《Sermon Illustrations (D~F)》(a compilation) table of contents
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- FORGIVENESS, Accepting
- FOUNDATION
- FOURTH OF JULY
HumorA Sunday School teacher had just concluded her lesson and wanted to make sure she had made her point. She said, "Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?" There was a short pause and then, from the back of the room, a small boy spoke up. "Sin," he said. Bits & Pieces, May, 1991. FORGIVENESS, AcceptingSen. Mark Hatfield recounts the following history: James Garfield was a lay preacher and principal of his denominational college. They say he was ambidextrous and could simultaneously write Greek, with one hand and Latin with the other. In l880, he was elected president of the United States, but after only six months in office, he was shot in the back with a revolver. He never lost consciousness. At the hospital, the doctor probed the wound with his little finger to seek the bullet. He couldn't find it, so he tried a silver-tipped probe. Still he couldn't locate the bullet. They took Garfield back to Washington, D.C. Despite the summer heat, they tried to keep him comfortable. He was growing very weak. Teams of doctors tried to locate the bullet, probing the wound over and over. In desperation they asked Alexander Graham Bell, who was working on a little device called the telephone, to see if he could locate the metal inside the president's body. He came, he sought, and he too failed. The president hung on through July, through August, but in September he finally died-not from the wound, but from infection. The repeated probing, which the physicians thought would help the man, eventually, killed him. So it is with people who dwell too long on their sin and refuse to release it to God. Roger Thompson FOUNDATIONThe great architect Frank Lloyd Wright was given the challenge of building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, one of the most earthquake-prone cities in the world. Wright's investigation showed that a solid foundation could be "floated" on a sixty-foot layer of soft mud underlying the hotel, which would provide a shock-absorbing but solid support for the immense building. Shortly after the hotel was completed it withstood the worst earthquake in fifty-two years, while lesser buildings fell in ruins around it. Today in the Word, March 1989, p. 6. 
The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is going to fall. Scientists travel yearly to measure the building's slow descent. They report that the 179-foot tower moves about one-twentieth of an inch a year, and is now 17 feet out of plumb. They further estimate that by the year 2007 the 810-year old tower will have leaned too far and will collapse onto the nearby ristorante, where scientists now gather to discuss their findings. Quite significantly, the word "pisa" means "marshy land," which gives some clue as to why the tower began to lean even before it was completed. Also--its foundation is only 10 feet deep! Unknown. FOURTH OF JULYFrench writer Alexis de Tocqueville, after visiting America in 1831, said, "I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests--and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning--and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution--and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!" Alexis de Tocqueville.
A few years ago, a substitute teacher wrote in the Washington Post about the depressing experience he had while teaching three advanced government classes in a suburban Virginia school. He decided to poll his students on the basic question of whether the American system of government was morally superior to that of the Soviet Union? Fifty-one of the 53 high school seniors he asked -- the brightest high school seniors in one of the best school systems in the country -- saw no difference between the two. These children could not morally distinguish between their own nation built on the basis of each individual having God-given rights, and another nation that has operated for over 70 years on the assumption that man is a mere creature of the state. Not coincidentally, the two children who did comprehend a difference were Vietnamese boat children. They had received a valuable education in reality when they experienced the collapse of their homeland into the darkness of totalitarianism. Children at Risk, J. Dobson & G. Bauer, Word, 1990, p. 180.
Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Their conviction resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion. Kenneth L. Dodge, Resource, Sept./ Oct., 1992, p. 5.
Edward Gibbon, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has attributed the fall of the Empire to: 1. The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society. 2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace. 3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal. 4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within, the decadence of the people. 5. The decay of religion--faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people. Edward Gibbon.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! Patrick Henry.
The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: that it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. John Quincy Adams.
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. John Jay, 1st Chief Justice of Supreme Court: One of the three men most responsible for the Constitution.
Do not let anyone claim the tribute of American patriotism if they ever attempt to remove religion from politics. George Washington from his Farewell Address to the Nation.
Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind...It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in the sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892. The Court cited 87 precedents.
The purest principles of morality are to be taught. Where are they found? Whoever searches for them must go to the source from which a Christian man derives his faith--the Bible. Vidal v. Girard's Executors, 1844.
Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government. People v. Ruggles, 1811: 2 decades after the 1st Amendment.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. First Amendment.
By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion and all sects and denominations of Christians are placed upon the same equal footing. Runkel v. Winemiller, 1796.
The First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between church and state, but that wall is a one directional wall; it keeps the government from running the church, but it makes sure that Christian principles will always stay in government. Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States January 1, 1802 in an address to the Danbury Baptists.
Had the people, during the Revolution, had any suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle...At the time of the adoption of the constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, not any one sect...in this age there can be no substitute for Christianity...That was the religion of the founders of the republic and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendents...the great vital and conservative element in our system is the belief of our people in the pure doctrines and divine truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. House Judiciary Committee Report, March 27, 1854 after a one year study brought about by a suit to force the separation of church and state.
Challenges to the Constitutionality of the government being run by Christian principles continued throughout the late 1800's until finally these challenges arrived at the Supreme Court. In the case of Reynolds v. United States, 1878, the court pulled out Jefferson's speech in its entirety and confirmed that Jefferson also said that Christian principles were never to be separated from government. The Supreme Court used Jefferson's speech for the next 15 years to make sure that Christian principles stayed part of government. It remained this way until 1947, when, in the first time in the Supreme Court's history, the court used only 8 words out of Jefferson's speech. Unknown.
If this court doesn't stop talking about separation of church and state, someone will think it is part of the Constitution. Bear v. Colmorgan, 1958. One of the justices, in a stinging dissent.
The first separation of religious principles from public education. This is the case that removed school prayer. There were no precedents cited. The court did not quote previous legal cases or historical incidents. A new direction in the legal system - no longer constitutional. Engel v. Vitale, June 25, 1962.
"Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our Country." The 22 word prayer was declared to be unconstitutional and led to the removal of all prayer from public schools in the case Engel v. Vitale. This little prayer acknowledges God only one time. The Declaration of Independence itself acknowledges God 4 times. Within 12 months of Engel v. Vitale, in two more cases called Abington v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the court had completely removed Bible reading, religious classes/instruction. This was a radical reversal of law - and all without precedental justification or Constitutional basis. The Court's justification for removing Bible reading from public schools. The Court at this time declared that only 3% of the nation professed no belief in religion, no belief in God. Although this prayer was consistent with 97% of the beliefs of the people of the United States, the Court decided for the 3% against the majority. Unknown.
If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be, and had been, psychologically harmful to the child. Abington v. Schempp, June 17, 1963.
Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. George Washington.
It is unconstitutional for a student to pray aloud. Reed v. Van Hoven, 1965.
The Court declared a 4 line nursery rhyme unconstitutional because, although it did not contain the word "God", it might cause someone to think it was talking about God. DeCalv v. Espain, 1967.
If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all it will be to induce the school children to read, meditate upon and to perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments; this is not a permissible objective. Stone v. Gramm, 1980, challenging the right of students to "see" the 10 Commandments on the wall of a school. The Court defined the posting of the document as a "passive" display, meaning someone would have to stop and look on their own volition. Stone v. Gramm, 1980.
What does it mean when the Court declares something to be unconstitutional? It means that the Founding Fathers would have opposed this, would not have wanted this. As in the following: We have staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God. James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution.
The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion in the world that deals with the heart. Thomas Jefferson.
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people...it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams.
Everyone appointed to public office must say: "I do profess faith in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the Holy Ghost...one God and blessed forevermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration. Delaware Constitution, 1776 (consistent with the First Amendment).
Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. Thomas Jefferson, inside the Jefferson Memorial.
Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God's side. Abraham Lincoln, when asked if he thought God was on our side.
He who shall introduce into public affairs the principles of Christianity will change the face of the world. Benjamin Franklin, 1774, Ambassador to France.
The Court ruled that Secular Humanism is a legitimate religion equivalent to Christianity under the law. Tricosso v. Watkins, 1963 and again in 1986.
Atheism is ruled a religion. Court decision in 1977.
French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, after visiting America in 1831, said, "I sought for the greatness of the United States in her commodious harbors, her ample rivers, her fertile fields, and boundless forests--and it was not there. I sought for it in her rich mines, her vast world commerce, her public school system, and in her institutions of higher learning--and it was not there. I looked for it in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution--and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great!" Alexis de Tocqueville.
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