Look How Far We've Come

Yesterday, I came across these  quotes from Alexis de Toqueville. It was amazing to me the difference a little over 150 years can make.
"Religion in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it. Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief. I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion--for who can judge the human heart? But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions."


"In the united States the sovereign authority is religious...America is still the place where the Christian religion has kept the greatest real power over mens' souls; and nothing better demonstrated how useful and natural it is to man, since the country where it now has the widest sway is both the most enlightened and the freest.....Religion..does direct, mores, and by regulating domestic life it helps to regulate the state."

"In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people....Christianity, therefore reigns without obstacle, by universal content; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate..."


"The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other."


"I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of American in her harbors...in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. 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."


Now compare this to what our current president recently said:
"Whatever we once were, we're no longer a Christian nation. At least no just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation and a nation of non-believers"

All I can say is: Look how far we've come.  I pray that we would be moved to repentance.


"America is great because America is good and if America ever ceases to be good, American will cease to be great."  Alexis de Toqueville

"If my people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. "
2 Chronicles 7:14

"Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him." Psalm 2:10-12

Christianity and Culture

I spent most of the day yesterday listening to Handel's Messiah. As I listened, I couldn't help but be amazed. Not only is the music exquisite, but the words are amazing as well. In fact, if you were to look at the text, you would find that the majority of it is Scripture.  As I listened, I was challenged as well as encouraged. Here was a man who not only knew his Bible thoroughly, but who spent his whole life cultivating and using his gifts to glorify God. And he is not the only one. Other musicians such as Bach and Haydn also come to mind.

"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging."
   Johann Sebastian Bach

"When I think of my God, my heart dances within me for joy, and then my music has to dance, too."
Franz Joseph Haydn

All three of these men were a product of the ideas and doctrine of the Reformation. It was their faith that formed the basis for their music.  Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson, authors of The Gift of Music wrote,

" It can be said that if there had not been a Luther, there would not have been a Bach. The focus of Bach's Spiritual life was in Christianity and in the service of religion through music. It is easy to pass over the previous statement and not realize the truth of the fact that Bach's Christian faith and his music are inseparably united."
The Gift of Music pg. 32

The cultural changes birthed out of the Reformation were not limited to music only. Art, literature, and politics were just some of the areas affected by it. Men such as John Milton, John Bunyan, William Shakespeare, Rembrant, George Washington and Samuel Rutherford represent a few of the men whose Christianity permeated their works.
   In consideration of this, I think we modern day Christians need to seriously rethink the way we look at the world. Too often it seems, we tend to separate our religion from the rest of  life. We need to be reminded that "Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, do all to the glory of God."