The Great Revolt of Jews against Rome begins

70        CE Jerusalem conquered by the Romans

312      CE Constantine converts Roman Empire to Christianity

638      CE Islamic Conquest of Jerusalem

1263    The Great Disputation

1478    The Inquisitions Begins

1492    Jews expelled from Spain; Columbus discovers America

1517    Protestant Reformation

1567    Jews invited into Poland

1654    First Jews arrive in America

1791    Emancipation of the Jews begins in Europe

1810    Reform Movement begins in Germany

1882    First Aliyah to Israel

1897    First Zionist Congress’s

1917    British Mandate begins in Palestine

1927    Country of Jordan created by the British on the East Bank of the Jordan

1933    Hitler comes to power in Germany

1947    Partition off Palestine by the UN

1948    State of Israel Declared

As I mentioned, the story of the formation of Israel in 1948 is a significant story and shows the United States ( now a super power) siding in the UN to form Israel while all Arab nations opposed the formation.

After many years, the Jewish people have a secure country to worship their God as he promised AND as they have always desired.  

Maybe the United States was / is a player in that freedom.

God thank you for staying with the Jewish people throughout all history as you promised.  There have been many years of good and bad.  I pray their current troubles will end in the good and for the United States to stand by their side through these troubled times.

Bob,

The Purpose of this Blog

My Reasons

I want to thank each of you for reading this blog and it appears to be gaining momentum.  I hope that this is all being done for the Glory of God and is what he wants done.

My reasons are very simple - I think we are systematically, as a country, turning our backs to God.  In the early days of prosperity, I think this nation faced God, and now we appear to be okay as Christians that He can be removed from the country.

But let me set the record straight on how my simple mind sees things.  I am not one to believe that this turning away from God brought us Hurricane Katrina, nor do I believe that my God punishes.  I know there is a lot of that in the old testament where the Israel nation was punished (or written so) for turning their back on God for not following his desires.

I am a Christian who is a practicing Catholic.  I was born and raised a Baptist so I do have my mixed emotions on what is real sometimes.   As a young boy, my Minister would tell us kids we would go to hell if we walked on the side of the road as the Catholic Church.  I was lead to believe they worshiped Mary and were not Christians.  

How do we get to such nonsense as Christians?

So I do have a belief that I think is simple and I am sure many will argue with it - God is not setting up there punishing me or us for what we do.  I have been taught by Jesus my Lord and Savior that God is a loving and forgiving God.  This is what separates us from the Jews and Islam.  This is why I asked for us to take the Disciple's pledge - as Christians we walk a different path and worship God differently with a different set of eyes.

So if you are one who thinks God is going to punish because of what we do - I think you need to think again.  If you believe we have catastrophic events and want to blame God, you need to think again.

So then what can it be - I think he will be displeased and if our face is not turned to him, how can he have his faced turned to us?  Simple, he will not punish but I do think we will not receive many rewards either.

It is never too late, if we repent, he will forgive.

My reasons are for us once again to be a thankful nation, it is in my blood to care about this country, and I think we Christians are asked to challenge the Politically correct - just as Jesus did.

Thankful Attitude

So one of my reasons is for this nation to understand the people who settled it and the founders of our great constitution.  These people believed in God and the value of what he meant to this country.  I have covered this topic in my first post - Giving Thanks to God.  Thanksgiving Day was a national holiday to give thanks to God.  Seems to me if the leaders of the nation were not Christians - they would not have established this day after any special events that impacted the United States.

If our Founding Fathers were Christian, then why is the separation of Church and State such a big deal.  What could they have meant by their decision.  It surely was not to remove God from this great nation. We will explore this from a factual based approach - not me just stamping my feet.

For many years this country was a nation under God, if you think not let's look at a couple of recent events that have happened in my life.  In 1957, just 4 years after I was born, our Congress passed the law that all money would be marked as God We Trust.  Really, just a mere 54 years ago, the leaders of this country still felt we should mark our money as We Trusted God.  What has happened in those 54 years.

Shortly after that, a man (John F. Kennedy) ran for President and people were afraid or those opposed him were willing to point out he was a Catholic.  Could you imagine the world being afraid of a Catholic as president.  Why was that, we will explore the reason in detail and it stems from the 102 people that are considered to be our founders.

In many cases, we should be thankful for the progress we have made as a young country.  There are many black eyes we can discuss as a young country, like slavery, but there are many very positive things we have accomplished as a country all in the name of God.  We should be thankful he has helped us along this far and has stayed by our side.

