​The United States of America was once a land squarely grounded in principles. That is, one fundamental philosophy and direction of movement as one united culture—of many cultures. What we encounter today, in our modern society, is a culture of many cultures and fundamental beliefs. With time comes mankind’s natural urge to divide when critical historical social and political events take place in our nation.

In essence, its like looking through a microscope starting with a group of cells. You would observe that when cells divide and split, they then form two new entities and multiply according to their same kind. A single cell divides to make two cells and these two cells then divide to make four cells, and so on. In professional science, this is called Mitosis or Meiosis. Parallel the Mitosis-effect with American history and you can see the similarities in how society naturally begins to breakdown with gradual change (a “Mitosis-like” change in thought).

When you look at how the beginnings of America were established, you see that it all began as a small settlement with few people inspired by God’s Liberty. We fast forward a few generations and you see that with population growth comes a majority and minority of how people think. Laws split, thinking splits, thus—society splits—enabling some confusion to some degree. But then, there is socially enabled confusion enabled by elites, corporations, and government.

Think of it like this image (right):

Some could say it’s a natural thing when debating what’s truth and what’s a lie. Some people appreciate how certain traditions are carried, others not so much. During the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Discovery, you can see how liberal thought was distinguished completely differently than the liberal thought that we see today. One was about God’s Liberty for mankind, the other “liberty” is about “what can I do to gratify myself and my friends quickly.”

Here in America scales are tipping towards far-left liberalism as a societal “norm” and way of life. The problem with this is that there is no viability nor credibility in this lifestyle and thought. It keeps the greedy robbing the poor and the hurt wanting more and more to cover their private personal pain. So if the far-left Democratic leadership of this nation doesn’t fit the frame of what is being discussed here, then how about those in elite positions that look to fix the narrative on typical American’s attempting to live a normal life?

I digress here to point out that true Liberty is internal. The government can not grant you internal liberty, nor can they take that away. The Founding Fathers of America, that is, the individuals that were propped up by God to found “a nation for all believers,” – this was not some coincidence. It wasn’t some deep-state draconian monarchial scheme to “keep the man down” either. On the contrary, God’s Providence is the grand overarching plan of how the world’s narrative unfolds—and it rests squarely on Him. So let’s break down the very real American principles laid out in the US Constitution.

This information got my business account banned from Facebook. You should check it out if you want to see the reality of it all. You see, the Bible and Civil Liberty are inseparable. There is no arguing this fact. Even Newsweek, on December 26, 1982, acknowledged after a major analysis of the Bible’s influence in America, that, “Now historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution is our Founding document.”

“Dr. Donald Lutz, a professor of political science from the University of Houston, conducted exhaustive ten-year research of about 15,000 political documents of the Founders’ era (1760-1805), and recorded every quote or reference to another written source. This list of the 3,154 citations of the Founders was analyzed and published in Volume #78 of the American Political Science Review in 1983. The results would give quite an accurate measure of the influence of various sources of thought on the Constitution.”
“The results were surprisingly contradictory to modern scholarship. By far, the most often quoted source of their political ideas was the Bible.

This would account for over one-third (34%) of all their citations. Another 50% of all references can be attributed to authors who themselves derived their ideas from the Bible. Therefore, it can be said the 84% of the ideas in our Constitution are based directly or indirectly on the Bible.” So it can be said that the fundamental principles all Americans would come live their lives by, was something they did based upon principle, whether they wanted to – knowingly or not.

Phil Collins, frontman for 1980’s band Genesis, would sing, “can’t you see this is the land of confusion?” The sad part is, the ’80s didn’t do anything for American culture but push it farther into the trashcan. That’s not an opinion, Mr. Collins was singing it, so you’ll have to take it up with him. All jokes aside, if you thought America was the land of confusion then—today blows the 1980’s out of the water.

We live in the Land of Confusion, in the Age of Confusion. Like it or not, it’s not getting any better. There is no government that will be able to cure your problems. There is no business that will be able to satisfy your instant gratification. There is no amount of money that will cure your moral and ethical ailments, and so, the same could be said about certain physical illnesses. In the Age of Confusion, that is, the age we currently live in—there is only one hope. Look up.

