America IS A Christian Nation, Part I, An Angel Rides the Whirlwind

In the previous series, Is America A Christian Nation, that question found its justifiable answer.  That answer affirms that the United States of America is in fact a Christian Nation, as defined most simply as a nation which draws its authority from Jesus Christ of the Bible.  Because the proof of that statement is exhaustively demonstrated in the previous series, I will not tread that ground again here.  So if any new reader just happens to have walked in to this discussion wondering, 'Wha' tha' heck is he talkin' about?' then please, if you are interested in the subject of the founding of America, and if you truly want to understand what America is all about, then do yourself a favor and do not begin reading here.  That would be like everyone's worst nightmare, walking into a class for the first time, on the last day of school, and trying to understand what is going on.  For ease of navigating, the first article in the series, Is America A Christian Nation, can be found

Here

Assuming that anyone who remains has already 'passed the prerequisite,' then to you I extend GREETINGS!  I also extend hearty CONGRATULATIONS! Congratulations because as a result of reading and even somewhat understanding the series, Is America A Christian Nation, you can be counted in an elite number of individuals who understand what you now know about the founding of the United States of America, what America truly stands for, and how that came to be.  

Yes, now you can be counted in the same room with the Founders as they stood in line to sign the Declaration of Independence.  You now think some of the very same thoughts that they thought.  In that room, you stand knowing that the rights of man, endowed from God, have a place to be planted, nurtured, and grow in this world.

And for that matter, you stand right in the front row at Gettysburg, in July of 1863, as Lincoln just finished his hallowed remarks, ushering a 'new birth of freedom for this nation, under God.'  And as Lincoln put his speech away and made his way off the platform, you might even detect that he made eye contact with you  and gave you a 'knowing glance.' 

You are counted in the inauguration crowd in January of 1961, as John F. Kennedy's voice echoed across the world, directing the truth that 'here on earth God's work must truly be our own.'  Because of the work you are undertaking, to read and understand these articles, President Kennedy's concluding remark likely means much more to you now than at anytime you may have heard it before.

And now you more adequately understand President George W. Bush's first inaugural remarks, among which he offered the nation:

After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: ``We know the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?''

Much time has passed since Jefferson arrived for his inauguration. The years and changes accumulate. But the themes of this day he would know: our nation's grand story of courage and its simple dream of dignity.

We are not this story's author, who fills time and eternity with his purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another.

Never tiring, never yielding, never finishing, we renew that purpose today, to make our country more just and generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.

This work continues. This story goes on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.

God bless you all, and God bless America.

Just the simple and oft expressed prayer, 'God bless America,' ought to now begin to mean something new to you.  And what is George Bush saying here as he repeats a quote from John Page first put to pen in 1776, 'an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs its storm?'

While I doubt it has come fully together in your mind yet, just exactly what these American statesmen are trying to convey,  having gotten this far into the present discussion, I dare say that you now stand at the door of understanding what these men obviously understood, but which is not given to us in obvious fashion, but is instead woven together deftly within America's founding documents, such as exquisite fibers are woven within the fabric of a fine tapestry.

And the Bible scriptures are the same way.  The meaning of those scriptures is meant to be understood, not through speed reading, not by being 'clocked' over the head by what is conspicuously evident, but only through quiet contemplation, communing in spirit with the author who wrote them, and understanding the circumstances prevailing which made them relevant and necessary to deliver to the world.

So here we stand to go forward, knowing that God is America's true Founding Father, knowing that authority flows toward America through one common source, and that source is His Son, Jesus Christ, Who according to the New Testament scriptures, owns all authority in Heaven and earth.  Since authority is His, it is also His to dispense any way He decides.  How Jesus Christ decided to dispense authority to the world, is much the overriding subject matter of the Declaration of Independence. 

Well all that is fine and good, but in a practical sense, what does all this really mean to us as Americans today?  How do we use this new information, that God is the true sovereign over the United States of America, through Jesus Christ His Son, to affect any real  meaning in our lives? And can this knowledge help Americans to understand how to make better national decisions, decisions that might facilitate better lives for American citizens and even world citizens?  The answers to those questions are what our new series, America IS a Christian Nation, is all about.  And what readers will discover in this series is the same information Lincoln uncovered, that Kennedy uncovered, and GW Bush no doubt understood, that many of America's great statesmen have known, and which the Founders knew without question, but which has over time been written over, sought hidden by dark powers in high places, and by those who prefer that the truth be other than the facts tell us.

During the War of 1812, on August 25, 1814, the British army arrived in Washington DC. They were directed to burn the city.  The flames began in such places as the Library of Congress, and worked their way through town.  Earlier, the first lady, Dolly Madison, had the presence of mind to secure America's founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and she personally handed them to an army officer with the assignment to protect those documents with his life and to proceed to Maryland and stow them in a safe place.  Shortly after that was done, the British army took charge of America's nation's capital.  Things looked dark for America and any cause that might have been behind the efforts of America's founders.

But when things looked their darkest, after the American army had been decimated, and after all practical hope was lost for the fledgling American republic, something incredible occurred.  The British were driven out of Washington, their forces destroyed, the fires quenched in extraordinary efficiency--but not by anything the Americans did.  No, America had hardly a fighting force remaining.

The force that drove the British out of America's nation's capital was, you may have guessed, a mighty whirlwind, a hurricane, a tornado of sufficient magnitude that it sacked the British army, unleashed their hold on Washington DC, ran them out of town, and set them up for an ultimate defeat by the remaining American forces.  A mighty whirlwind defeated the British, not the Americans, all in keeping with the theory of the American Founders, a theory woven almost as scriptures into the expressions of the Declaration of Independence.  That theory, the Theory of America, will be the first subject of discussion in this, our new series, America IS A Christian Nation.

I will be back soon.

Hank