{"id":171,"date":"2010-07-04T23:13:03","date_gmt":"2010-07-05T05:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pastormathis.com\/?p=171"},"modified":"2015-07-22T23:15:49","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T05:15:49","slug":"a-christian-fourth-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/2010\/07\/04\/a-christian-fourth-of-july\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christian Fourth of July"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I sat listening to the fireworks, I wondered what modern Coloradans would think about the original celebration, about the original Christian society that birthed Independence Day.<\/p>\n

What would many think about a Congress calling citizens to repent:<\/p>\n

\n
“…it becomes the indispensable duty of these hitherto free and happy colonies, with true penitence of heart, and the most reverent devotion, publickly to acknowledge the over ruling providence of God; to confess and deplore our offences against him…” (1776)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What would they think about a Congress that publicly called upon its citizens to adore God:<\/p>\n

“Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of…” (1777<\/a>).<\/p>\n

What would they think about a president that publicly declared, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor” (George Washington, 1789)<\/p>\n

What would they think of a chief justice who declared, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” (John Jay, 1816<\/a>)<\/p>\n

As I sit enjoying the fireworks, I wonder what many naysayers would think about such historical facts.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I sat listening to the fireworks, I wondered what<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[17,11],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","category-society","tag-christianity","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}