Christ First Forum

I had trouble deciding where to post this because it fits in with this thread and in those discussing voting!

In the 1830’s revival had broken out in the New England states and;
“No longer could Christians consider themselves above the dirty traffic of politics, not deigning to sully the hems of their ethereal garments. ‘The time has come,” exclaimed [Charles Grandison] Finney, “that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them. . . .God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground. Politics are a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God.”

….revivalists generally believed that, of all the great civilizations of history, America alone had a chance of avoiding the fate of Chaldea, Egypt, Greece and Rome – because of her Christian foundation and heritage.

An article from The Christian Spectator in that time frame: “What has religion to do with the State, you ask? In the form of ecclesiastical alliances, nothing. But in its operation as a controlling, purifying power in the consciences of the people, we answer, it has everything to do. It is the last hope of republics. And let it be remembered, if ever our ruin shall come, that the questions which agitate, the factions which distract, the convulsions which dissolve, will be but secondary causes. The true evil will lie back of these, in the moral debasement of the people. And no excellence of political institutions, no sagacity of human wisdom, which did not, like that of our Puritan fathers, begin and end with religion, could have averted the calamity.”

“But in 1831, [Lyman] Beecher’s The Spirit of the Pilgrims was more optimistic: The government of God is the only government which will hold society, against depravity within and temptation without; and this it must do by the force of its own law written upon the heart. This is that unity of the Spirit and that bond of peace which alone can perpetuate national purity and tranquility – that law of universal and impartial love by which alone nations can be kept back from ruin. There is no safety for republics but in self-government, under the influence of a holy heart, swayed by the government of God.”

“ Once again, men learned that true Christianity required . . .loving one’s neighbor as oneself.”

“America could lead the rest of the world into the Millennial Age – but would it? We had the foundation, and all the potential- mental, physical, and spiritual. All that was required was for revival to spread far enough and deep enough. . . .For that reason farsighted spiritual leaders put so much emphasis on our daily life in the nation. If we could just put our own house in order, God would use our example to show the way to all the other nations.”

From Sea to Shining Sea
Peter Marshall & David Manuel
Pg. # 316,317


first love is correct. Revival must first start in me.