The Fall of America

Introduction

I. The Choices Before Us

Ignorance or Enlightenment?

Bible or Politics?

Silence or Severing?

Salvation or Destruction?

II. The Country Entrusted to Us

It’s Christian Heritage

It’s God-Honoring Founders

III. The Country We Leave Behind

Is Up to Us

As I’d spoken, the first message was one of preparation. To prepare you for:

The understanding that religion and politics are inherently fused together.

Politics is nothing more than the laws enforcing the morals and ethics of society. There IS NO DIFFERENCE

A deeper look at American history, the morality that shaped the politics, and the politics that has since shaped (and continue to shape) our nation.

In other words, to the ignorant I will be teaching & preaching on ‘politics’ in this series. I will be speaking specifically about Democratic & Republican ideals & stances on issues. I will be bringing forth policies & comparing & contrasting them with the Scriptures. I will be speaking about politicians & the principles they championed, their relation to Bible & the effect it’s had on our society.

One thing that I will not be doing is going deeper (and there is a deeper). There is truly such a thing as what’s called today the ‘DEEP STATE’, which transcends party lines. These entities are not simply ‘Democrat’ or ‘Republican’ - they wear the monikers of both, but in truth are of the ‘L’ party - Lucifer. In this study, I want to simply go surface level and look at the policies put forth and examine them against the Bible. YOU SEE, THE DEEP STATE HAS INFLUENCE, BUT IT DOES NOT HAVE AUTHORITY. AND SATAN DOESN’T HAVE POWER OVER MY GOD!

I will give you a preview of where this is going. I want you to understand that I am not attacking voters, but rather policies of parties. I believe that what you will see (if you give this a chance) is that historically speaking in times past, by & large Democrat policies are in direct contrast to Biblical teaching - and almost exclusively today. You see, I am a Republican today for the same reason I’m a Baptist - because I believe they line up best with the Bible.

That being said, I’m not here to attack Democrats, but prayerfully enlighten them. And I will just say this: If I make the case that Democratic policies are antithetical to the Scriptures - and you still reject it, you need to look in the mirror and figure out who really is your god - the God of the Bible of the god of government.

We’re going to go back to just before and the turning of the 20th century, a place in time I mark as the turning point in American history where we went from a Godly Nation to a nation founded upon God. A time when our government - form and function changed dramatically.

I am teaching you this, because it’s not something that you have / will learn in the education system.

It’s a subject that would be best suited for Sunday School, however, many of you seem to be allergic to Sunday School, and this is too important and too neglected a topic for us to ignore, and it’s because of the ignorance of this is one of the main reasons our nation is where it is today. (And let me just say this: We’re ignorant about this largely because we see Sunday School as ‘bonus’ instead of ‘necessity’.

I spent a lot of time over the last few days and over our trip researching what I’m about to present to you. As I began to outline this, I had originally intended for it to be 1 message with 4 points. As I began fleshing it out, it has turned into 3-4 messages as it stands.

In these few messages titled ‘The Fall of America’, I will be placing before you a timeline ranging approximately 80 years. I believe if you pay close attention, this ‘series within a series’ will give you great understanding from a Biblical perspective what I believe to be THE turning point in America where we fell away from God.

But before we can get to that, we must first examine the state of America prior to the fall.

The first thing that I want you to see is Revival!

I. Revival !

~ 1857-1920

Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

Church may I say that if we want revival - TRUE REVIVAL - then we’d do well to consider how it came about over 100 years ago.

Prayer Meetings

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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 will heal their land.”

The ‘Sparks’ of Revival began a few years before the War Between the States.