No matter what government is elected into office, no matter what laws are enacted or decreed, no matter how much stimulus money is shoveled out to The People--there will continue to be problems. It will get worse. I reference the Fall of Man, we as humankind are promised one ending to this entire history of the world. It is not one that you can find in fiction either. It is but one book, the oldest literature in history, the Bible.

Regardless of your faith, there is only one reason America has been blessed so greatly. And in an era of time that has been unconditionally brutal towards its founding principles, it’s critical to keep awareness to how we got here in the first place. Regardless of your place in society, we are all in this together. Not all the Founders were Christian, indeed, but nearly everybody knew who God the Father was (even tribal American Indians, pg. 44-45). In the Age of Confusion, there is only one truth. The rest? Lies.


Daniel L. Smith,
ComplexAmerica.org


Originally posted here: 
https://www.conservativedailynews.com/2021/03/hope-in-the-age-of-confusion/

True American culture started where it was founded–right in the heart of the North American colonist at the run-up to the American Revolution. Of course over time that has all changed with quick population growth, cultural experiences, and historical events. And as with any cultural change comes a stark political and religious divide. It’s a real thing that has the extreme potential for positive and negative outcomes. In the 1830s, in Brahmin Boston, Historian Perry Miller once observed, “there could hardly be found a group of young Americans more numb to the notion that there were any stirring implications in the word ‘democracy.’”

Miller was right. Americans in the 1830s were, for the most part, were generally neutral in the way that American culture was beginning to shape out. There were ups and downs in our society. With a new nation and culture, life typically comes with nearly unlimited options on which direction to face the country–especially in regards to politics and culture. So where did our American breakdown begin? When did America go from “united as one” to completely polarized? It actually stems from a politically unconcluded Civil War in most cases. The Confederate (Democratic) leadership getting their full pardons from the consequences of treason and then reinstatement to government positions in 1865 may have started it all.

There was a hairline fracture that split the thinking of American traditionalists and progressive intellectuals. The Unitarian Church (a secular doctrine) was the catalyst, following transcendentalism in a close second. Traditionalists (such as the clergy and church) began to slowly halt providing leadership in our public schools and universities. Prior to this America lived under a purely Christian-based homeschooling education. This was the catalyst for America’s rich culture and thorough economic success.

Harvard University (along with many others) was eventually taken over by the secular Unitarian church. As the quality of public education began to decline, Horace Mann (the “father of progressive education”) would convince the state of Massachusetts that the best way for education to grow would be to have the government take control, instead of the private sector (like families and churches). What followed was indoctrination into a “self-culture,” a humanistic thought process of “me, myself, and I” which enables individual materialistic behaviors.

Intersecting Politics and Religion

To break open a political divide for control and power, there must be a catalyst to enable a cultural shift. As a result, a false anti-Christian ideology of secular humanism was bred into American society. As traditional American doctrine became neglected, the competing ideology of socialism took off. Karl Marx’s book, which was written in 1844, never had much influence in American society. That was until we completely backslid from traditional Christian principles of economics and dabbled in personal greed.
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Resulting monopolies would form out of company buyouts and grow throughout our nation. One result of the Industrial Revolution was how wealth was accumulated instead of employing the extra resources to meet the actual needs of the poor and society. Self-culture and individual interest began to replace the common good of the American community. We were resultingly manipulated, so think of it as psychologically turning the lower and middle classes towards being arbitrary in daily ethics and morality.

In an interview with Ravi Zacharias by Richard L. Schoonover, the associate editor of Enrichment journal, he mentions that “much of education in the 1960s came unhinged from any moral absolutes and ethical values to wit the book Excellence Without a Soul by Harry R. Lewis. We have seen this happening over the last 40 years. There have been many voices alerting us to this. But more than just a philosophy took over; a mood took over.”

“First, secularization generally held that religious ideas, institutions, and interpretations have lost their social significance. People liked the idea of a secular society and a secular government. But in terms of moral values and ethics, they never checked into the internal assumptions of secularization that made it wide open to almost any view on any subject. Beginning in the 1960s, the moods of secularization ultimately led to society’s loss of shame.”

