Jul 10, 2018 By William "ed" Nicholson 5 min read

I love America. On this day, I want to express my thanks to the Lord for the privilege of being an American. I resent more than I can possibly express the villainy and treachery of those liberals, pampered and privileged ingrates, illegals, political hacks, and traitors who neither appreciate nor desire what America truly means.

This is not to say that America is perfect. No nation ever has been since humanity’s fall. The world’s peoples, all of us are sinners. But still there has never been a nation so blessed, so privileged, and so protective of the basic rights of its people. These values are rooted in and were secured initially by the American Revolution and were then clearly defined within our Constitution. Most important is the fact that our Constitution was predicated upon a clear mistrust and the absolute need for the restraint of government and the insistence on a limit of ecclesiastical powers, the sovereignty of the people, the guarantee of certain inalienable rights and liberties, and “the rule of law.”

It was widely held that the uniqueness of the American experiment meant that America’s manifest destiny was to be a “city upon a hill.” A glowing light which would be the model to lead the world toward freedom, self-reliance, prosperity, and democracy. The Judeo-Christian principles and values imbedded in the Constitution created the basis and fruit of what most conservatives believe is “American exceptionalism.” Our Constitutional guarantees which include soul-liberty, restraint of government, individual responsibility, and equality of opportunity were grounded in Biblical premise and assumed a belief in God. For example, during an impasse at the Constitutional convention in 1787, the deist, Benjamin Franklin, made the statement that “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?”

In the formative years of the American experiment, Thomas Jefferson, along with numbers of others, must have envisioned a potential for abuse in the new nation when he offered that: “The provisions we have made are such as please ourselves, and are agreeable to our own circumstances; they answer the substantial purposes of government and of justice, and other purposes than these should not be answered. We do not mean that our people shall be burdened with oppressive taxes to provide sinecures for the idle or the wicked . . . .” Many of us still believe that this is the way things should be. Does not God’s word insist that if an able-bodied person will not work, they shouldn’t eat? [2 Thess. 3:10]

Until the end of the 20th century, and almost without exception, prominent American political figures, educators, historians, clerics, business people, and our newspaper editors believed in American exceptionalism. And in most cases, there was still a collective conscience that whispered the probability of Divine intervention in the conception and preservation of our nation

It should be remembered that it was widely believed among the founders of our new nation that “unless the virtue of the Americans proved equal to its tasks, liberty would quickly give way once again to tyranny and perhaps a worse tyranny than that of George III.” And even though freedom of religion was guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, along with an absolute prohibition of any state religion, there can be no question that the entire fabric of our republic was woven throughout with biblical principles and a Judeo-Christian ethic. Certainly the founders rejected a “state religion” but were just as mortified of the State involvement in or of its potential suppression of religion.

But a drastic change has been emerging of late in our beloved nation. The decline and/or denial of America’s exceptionalism has been perpetuated by a broad gaggle comprised of anti-American politicians, radical Muslims, illegal immigrants and open-border activists, globalists, New-Agers, millennial “snowflakes”, religious liberals, and secularists. We have reached a time when all the above gleefully refer to our society as “Post-American.” Here at home the old-time self-reliance, entrepreneur spirit, work ethic, resolve, and gratitude to God are often disdained and are being replaced by promise of a cradle to grave illusion of security. “Trust in God” has been discarded for “trust in government.” Most sad of all is the delusion that because this has happened, we are now “better off.”

William “Ed” Nicholson is a native of this area and has earned advanced degrees in both Bible and education. He is currently the pastor of the Grace Baptist Chapel located in the village of Little Summit in Dunbar Twp. He may be reached at willien@hughes.net or at thegracebaptistchapel.com