A man by the name of Jeremiah Lanphier was a businessman in lower Manhattan NYC. In the 1850’s prosperous churches moved uptown, and what was left was a lower class of people and a failing church. Mr. Lanphier was offered a church to pastor, though he had no theological training, he was a godly layman and they had few options. Mr. Lanphier was ultimately led by the Holy Spirit to simply rent a room and open a time - from 12-1 once a week - to coincide with businessmen’s lunch hour, and invite people to come and pray. The first day Mr. Lanphier opened the doors - and no one showed up. Jeremiah proceeded to kneel by himself in prayer. After half an hour, 1 man joined him. Then before the hour was through, 4 more came. The next week there were twenty men, forty the following week. In October the prayer meetings became daily, and in January 1858, a second room had to be used simultaneously, by February, a third. By then as many as twenty noon prayer meetings were being held elsewhere in the city. In mid-March Burton's Theatre, capable of holding 3,000, was crowded for the prayer meetings. By the end of March every downtown New York church and public hall was filled to capacity, and ten thousand men were gathering daily for prayer. This would come to be known as The Layman’s Prayer Revival A student of the revival, estimated that perhaps as many as a million people were converted in 1858 and 1859 Not long before his death, the thoughts of the late 19th-century evangelist Dwight L. Moody turned to this religious revival of his youth. "I would like before I go hence", he said, "to see the whole Church of God quickened as it was in '57."

I tell you this church, because if lasting revival is going to take place, it must be preceded by prayer!

Another thing to note is that this revival wasn’t started by the eloquence of a preacher, but by the prayer of the laymen!

How many of you desire revival for our nation? Are you praying for it? Are you earnestly seeking the face of God for it?

Revival was founded upon prayer meetings

Godly Preaching

After the War between the States we see some revival preachers come into prominence and God would use them to shape our nation and draw us unto repentance.

D.L. Moody (1837-1899)

Dwight Moody lost his father at the age of four, then would quit school in the 5th grade to help support his family.

His Sunday school teacher would ultimately lead him to Christ in the back room of the shoe store where he was working at age 17.

Evangelist Henry Varley was preaching one night while Moody was in attendance. Varley said “The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him. Moody vowed to himself - “By the Grace of God, I’ll be that man!”

He would later relocate to the Chicago area and begin a Sunday school mission for the depressed youth in the city - which would grow to an average of 650 a week.

After he went to Europe and held revival meetings there, and preached for a man by the name of Charles Spurgeon, he held evangelistic meetings from Boston to New York, throughout New England, and as far west as San Francisco, also visiting other West Coast towns from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to San Diego.

DL Moody’s impact for the cause of Christ - especially in urban generally northern America (not to mention Europe) can be little gauged, as it was tremendous.

Samuel P. Jones (1847-1906)

Around the same time in the South, there was a man by the name of Sam Jones. While Moody preached

Note the contrast: While Moody was famous for avoiding flowery rhetoric, theological jargon, or formal polish. He spoke in everyday language, with homespun illustrations and vivid stories. Critics sometimes noted his unpolished grammar, but that made him relatable. Sam Jones however was a different story…

Sam Jones was graduated High School with high honors, became a lawyer.

Depression plagued him, he became an alcoholic & a gambler & became ruined as a lawyer, so went on to work menial jobs to support his wife & children.

When Sam’s father was on his deathbed, he said this to Sam: “My poor, wicked, wayward, reckless boy. You have broken the heart of your sweet wife & have brought me down in sorrow to my grave.” When Sam heard this he was convicted to his core and said “I’ll quit! I’ll quit!”.

He came to a realization of his condition - he got saved, went and told his wife & asked for a new beginning - she cried out ‘Hallelujah! I’ve been praying for this!’.

A week after his conversion, he preached his first sermon in his grandfather’s church.

He soon began conducting revival campaigns throughout the land. WHEREVER HE PREACHED, LIQUOR STORES CLOSED, THEATERS & JAILS EMPTIED AND CURSING WAS REDUCED TO A WHISPER.

His life was threatened repeatedly, but it didn’t deter him.

It’s said that over 500,000 souls were converted through his ministry.

In opposite fashion to Moody, Jones was a Hell-fire preacher.