Christian Patriotism is in my Blood

My Mother and Father were both Christians.  As I mentioned, I was raised a Baptist and a Christian.  I was also raised by a father who loved this country and believed in the American Dream along with the fact we owed it our service and we should do our part to support the United States.  Now that does not seem like much; however, you should understand my Father just a little bit to see how people felt many years ago.

As a young boy growing up in the Depression, he came home one night after school and was told by his parents they could no longer afford to pay for his food.  Therefore, he was old enough to go out on his own and make his own living.  He was shipped off to the farmer down the road and worked for room and board.  His room was the hay loft in the barn - not even a room in the house.  He did get food from the family but did not go to school.  None of this appears too daunting - until you realize he was just starting the 8th grade. 

When he was old enough, he joined the CC Camps, working for the Government to build things to live in a tent and get some food.  He joined the Army and went off to be a WWII Veteran.  The sad news for me is I lived in the house with a WWII Veteran and did not even appreciate it.

After returning from the military, he bought a farm and started to grow the business.  He added animals (hogs and cows) to the field crop.  As he was feeding his live stock, he thought, why should I pay the other guy, I should get into distributing feed and I should do the same thing with seed corn.  For an individual with no 8th grade education, he was putting some things together.

Life was not that good to him and he lost the farm due to pig pots.  He did not give up, he moved the family to town and both my Mom and him took on jobs - he took on two jobs.  As a poor young boy growing up in Iowa, I quickly learned from my family that God was Good all the Time, All the Time God is Good, you live in the greatest nation in the world, and we owe it to the next generation to make it better in all aspects.

He never complained, he never asked why, he went to church every Sunday and he loved God. He did not think anyone owed him a house, money, or anything free.  He believed he could do anything he wanted and that was the dream.  Surprising thing - he was a Democrat through and through.  

To Challenge the Political Incorrect

Being a Christian I am not allowed to judge and I will not judge.  Mine is not to say one thing is good while another thing is bad.  Mine is not to say because you do bad things you are a bad person.  Mine is simple on this topic and that is I do think we should approach these challenging issues our country faces and we should see them through God's eyes as Christians.

We will try not to be opinionated in this aspect of the blog but it will come out - hopefully accidentally.

I AM JUST LOOKING TO DO MY PART TO KEEP US FACING GOD AND MAYBE WE CAN DO THIS:

ONE PERSON AT A TIME

ONE CHRISTIAN AT A TIME

ONE PATRIOT AT A TIME

God grant us all the ability to understand the value to have brought to this nation and how you have helped us be the greatest nation on earth.  Please give us the ability to open our eyes to the truth.

Bob,

United States - Early Settlements

People Here Before The Pilgrims

As you can tell by my posts, I like to build arguments or theories through a series of posts.  I have just started one involving God's plan for the United States.  Other times I will provide information that too is building for a conclusion yet the posts are not intentionally designed to be sequential series.  They can be read in their entirety. 

This post is such a post - builds to a theory yet to come and will be material to support God's plan for the United States.  In this post, we will look at early settlements of the United States or people who inhabited the United States earlier than the Pilgrims.  The major reason to look at this part of history will be to ask ourselves, if there were other people to inhabit the United States, then how did 102 people start the United States and lay the ground work for what is undeniably the start of one of the greatest nations in history.

Greatest does not mean better.  Remember, being a Christian puts me in a category that I am not better than anyone nor is the United States a "better" place than anywhere on this earth.  I have traveled to over 30 countries in my life and I am one who will say - there are many great and beautiful places on this earth and places that only God's hand could have made.  One simply has to stand at the top of Mount Titlis in Switzerland and know his hand is mighty and yet very creative.  Maybe someday I will explain how I nearly died on Mount Titlis and two friends, one from South Africa and one from Australia saved my life - but that is a different story. 

No, I simply mean the resources and growth of this country has never been paralleled before in history and may never be equaled again.  There have been many conquering nations who built vast territories of the world, but not one that simply grew without conquering.  Many will argue that we had to conquer the native American Indian to reach our size.  I will give you that and one of those black eyes on a young country.

Let's take a quick walk through the settlement history of the United States.

I am a contributor and believer in WIKI - so many of the facts and stories will come from there along with other sources of information.  When a word is underlined and in blue - it is typically a link and you can follow it to read all of the details.

Paleo-Indians

Paleo-Indians (Paleoindians) or Paleoamericans is a classification term given to the first peoples who entered, and subsequently inhabited, the American continents during the final glacial episodes of the late Pleistocene period. The prefix "paleo" comes from the Greek adjective palaios (παλαιός), meaning "very old". The term Paleo-Indians applies specifically to the lithic period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic.

