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The date was December 7th, 1941. The time was 7:55am. To the complete surprise of American forces in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Japanese planes began to sweep down and drop devastating bombs onto our fleet and also our planes on the ground. When the attack was done, eighteen of our ships were sunk or sinking and nearly all of our planes were destroyed. Over 3,500 of our servicemen were dead. We were shocked at such a bold and devastating attack on our U.S Navy. Many wondered if the Navy would ever recover. Even worse, we wondered if our liberty would shortly be ended and we would be required to worship the Emperor of Japan as god.

In the midst of this despair, President Franklin Roosevelt replaced the commander of our Pacific fleet with an Admiral named Chester Nimitz. Nimitz arrived at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. He immediately went for an inspection of the harbor. Sunken ships and twisted metal were everywhere. Once Nimitz had inspected the whole harbor, the young seaman at the helm of his boat asked him, “Well, Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?” Nimitz’ reply shocked everyone listening. He said Continue reading →

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October 31st marked the great change in history which began to restore the “liberty of conscience” to the human race. Five hundred years ago a young priest tacked on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany a document that changed the course of history. Martin Luther was that young priest, and his bold act threw off the religious yoke of “the tyranny of the mind”. And while most in America now think of October 31st as Halloween, that’s a “Johnny-come-lately” idea. Up until the mid-1800s, on October 31st, we celebrated “Reformation Day”, for that was the day the mind of man began to be set free from hundreds of years of living in the fear of what other men thought. Once again, man began to learn that only God has the right to shape our minds for He created us, and thus by rights, owns us and our minds. What Martin Luther did would start to restore the precious freedom Jesus talked about when He stated,

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32)

We call that truth, the “liberty of conscience”, and it is a most sacred part of “religious liberty”. God used a lowly young boy, grown into a courageous young man, to Continue reading →

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Do you sense the growing desperation right now?  With the cowardice that grips most of our government servants, rendering them powerless to deal with the rising oil prices and the out-of-control spending of government itself, there is great cause for alarm.  I’ve never known a time when there seemed to be such little resolve among those who were supposed to be leaders to correct such obvious problems.  Our leaders seemed paralyzed by ignorance, or worse—no moral courage!

While there is plenty around us to discourage us, let us not forget that the God of heaven still rules.  It has always been at the darkest moments in history that He has shown up with His mighty power.  The Psalmist recognized just such a time and cried out, “It is time for You to act, O Lord, for they have made void Your law.” (Psalms 119:126).  Indeed, the current crisis should not be allowed to bring us to despair, but rather to bring us to our knees so we would cry to our God to deliver us!  Our children are worth fighting for.  Our God-given liberty is worth personal sacrifice!

In December of 1776, as George Washington’s ‘rag tag’ army moved into Valley Forge Pennsylvania to spend the winter there, they were Continue reading →

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Woodrow Wilson said:

“A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do.  We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about…”

(1913. Robert Flood, The Rebirth of America (Philadelphia: The Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986), p. 12)

Where did earlier generations get the idea we are to know our history?  Why did our ancestors place so much emphasis on knowing our history?  Could our present decline be rooted in the “national amnesia” so prevalent across our land?

While it may be a shock to some; America’s Founders got the idea they must communicate to their children the story of where they came from—right out of the Bible.  It was the Pastors who taught the importance of remembering our history.  They pointed out such commands by God as the one in Deuteronomy 32:7, which states:

“Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.”

Those early American Pastors realized that if we knew history well, we would Continue reading →