“Next is pluralization, which sounds like a practical and worthy idea; and in many ways, it is. In pluralism, you have a competing number of worldviews that are available, and no worldview is dominant. But smuggled in with pluralization was the absolutization of relativism. The only thing we could be sure of was that all moral choices were relative and there was no point of reference to right and wrong. This resulted in the death of reason.”

So what happened to cause this major malfunction on such a mass scale? How did this cause a behavioral shift? What was the thought process behind this event? Well, why did the big screen hit-film Footloose happen? Just kidding… but the behaviors portrayed in the film are a perfect example of the very real effects of our radically accelerated societal change.

Plot To Overthrow Tradition

Dr. Marshall Foster of the World History Institute writes that “in the loft restaurant above Peck’s restaurant at 140 Fulton Street in lower Manhattan (building no longer stands), a group of young men met to plan the overthrow of the predominately Christian world-view that still pervaded America. At this first meeting, five men were present: Upton Sinclair, 27, a writer and a socialist; Jack London, writer; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a Unitarian minister; J.G. Phelps Stokes, husband of a socialist leader; and Clarence Darrow, a lawyer.”

“Their organization was called the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. Their purpose was to ‘promote an intelligent interest in socialism among college men and women.’ These men were ready to become the exponents of an idea passed on to them by an obscure writer named Karl Marx—a man who never tried to be self-supporting but was supported by a wealthy industrialist who, inexplicably, believed in his theory of ‘the dictatorship of the proletariat.’ Although a small group in the beginning, these adherents of socialism more than succeeded in their task.”

“By using the proven method of gradualism, taken from the Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximus, these men and others who joined with them slowly infiltrated’ the public schools of our nation. By 1912 there were chapters in 44 colleges. By 1917 there were 61 chapters of student study groups of the League of Industrial Democracy. ‘At that time John Dewey, the godfather of progressive education, was the vice-president of the league. By 1941 Dewey had become president and Reinhold Niebuhr, the liberal socialist theologian, was the treasurer.”

The beginning of the end of traditional America had become entrenched. Dr. Stephen K. McDowell, President of Providence Foundation, mentions in his book America’s Providential History that “the loss of Christian tradition, character, and responsibility led to the failure of many banks in the early 1900s. To remedy this situation, power was granted to a centralized Federal Reserve Board in 1913. But this unbiblical economic structure and lack of character produced many more problems. Within 20 years, the Stock Market had crashed, and America was in the midst of the Great Depression.” With the propagation of socialism, people were ready for Roosevelt’s New Deal, such as Social Security and other welfare agencies, which ultimately set up the State as a provider rather than God.”

A Subtle Indoctrination

So here we are, nearing levels of socialism only seen in past welfare states. We, as one nation, are moving right on into 2021 at warp speed. It’s an unknown future with no land in sight. The “land” that we were hoping for was one of principle, ethics, justice, responsible governing, and an honest commitment to The People’s wants and needs. We haven’t seen much of that for decades by Congress. With the possibility of an incoming Biden-administration geared towards pure plurality and relativism, we may have further complicated issues to look forward to.

At this point, maybe a tight chess match move, throwing the educational system into checkmate seems certainly appropriate? Too much indoctrination has penetrated our culture. What we have seen and have experienced today is the resulting violation of our American values and traditions– all since the break of the 20th century. And it has all been done right under our distracted noses.

In closing, there has been a lot of chatter about how Christians should stay out of politics… well, the entirety of The Bible is a sociopolitical history. When Jesus Christ stood silent in front of the Pharisees in their court of justice–he was acting politically defiant in silence. Where do you think our right to remain silent comes from in our Christian-American court of law? It’s time for Christians to pro-actively be involved. Stop shying away from politics, especially when you are freely discussing it tonight at the dinner table.

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Daniel L. Smith holds an MA in History from Southern New Hampshire University. He is the author of 1845-1870: An Untold Story of Northern California, found here. His articles, projects, and publications can be found on his website Complex America. *This article was a contribution to ConservativeDailyNews.com on Jan. 1st, 2021.