Evidence suggests big-animal hunters crossed the Bering Strait from Asia (Eurasia) into North America over a land and ice bridge (Beringia), that existed between 45,000 BCE–12,000 BCE (47,000 – 14,000 years ago). Small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska. From 16,500 BCE – 13,500 BCE (18,500 – 15,500 years ago), ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America. This allowed animals, followed by humans, to migrate south into the interior. The people went on foot or used primitive boats along the coastline. The precise dates and routes of the peopling of the New World are subject to ongoing debate.

This is very interesting and worth a read.  I might be somewhat old and a little off my rocker, but I do not remember much of this in my history books.  It is fascinating to me that people who did not have cars, planes, and trains could move around the world as people did some 50,000 years ago - this country is technically only 400 years old - WOW!!!

Vikings - Norsemen

The Norse colonization of the Americas began as early as 10th century AD, when Norse sailors (usually referred to as Vikings) explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic, including the northeastern fringes of North America.

While the Norse colony in Greenland lasted for almost 500 years, the continental North American settlements were small and did not develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, for example to get timber, are likely to have occurred for some time, there is no evidence of enduring Norse settlements on mainland North America.

So here is a culture that was after timber and there must have been vast forests and timbers that existed in this country in 1,000 AD.  So they come, they looked, they stayed for a while, but they did not see anything worth staying for.

For some centuries after Christopher Columbus' voyages opened the Americas to large-scale colonization by Europeans, it was unclear whether these stories represented real voyages by the Norse to North America. The sagas were first taken seriously when in 1837 the Danish antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn pointed out the possibility for a Norse settlement in or voyages to North America. North America, by the name Winland, was first mentioned in written sources in a work by Adam of Bremen from approximately 1075. It was not until the 13th and 14th centuries that the most important works about North America and the early Norse activities there, namely the Sagas of Icelanders, were put into writing.

The question was definitively settled in the 1960s when a Norse settlement was excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland by archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad and her husband, outdoorsman and author Helge Ingstad. The location of the various lands described in the sagas is still unclear however. Many historians identify Helluland with Baffin Island and Markland with Labrador. The location of Vinland is a thornier question. Most believe that the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement is the Vinland settlement described in the sagas; others argue that the sagas depict Vinland as being warmer than Newfoundland and that it therefore lay farther south.

European Settlement

European colonization of the Americas began in 1492, when a Spanish expedition headed by Christopher Columbus sailed west to find a new trade route to the Far East and inadvertently saw the American continent.  It wasn't until five centuries after the Norse settlements that the systematic conquest and colonization of America began with Columbus' discovery of Hispaniola. His first two expeditions (1492–93) further reached the Bahamas and various Caribbean islands, notably Puerto Rico and Cuba. In 1497, sailing from Bristol on behalf of England, John Cabot landed on the North American coast, though English colonization started a century later. In 1498, Columbus's third voyage reached the South American coast.

As the sponsor of the discovery voyage, Spain was the first European power to settle the Americas and colonize the largest areas, from North America and the Caribbean to the southern tip of South America. Spanish cities were founded as early as 1496 with Santo Domingo in today's Dominican Republic or San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1508 or Veracruz (Mexico) and Panama City in 1519. The city of St. Augustine, Florida founded by Spain in 1565 is the oldest continuously inhabited European city in present-day United States.

Other powers such as France also founded colonies in the Americas: in eastern North America, a number of Caribbean islands, and small coastal parts of South America. Portugal colonized Brazil. This was the beginning of a dramatic territorial expansion for several European countries. Europe had been preoccupied with internal wars, and was only slowly recovering from the loss of population caused by the bubonic plague; thus the rapid rate at which it grew in wealth and power was unforeseeable in the early 1400s.

Eventually, the entire Western Hemisphere came under the control of European governments, leading to profound changes to its landscape, population, and plant and animal life. In the 19th century alone over 50 million people left Europe for the Americas. The post-1492 era is known as the period of the Columbian Exchange, a dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), communicable disease, and ideas between the American and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres following Columbus's voyages to the Americas.

Notice my case is starting to build.  50 million people and great powers were already in the United States - yet 102 Christian Pilgrims developed the true foundation of the United States.  You still think it was accidental?

The Christopher Columbus story by itself is amazing and we will cover that in the next post.   There is some inside information to Christopher's days and what he might have been thinking.  Understanding some of his successes and failures is a major part of the argument as well.

For now, enough for both of us.  

May God open our eyes to his desires for the United States and us Christians.  May his "potential" plan be seen and heard by us all.  May each of you be blessed for even finding this blog and reading it.

