No Other Name

Do you know who this guy is? He's John Adams. He was one of those early American rebels like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. He signed the Declaration of Independence, was our second president, and had this to say about the U.S. Constitution.

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."

"Designed ONLY for a moral and religious people." Hmm. Here's another quote from a famous U.S. president.

"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given man. All the good from the Savior of the world is communicated to us through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong.

It is the duty of nations as well as men to recognize the truth announced in Holy Scripture and proven by all of history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord." - Abraham Lincoln

I look at the most recent mass shooting in our country and wonder just how far we have fallen since our Constitution was written. What has happened to us between then and now?

Prayer removed from schools, the Ten Commandments removed from courthouses, abortion, LGBTQ+, the family unit disintegrating, fatherless homes, divorce, adultery, the list goes on. Let The Apostle Paul summarize for us.

"Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." - Romans 1:28-32

That about sums it up.

Let's go back to John Adams again. He said, "Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people." What does that mean? In my mind it means that we, as a nation, are no longer worthy of it. It is a distant hope on the horizon.

Again, Paul. Because we "did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God gave us over to a depraved mind." And there you have it.

Our only hope as a nation, and as a people, is to repent and return to God. But as I watch the nightly news in this country, that seems like an incredibly low-priority task for us.

The Apostle Peter said this to the religious leaders of his day, referring to Jesus:

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” - Acts:4:12