​American success starts with an idea, or philosophy. Any success in human existence starts with the same. However what many people seem to miss is that the core of any great idea, starts with God. In the Bible, the Book of Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon sometime around 931 BC. Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandment’s, for this is man’s all.” Finally, Ecclesiastes 12 in summary concludes that the only value in life, is to live life from the perspective of God’s endless economy. That is, the faithful perspective that God is omnipresent and in control over all things.

It is normal that each person searches for certain meanings and reasons in life. Everyone must build a foundation upon which they live their personal and daily lives. The author of Ecclesiastes, Solomon, would find out that worldly goals that do not lead towards God will only bring frustration, uncertainty, and disappointment. Enter here, Mr. James Cash Penney. This man would find out soon enough that Solomon was right on point.
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J. C. Penney, through traditional hard-work and a careful lifestyle, would achieve success in building one of greatest retail companies in American history. In his biography it was written that from “inauspicious beginnings rose one of the great entrepreneurs in American history, a man with unusual dedication and exceptionally high ideals. James Cash Penney, Jr., was born September 16, 1875, near Hamilton, Missouri, to the Reverend James C. Penney and his wife, Fanny. The boy was one of twelve children, only six of whom survived to adulthood. His father was a less-than-prosperous Baptist preacher who also farmed.”

“A man of strong Christian beliefs and upright morals, Reverend Penney raised his son with an abiding faith in God. The foundation of Penney's life was the Christian ethic of the Golden Rule, plus self-reliance, self-discipline, and a concept of personal honor. James Cash Penney climbed His way from humble beginnings to the top of the international retail market by an abiding practice of the name of His first store, The Golden Rule. In 1889 Penney took a small position in a dry goods store of the name The Golden Rule. Penney worked ambitiously and by 1902 He had impressed the owners into granting him a partnership. He opened His first Golden Rule department store on April 14, 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming.”[1]

J. C. Penney looked for business “partners who could work as hard as he could while sharing his deep Christian values, which [for him personally] included complete abstinence from alcohol and tobacco.”[2] Mr. Penney would bring his idea of retail stores across the Western Rockies, based upon Christian Ethic, or what is more commonly known today as the “Protestant Ethic.” His ground-breaking ways of running shop would start by charging a flat price to all customers arriving to his stores, regardless of class and social standing. After making a couple smart business moves, Mr. Penney gained three more Golden Rule stores. Expansion would soon become a forefront of his business model.

In 1913, J.C. Penney would end up basing his retail operations out of Utah. Because of his entrance into the state as an “outsider,” he was required by law to change the name of his company. And thus, what we know today as the J.C. Penney Co. was established. Going back to Mr. Penney’s personal faith and ethic, he devised a plan to highlight the company’s official slogan as, “Honor, Confidence, Service, and Cooperation.”

​Showing his Christian values firsthand, Mr. Penney founded the J. C. Penney Foundation in 1925. He would go on to assist groups such as adoption programs, homeless shelters, youth organizations, vocational schools, libraries, family counseling centers, missions and missionary programs, and health clinics (among others). He would also go on to build a 120k-acre farming community in northern Florida. There, poor and needy individuals could arrive to work, farm, and rebuild their livelihoods. Mr. Penney would even go on to build a 60-acre Memorial Home Community, where retired pastors/ministers, church volunteers and works, missionaries, and their entire families could live in peace.

It was during the Great Depression of the 1930’s that Mr. Penney would experience extreme financial hardships. This in turn would lead to significant stress, which would transform into a life-threatening sickness. While he was in the hospital, his wife and son would receive many “goodbye” letters, written in sadness. The next morning, Mr. Penney would awake and go for a walk down the hospital hallway. As he walked, he heard a faint singing, which grew louder as he continued.

Mr. Penney would arrive at the hospital chapel, where he would walk inside and listen to hymns and psalms with a sad heart. It was the song, “God Will Take Care of You” that had punctually put hope into his soul. Soon after, in a life-transforming instant, Penney was saved and changed. He had discovered that God was there to help him. He would take these Christian principles with him into the business world.  