Bob,

Does God Have A Plan For The USA? Part 1

What is God's Plan

You might have arrived to this blog by accident, curiosity, or intentional.  Regardless of how you arrived here - you are at a site where God is celebrated and one who believes God has a plan.

Will we ever know that plan - I doubt it.  Well I should say here on earth anyway.

Before getting into that - I must apologize for starting this blog and then going dry for a week.  Last week I came down with something.  Here in Nashville it is usually an allergy but it drives us down for a few days and we get a little tired and have headaches.  On top of that, I have a verily stressful job and right now we are in the middle of a big project.  That takes a lot of time.  Friday my 11 year old black lab had to have surgery to remove a massive tumor that is most likely cancerous.

On top of all of that - many of you might know I am a diabetic and God has really helped me turn things around in that area and I have a blog that discusses what I did and my journey from taking medicines to being medicine free.  That blog is at http://robertdant.blogspot.com.  In the life style change I have committed a couple of hours a day at the gym and I am letting all of that take some priority over other parts of my life.

So with all those excuses, I ask that you forgive me for starting such and important topic and then stopping.  Hopefully we are back and can keep things going out here on a regular basis.

I think to set the stage for what God's plan might be for the United States, I think we need to get an understanding from the beginning of time.  By the way - what if God does have a plan for the United States.  And what if that plan involves us Christians providing dominion over the United States.  I would hate to get to the pearly gates and be asked, "If you believed, why did you idly stand by while they tore me from your country?"

Now that would be a huge kick in the pants!

So let us assume, all of us are going to be smarter than that.  We are not going to get trapped and we are going to do what we can to help keep God in this country.

One God; three religions.

I think to look at God and his plans, we need to go back and link certain aspects of the world to God and what happened is a good way to frame up my argument, there is a God plan for the United Sates.

Abrahamic religions (also Abrahamism) are the monotheistic faiths of Middle Eastern origin, emphasizing and tracing their common origin to Abraham or recognizing a spiritual tradition identified with him.  They are one of the major divisions in comparative religion, along with Indian religions(Dharmic) and East Asian religions (Taoist).

As of the early twenty-first century^[update], it was estimated that 54% of the world's population (3.8 billion people) considered themselves adherents of the Abrahamic religions, about 30% of other religions, and 16% of no organized religion. The Abrahamic religions originated in the Middle East.  The largest Abrahamic religions in chronological order of founding are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

So our beginnings appear to be linked and they definitely are.  All three of these religions are called Abrahamic because they are all descended from Abraham as the founder of the Israelite nation or culture.

Judaism

 The call of Abram; as he was originally known, happens in Genesis 12:1-4.

1 Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee:
2 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make they name great; and be thou a blessing;
3 and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

So God called Abram and made a covenant with him - looks like there is a promise of land and a great nation.

Islam

Is also listed as an  Abrahamic religion as it is based on the story or Ishmael - Abram's first born child from his wife Sarai's maid servant - Hagar.  You see, Sarai had not been able to produce a child for Abram; thus putting in jeopardy his covenant with God of a great nation.  So Sarai offered up Hagar to Abram as a way of gaining an heir to the Abram covenant.

Once Hagar conceived, Sarai became envious and drove Hagar off.  In the desert an angel of the lord appears to Hagar and this story is in Genesis 16:7-12.

7 And the angel of Jehovah found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s handmaid, whence camest thou? and whither goest thou? And she said, I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai.
9 And the angel of Jehovah said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
10 And the angel of Jehovah said unto her, I will greatly multiply thy seed, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
11 And the angel of Jehovah said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son; and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because Jehovah hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he shall be as a wild ass among men; his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his brethren.

Now the God of Abram has seen Ishmael and has promised Hagar if she returns he will multiple her seed, he shall be wild, his hand shall be against every man's hand and he shall dwell over against his brethren.

Sounding a lot like God knows what he is doing with the strife between Jews and Islam.

The story does not end there - it continues as Sarai, now called Sarah and Abram is called Abraham, asks Abraham to drive Hagar and her son out of their camp.  So he woke in the morning and drove them into the desert.  While in the desert, Hagar and the boy were dying of thirst and once again the Lord sent an angel.  The conversation is in Genesis 21:17-21.

17 And God heard the voice of the lad. And the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not. For God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thy hand. For I will make him a great nation.
19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
20 And God was with the lad, and he grew. And he dwelt in the wilderness, and became, as he grew up, an archer.
21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran. And his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.

