Sermon Tone Analysis

*Tyler**, Sir Alexander Fraser** (October 15, 1747–January 5, 1813) *knighted Lord Woodhouselee, was an English historian.

He wrote an essay entitled /The Principles of Translation/, *1791*, which was the first systematic study in English of translation.

In his thesis entitled a *“Cycle of Nations” in /The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic/*/,/ Sir Alexander Fraser Tyler stated:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

These nations have progressed through the following sequence —

—     From bondage to spiritual faith;

—     From spiritual faith to great courage

—     From courage to liberty

—     From liberty to abundance;

—     From abundance to selfishness;

—     From selfishness to complacency;

—     From complacency to apathy;

—     From apathy to dependency;

*—     /From dependency back into bondage./

*

 

We are currently in the last stage from Dependency back into Bondage.

Israel went through all these stages, as seen in God’s word.

Israel left Egypt and through time moved from Bondage into Spiritual Faith through the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

When they entered the Promised Land it was from spiritual faith to great courage.

It finally ended with the Babylonian Captivity.

There were many times that Israel went through these stages.

All one has to do is recall the Bible history to see the truth of the statement of Sir Alexander Fraser Tyler.

This has been a direct result of removing God from our life, because of the liberty and abundance of this nation.

*America** has been slowly removing God from society.*

\\ Court decisions already rendered have resulted in: \\ • Removal of student prayer: "Prayer in its public school system breaches the constitutional wall of separation between Church and State."

Engel v. Vitale, 1962 \\ • Removal of Bible readings: "[N]o state law or school board may require that passages from the Bible be read or that the Lord’s Prayer be recited in public schools or a State at the beginning of each school day."

The court went on to say, "[I]f portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be and ...had been psychologically harmful to the [student].

Abington v. Schempp, 1963 \\ • Removal of the Ten Commandments from view: "If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effects at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments...this...is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause."

Stone v. Graham, 1980 \\ • Removal of benedictions and invocations from school activities: "Religious invocation...in high school commencement exercise conveyed message that district had given its endorsement to prayer and religion, so that school district was properly [prohibited] from including invocation in commencement exercise."

Graham v. Central, 1985; Kay v. Douglas, 1986; Jager v. Douglas, 1989; Lee v. Weisman, 1992 \\ Lower court rulings and state and local officials have gone even further: \\ • Freedom of speech and press is guaranteed to students unless the topic is religious, at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional.

Stein v. Oshinsky, 1965; Collins v. Chandler Unified School District, 1981 \\ • If a student prays over his lunch, it is unconstitutional for him to pray aloud.

Reed v. Van Hoven, 1965 \\ • It is unconstitutional for a Board of Education to use or refer to the word "God" in any of its official writings.

Ohio v. Whisner, 1976 \\ • In Alaska public schools, students were told they could not use the word "Christmas"

in school because it had the word "Christ" in it, nor could they have the word in their notebooks, nor exchange Christmas cards or presents, nor display anything with the word "Christmas" on it."

William J. Murray, "America Without God," The New American, June 20, 1988, p.19 \\ • Public schools were barred from showing a film about the settlement of Jamestown because the film depicted the erection of a cross at the settlement, despite the historical fact that a cross was erected at the Jamestown settlement.

John Eidsmoe, "Christianity and the Constitution" (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1987), p. 406 \\ *Our rejection of God brings dire consequences.*

Paul in Romans 1:18-32 speaks of what happens when we tell God we don’t need Him anymore, suppressing His truth.

It seems to me that today in our country we are on the edge.

It is not the edge of technology, nor is it the edge of space.

It is the edge where God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth.

*We have traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand*.

We sing “Silver & Gold” and teach it to our children instead of the “Word of God”.

Because our leaders have no fear of the Lord you see folly and confusion in the laws that govern us.

Recently we had the $700 billion dollar bail out which was a means for the rich to steal money from the little people.

I say this because not one person’s mortgage will be erased nor will one person’s debt be forgiven.

It seems to me that if one is really interested in sparking the economy one would put the money into the hands of those that would pay off their bills and make car purchases and buy homes; the everyday people nor the banks nor the market.

Yes, all one has to do is read the scriptures and one can see what is happening, and the sad thing is that the church is sleeping or applauding through the whole thing.

Few are crying “Repent, Repent” today and many are singing “Silver and Gold” more interested in buying cheap figurines at the roadside stands that can’t do a thing for them.

We have tried things now for about 47 years without God, don’t you think it is time to turn this thing around and put God back in our nation in the place of being first and last in all we do.

We need to put God back in our homes.

We need to put God back in our schools.

We need to put God back in our public lives.

If we don’t have a great turnaround we will suffer as all the great nations have in the past.

We can have a great nation once again, but it will take a return to God’s Word not man’s philosophy.

One of our leaders of late when asked about abortion stated, “That is above my pay grade.”

God gave us a choice of life or death; God said to Choose Life.

God is life and His ways bring life in abundance.

What is your choice: God to be first and last, or silver and gold?