"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil - Matthew 5:33-37 (ESV)
Eddie Hyatt over at Charisma News only writes about two subjects. The first is allowing women to preach with authority over men and the second is the butchering of American history to prop up his NAR dominionism. As a former US History teacher and former AG minister, I am unsure if I have come across someone who knows so little about either subject pretending to be an expert in both. We must understand that the dominionist is always facing a losing argument because their presuppositions are never based in fact. The point of difference many fail to understand is it is ok to say that America is not righteous and still believe that from a carnal perspective it has been the greatest country in history. Being carnally great does not equate to being spiritually righteous. Make no mistake about it beloved, Jesus is coming back and America will be judged as will all nations. The bible does not promise us a grand end times revival but rather and end times apostasy. That apostasy is well underway, being led by the aforementioned NAR.
So because history does not support this "righteous America" construct, the dominionist is left to lie about what happened hundreds of years ago. They will point to references to God from some founding fathers and ignore proof of the opposite. No one is arguing that this country was founded by atheists, although there were a few. Neither though was it founded by charismatic evangelicals. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Many were deists, who believed in "a" god, not the God. Jefferson himself rewrote the bible and removed all references to the miracles of Christ as well as any mention of His deity. So do not fall for the usual rhetoric about people not liking this country. It has nothing to do with that. It is about not deifying this country. It is about not worshiping this country. It is about not idolizing this country. Above is the fourth of July article from Eddie Hyatt that shows so well where this false theology, which has gripped the majority of churchgoers today, goes so far off the rails. I am not going to respond to every word because Eddie likes to hear himself talk too much. So much so that he has seven footnotes and they are all referencing books written by Eddie Hyatt. Did you get that? In order to provide "proof" for his silliness, he only quotes himself. You just can't make this stuff up. Let us reason once more together:
The earliest immigrants to this land believed that they, as a people, had entered into a sacred covenant with God. This was clearly expressed by John Winthrop who, in 1630, led a flotilla of eleven ships with 700 passengers to New England and founded the city of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. During their journey across the Atlantic, Winthrop formulated a sermon entitled "A Model of Christian Charity." In it he exhorted his fellow pilgrims that "the eyes of the world are upon us" and that God would have them, in their new home, to be that "city on a hill" of which Jesus spoke, a shining light exhibiting a model of Christian living for the rest of mankind to see. He also spoke of the seriousness of the covenant with God into which they had entered. He exhorted, "We have entered into an explicit covenant with God. We have drawn up indentures with the Almighty, wherefore if we succeed and do not let ourselves be diverted into making money, He will reward us. Whereas if we fail, if we fall to embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, the Lord will surely break out in wrath and make us know the price of the breach of such a Covenant" (Hyatt, 1726: The Year that Defined America, 28-29)." - Eddie Hyatt
There is no question that John Winthrop believed what he believed. He was a Puritan who believed in a theocratic government. Church in early Massachusetts colony was mandatory and you were fined if you skipped service. I seriously doubt that today's Christians could even survive the vision John Winthrop had for Christian society. As a Puritan Winthrop might have been devout but that does not mean that his vision of religion is what has lasted until this day. In fact, less than 10 years of his passing saw his colony executing Quakers. 10 years prior to his passing saw the Pequot War, where the Pequot Indians were killed and those that survived sold into slavery. I take no issue with the argument of culture and the folly of comparing today to 200 years ago and applying the same lens. The problem is that is exactly what Hyatt wants to do on the flip side. Because he found a guy who landed here that espoused puritanical beliefs he wants to jettison him into the 21st century and hold him up as some proof that this country has somehow always been Christian. Absolute nonsense and a mangling of true history.
"The late Harvard professor Perry Miller considered this to be America's true founding because Winthrop's clearly articulated vision and purpose, he believed, defined the nation. He went on to say, A society that is both clear and articulate about its intentions is something of a rarity in modern history. Most of the nations of Europe and Asia grew up by chance and by accident either of geography or politics. This was not the case with America. Those first immigrants to America came with a clearly articulated vision, which they recorded in written documents--documents they considered to be covenants with God. Ten years before Winthrop and his company arrived, the Pilgrims had landed at Cape Cod. Before disembarking, they drew up a written document patterned after the church covenants that were common among Separatist churches in England. Being part of a Separatist congregation, they were very aware of such documents, which knit the signees together in a solemn, contractual agreement with God and one another. In the Mayflower Compact, each signee promised "solemnly and mutually in the presence of God" to "covenant together" for the better ordering and preservation of their community. This covenant also stated that their purpose in coming to the New World was to glorify God and advance the Christian faith." - Edie Hyatt
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