Now we have a descendant of Abraham, living in the desert, and promised a great nation by the same God.  I do not see or have found - but will research, a promise of land as he gave to Abraham.

Christianity

We believe that Jesus Christ was born and is the Son of God who came to earth to announce the Good News and to bring forth a new love of God and to remove any man-made bearers or laws that had been created to separate God from man.

In Matthew, early on, Jesus makes it clear he is not here to destroy the Laws of the Prophets but to fulfill them, Mathew 5:17-20.

17 Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished. 

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

20 For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus was not here to destroy but to fulfill.  He was clearly a descendant of Abraham, and was here to fulfill the laws of the prophets.

However, Jesus was not the warrior that the Jews were hoping for - he was a peace maker, a gentle God, and one that preached Love not war.

So there we have three religions, all looking in the face of the same God - yet at war with each other.  All three were blessed by God and had a covenant with God.  All three felt they had a pathway to God.

However, their pathways were crossed and remain crossed today.

What does this have to do with Christianity in the USA - that is where this series will go, we will explore these three religions and see if the United States is a player in God's eyes.

I am no theologian - just one trying to understand and hoping can raise the level of awareness in this country that we need to hold onto God in this country.

We will pull build this series on each Sunday - the Day of the Lord our God.

May God grant us the ability to move through this series of posts and find a way to bring forth a potential view of his plan and the importance of the United States.  may he open our eyes to the "true" relationship between God and the United States.

Bob,

Pilgrims and God

Early days of the USA and God's relationship with the Pilgrims

Everyone accepts that there were many inhabitants or people who landed in the Americas but did not settle it or make any significant changes.  I will research all of those groups in a different post.

For this post, we do accept the Pilgrims as the first to come to America to settle it for a reason.  These people are the very foundation of our Constitution and their beliefs are what formed the United States.  So maybe understanding them might help understand why the United States and Christianity go hand in hand.

The Voyage of the Mayflower and its story is really the story of the beginning so lets start there.

The Mayflower

The Mayflower was the Pilgrim ship that in 1620 made the historic voyage from England to the New World. The ship carried 102 passengers in two core groups – religious Separatists coming from Holland and a largely non-religious settler group from London.

This voyage has become an iconic story in the earliest annals of American history with its tragic story of death and of survival in the harshest New World winter environment. The culmination of the voyage in the signing of the Mayflower Compact is one of the greatest moments in the story of America, providing the basis of the nation's present form of democratic self-government and fundamental freedoms.

So here we have two groups coming to the Americas or New World - Separatists and settlers.  Before looking at these groups, lets look into the Mayflower Compact.

The Mayflower Compact

Although the original document has been lost, three versions exist from the 17th century: printed in Mourt's Relation (1622), which was reprinted in Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625), hand written by William Bradford in his journal Of Plimoth Plantation (1646), and printed by Bradford's nephew Nathaniel Morton in New-Englands Memorial (1669). The three versions differ slightly in wording and significantly in spelling, capitalization and punctuation. William Bradford wrote the first part of Mourt's Relation, including its version of the compact, so he wrote two of the three versions. The wording of those two versions is indeed quite similar, unlike that of Morton. Bradford's handwritten manuscript is kept in a vault at the State Library of Massachusetts.

Modern version

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.

The 'dread sovereign' referred to in the document used the archaic definition of dread—meaning awe and reverence (for the King), not fear. Also, as noted above, the document was signed under the Old Style Julian calendar, since England did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752. The Gregorian date would be November 21.

Signers

The following list of signers is organized into the six short columns of Morton (1669) with the numbers and titles of Prince. The names are given their modern spelling according to Morison (1966). Use the numbers given for the order used by genealogists and half of unnumbered lists (Samuel Fuller will be the eighth name), but merge the half columns vertically into full columns for the order used by the other half of unnumbered lists (John Turner will be the eighth name).

1.Mr. John Carver  2.William Bradford 3.Mr. Edward Winslow 4.Mr. William Brewster 5.Mr. Isaac Allerton 6.Capt. Myles Standish 7.John Alden 8.Mr. Samuel Fuller 9.Mr. Christopher Martin 10.Mr. William Mullins 11.Mr. William White 12.Mr. Richard Warren 13.John Howland 14.Mr. Stephen Hopkins

15.Edward Tilley 16.John Tilley 17.Francis Cooke 18.Thomas Rogers 19.Thomas Tinker 20.John Rigsdale

21.Edward Fuller 22.John Turner 23.Francis Eaton 24.James Chilton 25.John Crackstone 26.John Billington 27.Moses Fletcher 28.John Goodman 29.Degory Priest 30.Thomas Williams 31.Gilbert Winslow