Tom Watson, an eye-witness wrote of a revival in Georgia: “Jones smashed the intense self-conceit of the amen-corner, their profound self-satisfaction, their peaceful co-partnership with the Almighty, and their placid conviction that they were trustees of teh New Jerusalem. After awile with a firm, irresistible force he called on these brethren to rise in public, confess their shortcomings, and kneel for divine grace. With groans, sobs, and tears, these old bellwethers of the flock fell on their knees and cried aloud in their distress. THEN HE TURNED HIS GUNS ON US SINNERS. He abused us fore and aft. He abursed us and ridiculed us, he stormed at us and laughed at us, he called us flop-eared hounds, beer kegs, and whiskey soaks. He plainly said that we were all hypocrites and liars. He humiliated us! Afterward, gambling disappeared, loud profanity on the streets was heard no more, and the bar-rooms were run out of the country.”

Billy Sunday (1862-1935)

Billy Sunday was a former ballplayer who was on a corner in Chicago when he heard hymns being sung. It was the hymns that he remembered his mama sang back in the log cabin in Iowa, and in the old church I used to go to Sunday school. He sat there and cried. Then a man invited him “We’re going down to the Pacific Garden Mission, won’t you come?” He told his friends there with him “I’m through. I am going to Jesus Christ. We’ve come to a partin g of the ways” He went down to the mission and was born again.

Billy would go on an preach with great fervor the LORD Jesus Christ, and especially against the wickedness of drink.

In one of his messaged titled “Get on the Water Wagon” Billy preached

“I tell you it strikes in the night… It attacks defenseless womanhood and childhood. The saloon is a coward. It is a thief… it robs you of manhood and leae you in rags and takes away your friends, and it robs your family. It impoverishes your children and brings insanity and suicide. It will take the shirt off your back and it will steal the coffin from a dead child and yank the last crust of bread out of the hand of the starving child… It will steal the milk from the breast of the mother and leave her with nothing with which to feed her infant. It will take the virtue from your daughter… It is the dirtiest, most low-down, damnable business that ever crawled out of the pit of Hell. It is a sneak, and a thief and a coward.”

Billy Sunday was not only responsible for countless converts, but instrumental in the banning of booze in our nation.

J. Frank Norris (1877-1952)

J. Frank Norris was a Texas Baptist pastor who at one time pastored the largest church in America.

He had the duty of not only opposing the sin of his time, but rebuking the gross apostasy in his own denomination.

When he was called to the FBC of Fort Worth, a layman named J.T. Pemberton warned the backslid congregation saying: “This church is not in condition for this type of ministry. If he comes there will be the all-firedest explosion ever witnessed by any church. We are at peace with the world, the flesh, and the devil and with one another. This fellow carries a broad axe and not a pearl handle knife. I just want to warn you.”

A leading member of his congregation rented out property in what was known as ‘Hell’s Half Acre’, where whiskey & prostitution ran rampant.

In 1912, shots were fired into his pastoral study. He received multiple death threats. The FBC was destroyed by fire in February. This was the second attempt, the first attempt to burn the parsonage was foiled by Mrs. Norris. The interests in the city then tried to put the arson upon him (to which he was found not guilty).

Later on in 1929 a man by the name of DE Chipps went into J. Frank’s office and after a confrontation, the preacher shot him dead. He was either sent there by his friend the DA who was part of the vice ring of alcohol that Norris was preaching against, or simply angry about it. Norris was found not guilty by reason of self defense.

J. Frank Norris stood against the wickedness of society in high places and purified the Independent Baptist movement in that day.

So you had Godly, Uncompromising, Courageous Preachers

Missions Movement

In the late 1800’s you had what’s known as the Student Volunteer Movement.

This was a movement of college age men who would commit themselves to become foreign missionaries to the unreached world.

This is not where foreign missions began, but it’s where it took off.

So you have a lot of young people eager to serve the LORD leaving thier lives of comfort in the states behind to go into the jungles and other places of throughout the world to preach the Gospel and fulfill the Great Commission.

America was seeing real revival! And it bore out because you saw a change in society at large - namely Prohibition.

Societal Change

Namely Prohibition

Prohibition for those who don’t know, was brought into being with the 18th amendment of the Constitution. It was passed in 1919 and took effect in January 17, 2020. It prohibited the manufacturing, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages.