According to James Cash Penney himself, the company slogan of “Honor, Confidence, Service, and Cooperation,” was officially applied to the company philosophy, doctrine, and mission as a daily routine. In the end, he would go public with the J. C. Penney Company. He would give all managers shares of the company stock and would later also include all associates in corporate profit-sharing. This was generous for the typical American corporation.

By 1971, J.C. Penney had 1660 stores in North America. He was quoted as saying, “From that day to this, my life has been free from worry.”[5] It was in the face of circumstances that could have meant a physical death, it was J. C. Penney, right there next to Solomon the author of Ecclesiastes. He also found a new life. He would find the most foundational answer to all of life—God’s unconditional love.

In History, the Bible is considered both a primary and secondary historical source.[1] There are two reasons for this. First, since most of the Old Testament was documented by one man—Moses, as a recollection under the inspiration of God—we then consider this text a secondary historical source. Of course there were other authors to the Old Testament, but a great main example. Second, the New Testament is documented by multiple men from first-hand accounts. This means, they were there. They saw and experienced the events taking place at the time. Thus, they recorded it on paper. This means that each book written in the second part of the Bible was written down as a witness to daily historical events.

Let us consider Genesis, as it was said “In the Beginning,” was the first book of the Bible written by Moses. This man, who physically spoke with God, lived for hundreds of years. Written around 1440 BC, Moses would be the first to write the history of humanity under the divine inspiration of God. Foundations, or principles, are critical to the success of any project. This goes from crafting a house to crafting an entire nation. When the Founding Fathers of set out to create the cement slab that would define America’s greatness, they went right to the source of that greatness. They would openly declare all human beings are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”[2]

Genesis holds the principle foundation of truth that God is the source of all things and our only hope for true peace, happiness, and liberty that each of us crave inside. Genesis is the “book of beginnings,” and through its text we see God’s divine crafting of heaven and earth through His Word. We witness Man’s rebellion and sin; we also see God’s calling on a covenant with the very people through which He would bring salvation and redemption. Gods saving grace would be given to the people of the earth through His one and only Son.

Genesis is the description of how the universe, the earth, and creation were made. We can look up on any given night to see God’s craftmanship with our own eyes. Each star and planet pinned in place with perfection. His artwork is accentuated by the asteroids, nebulas, and supernovas that expand the vastness of space. Even when tuned into the sounds of space, you would hear a rhythmic pattern of energy. That right there is what could be called evidence, or one big clue.

Pastor Louie Giglio proved this on one of his sermons recorded during a live presentation.[3] So what we see here is certain evidence that all life is connected through God, the Creator. With the Bible being the infallible Word of God—this proof becomes even more foundational.

America’s first manned mission to circle the moon would be completed on Christmas Eve, 1968. That evening, the three astronauts—Jim Lovell, William Anders, and Frank Borman—would film a live-television presentation during the 9th lunar orbit. During this time they would show the nation pictures of the Moon and Earth as seen from the Apollo 8 Space Shuttle. For the late 1960’s this event was the most watched television broadcast in history.[4]

What people do not know is that nearly six-weeks prior to the shuttle launch, a NASA official had called Astronaut Frank Borman with a special request, “We figure more people will be listening to your voice than that of any man in history. So we want you to say something appropriate.”[5] At the end of the live broadcast, the three-man team of Apollo 8 took turns reading passages from the Book of Genesis:

William Anders: “We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you. ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.’

Jim Lovell: “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Then God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.’ And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.”

Frank Borman: “Then God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear’; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.’ And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas—and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”
 
 

Daniel L. Smith

 
Resources:

[1] Goswell, Gregory. “The Two Testaments as Covenant Documents.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 62, no. 4 (December 2019): 677–92.
[2] "Declaration of Independence: A Transcription." National Archives. Last modified May 29, 2020. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript.
[3] Symphony. Directed by Louie Giglio. 2012. Film.
https://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=F20CFCNU
[4] "Apollo 8 astronaut marks 1968 broadcast to Earth." Daily Herald [Arlington Heights, IL] 24 Dec. 2013: 9. Business Insights: Global. Web. 10 Mar. 2021.
[5] Borman, Frank, and Robert J. Serling. Countdown: An Autobiography, 194-195. 1988. https://archive.org/details/countdownautobio0000borm/mode/2up