32.Edmund Margeson 33.Peter Browne 34.Richard Britteridge 35.George Soule 36.Richard Clarke

37.Richard Gardiner 38.John Allerton 39.Thomas English 40.Edward Doty 41.Edward Leister

Pilgrims

Pilgrims (US), or Pilgrim Fathers (UK), is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. Their leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownist English Dissenters who had fled the volatile political environment in England for the relative calm and tolerance of 16th–17th century Holland in the Netherlands. Concerned with losing their cultural identity, the group later arranged with English investors to establish a new colony in North America. The colony, established in 1620, became the second successful English settlement (after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607) and later the oldest continuously inhabited English settlement in what was to become the United States of America. The Pilgrims' story of seeking religious freedom has become a central theme of the history and culture of the United States.

This theme will continue to be the reason for this blog and will explain how we started so close to God and how we are now moving so far away and why.

May God grant us the courage to follow in the same foot steps as our Founding fathers and may he give us the courage to once again turn this nation's eyes, heart, and spirit upon him.

Bob,

Disciples Of Jesus Christ - The Pledge

Why Come Out Now

My wife and I have been attending two small study groups - one with people from the Catholic church we attend and one with people from a non-denominational church we attend.  Yes, we do attend two different churches - and not because we have different faiths - we are both Catholics.   I converted to Catholicism when we got married.

We attend two churches because one has great music and is a great lift of the spirit from that angle along with the fact the minister is really good and delivers high quality sermons.  We have two Catholic churches close to us in Nashville and  both have excellent Priests, so we get a spiritual lift from the long tradition of the Catholic church and excellent sermons as well.

Two hours with God on Sundays is not hard to do when both places are great.

Anyway - both of these small groups covered a lot of the same material - Being Disciples of Christ and what it means to follow Christ.  I often find it interesting how both churches - not related - discuss the same thing during the same week.

In one of the groups we discussed how the country is losing the values of Christianity and what a shame it is.  In the other we discussed politics and how unethical politicians have become.  I have a deep love for this country and for Christ - so I put two and two together and said it is time to do what little I can to make this place a better place and to get people to understand what might be happening in this country - if we are not careful.

Also, in one of the groups - we discussed what Jesus might have meant by turn the other cheek.  It was a Jewish custom to slap the face of a person using the back of their right hand across the face.  Never the other hand or the other cheek.  So Jesus was not saying take one of two paths - fight or flight (normal responses).  He was saying turn the aggression on the other person and let them see what they do is not right by their own actions and words.  Turn then the other cheek - be different, be bold, be pure, and full of love.

Turning the other Cheek as Jesus Would Have Wanted it

There are two really good stories that bring this to life.  Mother Teresa was one of those stories.  She held the hand of a little starving girl and entered a bakery to ask the baker for some bread for the hungry little girl.  The baker was insulted and spat in Mother Teresa's face.

Now you and I would understand fight or flight.  Most of us would think of fight and get angry.  Or, we would think of flight and turn and walk away.  Not Mother Teresa, she truly understood turn the other cheek.

She simply said "Thank you sir for the gift, now may you be so kind as to give this little girl some bread to eat!"

I do not know what happened, but I can imagine that store owner was about 1 inch tall and felt like the garbage bag he was.  By turning the other cheek - she showed him his evil and turn the tables without fight or flight.

The second story was Desmond Tutu and when he was crossing a rushing river.  There was a tree that was used as a temporary bridge and he was crossing it at the same time a white land owner was crossing.  naturally, the two men met in the middle.  And the white land lord said "Out of my way, I do not move over for Gorillas."

Desmond simply stepped down in the running water, looked the man in the face, and said "I do!"  

Again he showed that fight or flight is not turning the other cheek.  He moved, he countered, and he most likely made the white land lord feel very small.  However, that kind of bigotry probably held the man back from seeing the truth.

The Simple Pledge

1. I promise to put C-H-R-I-S-T back in Christmas - I will honor the day as his Day of Birth.  The day our Heavenly Father decided to come to earth and live with us.
2. I promise to stand before those that want to take God out of this country and I will use humility to help them understand the value of being a Christian Nation.
3. I promise to stamp out greed, corruption, malice, prejudice, and hatred when I can show love and compassion.  I will smile and be polite when attack.  I will turn the other cheek to show strength and not weakness.
4. I promise to return this great country to the land our fore fathers made it and for the brave who built it.  I will honor their desires by acting and voting as they would have desired.