Not put that into perspective… Revival and Repentance were so real to the nation, that 2/3rd of congress voted to make alcohol illegal! That’s amazing!

Now I want to take a few minutes and defend prohibition. In hindsight, it’s seen as a failed experiment, but I tell you that it wasn’t the law that failed, it was the courage and determination of the people!

Studies show alcohol use dropped by 30–50% in the early years of Prohibition.

With that came fewer alcohol-related deaths from cirrhosis, workplace accidents, and family neglect.

Rates of liver disease and alcohol-related hospital admissions decreased significantly during the 1920s.

Some cities also reported lower rates of drunkenness and alcohol-fueled domestic violence early on.

I don’t know about you - but that seems like success to me! But of course, where God is working, Satan is countering. We also saw:

Rise of organized crime (Al Capone in Chicago is the most famous example).

Speakeasies (illegal bars) became widespread.

Corruption among law enforcement and politicians increased.

And of course, Lost tax revenue from alcohol sales.

I think it’s important to understand the history, as it’s repeating itself right now.

Right now we’re standing at the precipice of Marijuana being legalized nationwide. It’s already legal in many states (24). Do you know what has happened in those states?

Increased Use in Legalized States: Research indicates that residents of states where cannabis has been legalized use marijuana 24% more frequently than those in states where it remains illegal.

Young Adults (21–23 years old): In states with legalization, recent cannabis use increased from 21% to 26% among this age group, suggesting that legalization has led to increased use among those who can legally purchase it.

The answer to crime in our country is not to legalize it to profit from it! We’ve seen this with alcohol, gambling, marijuana… and WE THE PEOPLE STAND BY AND LET IT HAPPEN!

I don’t know about you, but I want revival in our country! I want revival in our community!

I don’t want to see another ‘Cafe’ or ‘Hot Spot’ pop up! I want to see them close down! These things take place in our midst because we stand by and allow it. I don’t want marijuana legalized here! WE GIVE CONSENT WITH OUR SILENCE! It’s time that we stop seeding ground to Satan and start taking some back!

The problem with modern day Christianity is that we’ve not changed the culture, the culture has changed us!

Jesus said: Luke 11:33 “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.”

IT’S TIME FOR OUR LIGHT TO SHINE! IT’S TIME THAT OUR LIGHT SHINE IN OUR COMMUNITY AND OUR COUNTRY!

I spoke of Jeremiah Lanphier. One man with a passion for prayer sparked revival. Revival didn’t stay in NYC - it spread to Philly, Boston - all across the land! Church I just have to believe that God is waiting for His people to be passionate about prayer - ferverently seek His face - TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS! And if we do that, I believe God is going to bless that and we CAN see Revival in our day as well!

GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE! Isaiah 59:1–4 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; Neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, And your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: They trust in vanity, and speak lies; They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.”

What sin is hidden in your heart? God is calling for Repentance, and it must start in the House of God if we’re ever to see Revival!

II. Rebellion

~ 1920’s

Romans 13:1–2 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.”

Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, That take counsel, but not of me; And that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, That they may add sin to sin:”

Proliferation of Bible Versions

Increased Crime

Promotion of Vices

Alcohol

Lewd / Flashy Dress

Promiscuity

Speculative Investments

Media Replaces the Bible

III. Rebuke

~1929-1940’s

1 Samuel 12:15 “But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers.”

Rebuke of Wealth (1929)

Psalm 5:10 “Destroy thou them, O God; Let them fall by their own counsels; Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; For they have rebelled against thee.”

Rebuke by Wind (1933)

Psalm 68:6 “God setteth the solitary in families: He bringeth out those which are bound with chains: But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.”

Rebuke with War (1941)

IV. Rejection

1933-1944

Psalm 118:8–9 “It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes.”

Jeremiah 17:5–8 “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.”

Asa

Isaiah 30:1–3 “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, That take counsel, but not of me; And that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, That they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into Egypt, And have not asked at my mouth; To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, And to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, And the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.”

Men Turned to Government Instead of God

Accepted Vices instead of Virtue

Conclusion