Jerald Finney
Copyright © January 20, 2012

Click here to go to links to all Chapters in Section V.

Note. This is an edited version of Section V, Chapter 5 of God Betrayed.

Conclusion to “Supreme Court Religion Clause Jurisprudence”

America was once the greatest nation that has ever been. This was because America came closer by far than any nation to operating under God. America was so close, but yet so far, from God’s ideal.

The founding fathers incorporated some biblical principles into the body of the Constitution. For example, they recognized the depravity of man, and therefore provided for a balance of powers among executive, legislative, and judicial branches. However, they did not understand that the God-ordained goal of any nation is to glorify God. They did not, in the document, proclaim that the purpose of America was to be “the glory of God” and that America was to be a nation under God.

The founding fathers were also influenced by enlightenment principles and included some of those principles in the Constitution. According to enlightenment thought, the purpose of government is the happiness of man and that principle was incorporated into the Constitution. This can be discerned from a facial reading of the document and from a study of the history surrounding the adoption of the Constitution. Regardless of assertions that “happiness of man” is ultimately tied into a correct relationship with God, most Americans did not make that connection, and as a result set out to achieve material success and prosperity in order to obtain temporal happiness. A people of a nation had a government that catered to their happiness.

In spite of this and other fatal flaw in the Constitution, multitudes were converted to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ in revivals which occurred after the Constitution was ratified. As a result, the nation as a people proceeded under God to a large degree for many years even though the civil law under the supreme law of the land, the Constitution, was ever so slowly changing conceptions of marriage, family, church, state, and law itself.

However, as heresy invaded the churches, the population of America became less and less “Christian” and more secular. Later, apostasy overcame many of the churches, initially those of some of the main-line Protestant denominations and later even many or most Baptist churches. Without a solid Christian base, Americans and America, especially in the mid-twentieth century and thereafter, quickly began to adopt satanic principles. America, like all nations before the return of Christ, is doomed to judgment.

Most Christians who are active in the political system have no idea that they are proceeding without knowledge as they blindly follow the teachings and leadership of people like David Barton, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, attorneys such as David Gibbs of the Christian Law Association and others. Only a small handful have ever done any study of the relevant biblical principles, history, and law. The study of most is gleaned from leaders who don’t know, ignore, or censor those matters which conflict with their theology and or their “conservative” beliefs. The author knows this because he was among them for twenty years as he followed the leaders who avowed to return America to the status of “One nation under God.” This author read the ever repackaged false “Christian” revisionist literature. After fifteen years of such activity, he began to see that everything the Christian activist population was doing was resulting in nothing but increasing degeneration. At the same time, many “Christians” including many pastors, as did many “Christians” in Germany under Hitler, blindly confederate with civil government because of their false interpretation of Romans 13.

With the degeneration of the general public came the degeneration of the leaders they elected. President Abraham Lincoln set the example for Presidents who desire to operate outside Constitutional constraints. He became the example for presidential tyranny and eventually for the most tyrannical President this nation has ever known, Barack Obama. As of the time of this posting, America has seen some consequences, but has yet to see all the fruits, of the tyranny of Obama and prior presidents. The United States Senate, at present, is dominated by left-wing radicals. The House is said to be under the control of “conservatives”; but, in truth, a small minority are statesmen who will take a real “conservative” stand. Even “conservative” is not always biblical and therefore polluted. And, in truth, most Senators and Congressmen, like the President, are under the thumb of the elite.

Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803) laid the groundwork for later Supreme court tyranny. After the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court gradually intruded more and more into the affairs of the states. Humanistic Supreme Court judges are nominated by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. The reasoning of the Supreme Court was humanistic, even in the nineteenth century (although not as polluted as in the twentieth, and certainly as in the twenty-first). God was left out. In all the examples in this section, the Court only quoted Scripture once, in Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980) (See page 329 of God Betrayed which is reproduced on this website.), and there in a God-defying manner. In 1940, the First Amendment was incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1947, the Supreme Court extended the meaning of “separation of church and state” to also mean “separation of God and state.” Since that time, the Supreme Court has effectively removed almost all vestiges of the sovereign God from public affairs in America, although still upholding the original meaning of the First Amendment to keep the civil government out of the affairs of the church. The task was made much easier for the Court since the Constitution did not proclaim God, and specifically the Lord Jesus Christ, as Sovereign.

“And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ep. 1.19-21).

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Ph. 2.9).

As is shown in the Section VI of God Betrayed which is reproduced on this website, America, under the god of this world, knew how to tempt even true churches, many which proceeded without knowledge and others which were knowingly disobedient, to place themselves at least partially under another lover. The apostate churches could be expected to do this since they were not churches  anyway (they were assemblies, but not churches in the biblical sense). But it is vexing to see a Bible believing pastor lead a church into such an unbiblical union; and it is sad to see a good pastor who discovers the truth struggle with whether and/or how to fully please the Lord and separate the church he pastors from the state.

How can born again Christians, even Christian lawyers, be so deceived? Most think like Americans, not like Bible-believing Christians. They are American or humanistic in their thinking. The bases for the beliefs of Christian lawyers are American statute and case law, not the Bible. Instead of applying biblical principle, they apply the revised history, the humanistic principles, and the secular reasoning and philosophies they learned in public schools, universities, and law schools. Many believe that by compromising in the political and judicial systems and counseling secular politicians and leaders they will either influence a return to God by the civil government or delay the inevitable takeover of churches by the state. Some of them undoubtedly believe that the church is destined to work hand in hand with the state in preparing the earth for the return of the Lord. Yet, as is apparent to the knowledgeable believer, they have been a party to the march to destruction.  The civil government, through its laws and courts, has at an accelerating pace rejected the sovereign God. Many pastors have taught and advocated union of church and state because of an improper understanding of biblical principles concerning church, state, and separation of church and state. Well-meaning Bible believing pastors and churches who would insist that they love the Lord, in their rallies and meetings to restore God over America, and proceed without knowledge, thereby leading the way to destruction. Bible Colleges, seminaries, and “Christian” literature have also succumbed to humanistic principles and taught those principles to multitudes of born again students who have carried those principles into their various ministries. Most Christians are too consumed with the cares of this world to make any independent study of the issues.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Ti. 2.15).

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall” (2 Pe. 1.4-10).

The sad fact is that most Christians are more American than they are Christian. America, not God, is the chosen sovereign and guide of most of America’s citizens, including most Christians and churches. Since America is ruled by the principles of the god of this world, the great majority of citizens, Christians, and churches are placing themselves, at least partially to one degree or another, under state control and rule and live according to American (Satanic) principles.

Some Christians can relate to Habakkuk to whom the holiness of God was more important than that Israel should be delivered. Habakkuk cried out to the Lord:

“O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth…. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?  And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?  They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.  Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.  Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations” (Hab. 1.2-4.13-17)?

But God assured Habakkuk that He was in control and that judgment would follow the iniquities of the people and the nation. God has given us His Word which explains that judgment follows a turning away from God and His principles.

God is already judging America, but “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Family and marriage have to a large extent been redefined and destroyed by the application of humanist principles. Crime is rampant. People are “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.” Many “have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” (See 2 Ti. 3.2-5). So many “Christians” turn to the state, to false religion, to psychology, or to hedonism instead of to God for answers, for help. Many Americans now look up to the sports entertainment complex, sports commentators and stars for advice and direction on moral matters (Sadly, many of those commentators and stars have better advice than do many “pastors” and spiritual leaders.). In other words, America is, and has been for some time, morally bankrupt. When America completely turns against Israel, America, if she has not ceased to exist before then, will suffer God’s final judgment.

“He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Re. 22.20).