I will bring forth more truths and views with each post.  I want this to be as close to true historical facts about the love affair this country and God have experienced for may years.  I hope many of you share material so we can keep this thing going.

Your job, please let me know if you want to take the pledge.  I want to do my part to get three people to take this pledge and mean it.  I then want you to go out and get three people to do the same.  Together we can bring this country back on a morale axis, one christian at a time.

God grant us the strength to take up this challenge and honor you and your Son Jesus Christ and all that you have done for this country.  Let us put it back on the path of righteousness as our previous generations did.  And let us not make the same mistakes they have made by changing how we honor you and by removing you from this country.

Bob,

Giving Thanks To God

Thanksgiving day history

In the United States , we have a deep connection to Christianity.  So in a time when Christianity is being slowly stripped from this country - I will be a single voice to cry out against the injustice to mankind, to our country, to God, and to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

This blog will not be politically correct, it will not pull punches, and it will not always be right - because they are my views.  I hope many people make comments and join me in the pledge I will propose soon in this blog when ready to reveal my desires.

This day we call Thanksgiving, has a special meaning and not to shoppers everywhere, but to Christians.  This has traditionally been a day of Giving Thanks to God and not seeing how many deals we can scoop up on Black Friday but to share our blessings with our family and friends.

Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It became an official Federal holiday in 1863, when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens", to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26. As a federal and public holiday in the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year. Together with Christmas and New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader holiday season.

The Pilgrims first Thanksgiving

The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in 1621. This feast lasted three days, and it was attended by 90 Native Americans (as accounted by attendee Edward Winslow) and 53 Pilgrims. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.

The most interesting fact of all of this is that the Pilgrims started off being a socialist type community.  In other words, each was to reap the same as others - they were Christians after all.  However, some where lazy and did not do any work and they nearly starved for the first three years.  The Native American Indians came to the rescue and provided food to the Pilgrims.  They eventually developed a system where each had their own land and harvested their own food.  This change brought about the first abundant feast and why they shared it with the Native American Indians.

Thanksgiving proclamations in the first thirty years of nationhood

The Continental-Confederation Congress, the legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, issued several "national days of prayer, humiliation, and thanksgiving", a practice that was continued by Presidents Washington and Adams under the Constitution, and has manifested itself in the established American observances of Thanksgiving and the National Day of Prayer today. This proclamation was published in The Independent Gazetteer; or, the Chronicle of Freedom on November 5, 1782, the first being observed on November 28, 1782:

By the United States in Congress assembled, PROCLAMATION.

It being the indispensable duty of all nations, not only to offer up their supplications to Almighty God, the giver of all good, for His gracious assistance in a time of distress, but also in a solemn and public manner, to give Him praise for His goodness in general, seventh.
JOHN HANSON, President.
CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.

On Thursday, September 24, 1789, the first House of Representatives voted to recommend the First Amendment of the newly drafted Constitution to the states for ratification. The next day, Congressman Elias Boudinot from New Jersey proposed that the House and Senate jointly request of President Washington to proclaim a day of thanksgiving for "the many signal favors of Almighty God". 

As President, on October 3, 1789, George Washington made the following proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

President John Adams declared Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. No Thanksgiving proclamations were issued by Thomas Jefferson but James Madison renewed the tradition in 1814, in response to resolutions of Congress, at the close of the War of 1812. Madison also declared the holiday twice in 1815; however, none of these was celebrated in autumn. In 1816, Governor Plumer of New Hampshire appointed Thursday, November 14 to be observed as a day of Public Thanksgiving and Governor Brooks of Massachusetts appointed Thursday, November 28 to be "observed throughout that State as a day of Thanksgiving".
A thanksgiving day was annually appointed by the governor of New York from 1817. In some of the Southern states, there was opposition to the observance of such a day on the ground that it was a relic of Puritanic bigotry, but by 1858 proclamations appointing a day of thanksgiving were issued by the governors of 25 states and two territories.

Lincoln and the Civil War

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. The document, written by Secretary of State William Seward, reads as follows:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. 

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.

Post-Civil War Era

 

Servicemen eating a Thanksgiving dinner after the end of World War I. (1918)

During the second half of the 19th century, Thanksgiving traditions in America varied from region to region. A traditional New England Thanksgiving, for example, consisted of a raffle held on Thanksgiving Eve (in which the prizes were mainly geese or turkeys), a shooting match on Thanksgiving morning (in which turkeys and chickens were used as targets), church services, and then the traditional feast which consisted of some familiar Thanksgiving staples such as turkey and pumpkin pie, and some not-so-familiar dishes such as pigeon pie. The earliest high school football rivalries took root in the late 19th century in Massachusetts, stemming from games played on Thanksgiving; professional football took root as a Thanksgiving staple during the sport's genesis in the 1890s, and the tradition of Thanksgiving football both at the high school and professional level continues to this day. In New York City, people would dress up in fanciful masks and costumes and roam the streets in merry-making mobs. By the beginning of the 20th century, these mobs had morphed into "ragamuffin parades" consisting mostly of children dressed as "ragamuffins" in costumes of old and mismatched adult clothes and with deliberately smudged faces, but by the late 1950s the tradition had vanished entirely.

