America: Danger Close!: (Will It Be) Revival or Revolution?

Copyright © 2012 by Jesse Prewitt.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All Bible quotes or references are from the *King James Version, unless otherwise noted.

WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1-(866) 928-1240

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6418-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6420-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6419-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012915170

". . . They told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh."

—Jude 18-23 (KJV)*

<><

Contents

Introduction

Part 1 Initium! The Dream Of Freedom

The Founders

The Seeds Of Socialism

The Seeds Of The Gospel

Salt And Light

Part 2 In Praesenti! The Dream Is In Danger

The Critical Condition Of The Heart

The Critical Condition Of The Home

The Critical Condition Of The House Of God

The Critical Condition Of The Homeland

Part 3 In Fine! The Dream Is Forever Lost Apart From Jesus!

Notes

INTRODUCTION

As I write this, a very dark, ominous cloud looms large over our great nation. It is an uneasy cloud of uncertainty about the future of our homeland, America, which has for over two hundred years been a beacon of freedom to the whole world. Each of us simply took for granted that she would continue to be, forever. America has always been a lighthouse that penetrates the thick darkness of night and shines its rays of hope to the entire globe—the hope of freedom from tyranny and evil rule. Our nation has been a life raft to those who are in despair and would risk their precious lives to escape their present existence. To die in the effort to escape is much preferred over sitting idly and waiting to die, void of America’s plenteous liberties.

For all these years, America has been the envy of the entire world for our freedom, our justice (though not perfect, it is better than any other), our privileges, our privacy, our possessions, our security, our lives and livelihoods, our liberty, and our happiness. How did we acquire these treasures? Where do they come from? Why is it that no other nation has ever attained what we have? What is it that has caused us to gain this favor?

The sad truth is that we are losing those wonderful things we enjoy every day and most times take for granted. Some curse us as the great Satan, yet even they rush our shores as great stampeding herds fleeing from danger. To be sure, they want what we have, whether it be to take advantage of our freedom, so they may acquire our fossil fuel, or the wide-open spaces that represent freedom. Make no mistake, they want what we have! I know thousands and thousands have given or risked all they have to protect all we have.

But where did all these blessings originate? Many of you are thinking, Man, that’s a silly question, but I submit to you there is an entire generation that actually does not know where these freedoms came from! I talk to some of these people; I hear them on the airwaves. They actually have no idea how we came about these freedoms, much less what it takes to keep them.

The Occupy Wall Street protesters are marching in the streets as I write this, and the majority of them have no idea why they are marching. They are just joining the mob. The group has no central theme or message. Some of the protesters are reportedly paid to be there by fringe groups with a political agenda that would like to cultivate major class warfare in this country. They have been taught to hate those who have gained possessions, and they desire to have what they have not worked for themselves. They are mostly young people—many appear educated, some not so much. But how were they educated? I mean, who educated them? We will take a look at these questions.

I will discuss the origin of all that we possess and how we came about them as a nation. We must see our beginning to be able to understand the true urgency of our present condition, to be able to see how far we have come, and to see how far we have fallen. Once we take an honest look at where we are, we can better see the critical situation in which we find ourselves. Then we can more clearly see the obvious solution.

As you may have read the Ten Commandments, recorded in Exodus 20 and again for a second time in Deuteronomy 51 (for the benefit of the generation born during the wilderness wandering), have you ever noticed the first five commandments are between God and man—in effect vertical—and the last are between man and man—or horizontal? I think it not accidental that the Lord God gave them in this particular order.

We must first possess the proper relationship with God, vertically (or spiritually), before we can demonstrate the proper relationships with each other, horizontally (or socially). The reason for this is because of our fallen spiritual nature, which we inherited at birth. The Bible teaches us that each and every one of us is born with this sin nature2. Therefore we must be, as Jesus said, born again, or from above3. Because we are all sinners, spiritually separated from God, and because of our sin nature, Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, gave His life on the cross, to pay our sin debt and redeem us to the Father that we may have that proper relationship with Him, by His grace, through faith in Christ Jesus alone (Sola Fide).

This very idea of a personal relationship with God is key to understanding how America got its start. Our Forefathers came here to live a dream: a dream of living free.

<><

PART 1

Initium!

The Dream of Freedom

The dream of freedom was the beginning of America: freedom to speak, freedom to publicly assemble, and freedom to publicly worship, among others. I am convinced our Founding Fathers did their very best to give us a framework of government that would provide the basic elements of the freedom they envisioned. And make no mistake about it, I am not referring to the Constitution as some sort of living document that is fluid in its language, that needs to be changed, or that is out of date! No! Absolutely not!

Our lives develop as we live them, but the Constitution’s founding principles must remain static and unchanged, for principles do not change. Principles always remain the same no matter the circumstances. No man can successfully build anything on a foundation that moves. Our very lives, day by day, are like the tides; they ebb and flow. Without something absolute, something unchangeable that we can always be assured of, our lives are like ships lost at sea, blown about by the winds with no course or destination, awash upon an uncharted shore or torn apart and lost forever by the storms1.

Many people want to know what to do in a particular set of circumstances. They cry, Tell me what to do. I don’t know what to do! That’s why God gave us rock-solid absolutes that never change—so we can know what to do and can anchor our vessel to that which never moves. The Bible is the Word of God. We can depend on its wisdom and principles to direct our lives.

The principles that form the skeletal framework of our nation’s Constitution are derived from the wisdom of God’s Word. The term Judeo-Christian has been in use since sometime around World War II. In fact, one of the first times it appeared in print was a reference in the New English Weekly, which simply referred to it as the Judeo-Christian scheme of morals2.

The question today is whether or not this term is valid. Do we Christians presume more than we should when we use the term? I was frequently in the company of the late Dr. Jerry Falwell during a significant part of the 1990s, and I recall he often used the term. Some would probably respond that we Christians have no business grouping ourselves with the Jewish people. May I point out, however, that both