1939 to 1941

Abraham Lincoln's successors as president followed his example of annually declaring the final Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving. But in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with this tradition. November had five Thursdays that year (instead of the more-common four), and Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday as Thanksgiving rather than the fifth one. Although many popular histories state otherwise, he made clear that his plan was to establish the holiday on the next-to-last Thursday in the month instead of the last one. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought an earlier Thanksgiving would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would help bring the country out of the Depression. At the time, advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate. Fred Lazarus, Jr., founder of the Federated Department Stores (later Macy's), is credited with convincing Roosevelt to push Thanksgiving to a week earlier to expand the shopping season, and within two years the change passed through Congress into law.

Republicans decried the change, calling it an affront to the memory of Lincoln. People began referring to November 30 as the "Republican Thanksgiving" and November 23 as the "Democratic Thanksgiving" or "Franksgiving".Regardless of the politics, many localities had made a tradition of celebrating on the last Thursday, and many football teams had a tradition of playing their final games of the season on Thanksgiving; with their schedules set well in advance, they could not change. Since a presidential declaration of Thanksgiving Day was not legally binding, Roosevelt's change was widely disregarded. Twenty-three states went along with Roosevelt's recommendation, 22 did not, and some, like Texas, could not decide and took both days as government holidays.
In 1940 and 1941, years in which November had four Thursdays, Roosevelt declared the third one as Thanksgiving. As in 1939, some states went along with the change while others retained the traditional last-Thursday date.

And hence, Black Friday was born and shopping became the reason for the season; not giving Thanks to God as many of the Presidents before had done and recognized.

let history show, that the day of backing business and not making Thanksgiving a day of God was not created by the "Big Business" party but by the party associated with the middle class.

Thanks for the beginning of taking God out of my country for the sake of a dollar to put it in Fred Lazarus's pocket.

Funny name Lazarus - wonder where I have heard that name before - oh yeah the bible.  The individual Christ raised from the dead.

1942 to present

On October 6, 1941, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution fixing the traditional last-Thursday date for the holiday beginning in 1942. However, in December of that year the Senate passed an amendment to the resolution that split the difference by requiring that Thanksgiving be observed annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes (less frequently) the next to last.  The amendment also passed the House, and on December 26, 1941, President Roosevelt signed this bill, for the first time making the date of Thanksgiving a matter of federal law and fixing the day as the fourth Thursday of November.  However, for several years some states continued to observe the last-Thursday date in years with five November Thursdays (the next such year being 1944), with Texas doing so as late as 1956.

Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys, in a ceremony known as the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation. John F. Kennedy was the first president reported to spare the turkey given to him (he announced he didn't plan to eat the bird), and Ronald Reagan was the first to grant the turkey a presidential pardon, which he jokingly presented to his 1987 turkey (a turkey that would indeed be spared and sent to a petting zoo) in order to deflect questions regarding the Iran–Contra affair. George H. W. Bush, who served as vice president under Reagan, made the turkey pardon a permanent annual tradition upon assuming the presidency in 1989, a tradition that has been carried on by every president each year since.  The pardoned turkeys are typically sent to a farm to be pampered for the remainder of their lives (a time scale typically on the order of months, since most domestic turkeys have been bred to grow so much that they die within two years of birth).

There are legends that state that the "pardoning" tradition dates to the Harry Truman administration or even to an anecdote of Abraham Lincoln pardoning his son's pet turkey; both stories have been quoted in more recent presidential speeches, but neither has any evidence in the Presidential record.  In more recent years, two turkeys have been pardoned, in case the original turkey becomes unavailable for presidential pardoning.

So now in some 330+ years, we have moved this day from being a day of giving thanks to God to pardoning Turkeys and saying God is a bad word or Jesus Christ is a bad word in our society.

I can only imagine what the next 100 years will bring as God is removed from this country.

May God grant us the wisdom to know what we are truly doing and may he grant us the knowledge and courage to change the collision course we are on.  May he also forgive us for our transgressions against him and the great people who founded this country.

Bob,