The history of the Jews in America began before the United States was an independent country. It actually began in 1654 with the arrival of twenty-three refugees to New Amsterdam (later to be known as New York), who were fleeing from the Portuguese who had conquered Recife, Brazil. By the time the colonies fought the War of Independence in 1776, there were about 2,000 Jews living in America at the time. Though they were few in number, they played a major role in ratifying the Constitution of the United States of America.

The majority of the earliest settlers were Puritans. Beginning with the Mayflower, 16,000 Puritans migrated to the Massachusetts Bay colony over the next twenty years, and many more settled in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Like their cousins back in England, these American Puritans strongly identified with both the historical traditions and customs of the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament. They viewed their emigration from England as a virtual reenactment of the Jewish exodus from Egypt.

To them, England was Egypt, the king was Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean was the Red Sea, America was the Land of Israel, and the Native Americans were the ancient Canaanites. They viewed themselves as the new Israelites, entering into a new covenant with God in a new Promised Land. Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1621, a year after the Mayflower first landed. It was initially conceived as a day parallel to the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, and it was to be a day of fasting, introspection, and prayer.

Previously, during the Puritan Revolution in England, the Puritan identification with the Bible was so strong that some Puritan extremists sought to replace the English common law with biblical laws of the Old Testament but were prevented from doing so.

In America, however, there was far more freedom to experiment with the use of biblical law in the legal codes of the colonies, and this was exactly what these early colonists set out to do. The earliest legislation of the colonies of New England was determined by Scripture alone. The New Haven legislators adopted a legal code—the Code of 1655—which contained some seventy-nine statutes, half of which contained biblical references, virtually all of them taken from the Hebrew Bible.

Jewish Influence on American Education

The Hebrew Bible played a central role in the educational system of America. In addition to Harvard, many other colleges and universities were established under the auspices of various Protestant sects: Yale, William and Mary, Rutgers, Princeton, Brown, King’s College (later to be known as Colombia), John Hopkins, Dartmouth, etc.

The Bible played a central role in the curriculum of all these institutions of higher learning, with both Hebrew and Bible studies offered as required courses. So popular was the Hebrew Language in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that several students at Yale delivered their commencement orations in Hebrew.

Bible study and Hebrew were course requirements in virtually all these colleges, and students had the option of delivering commencement speeches in Hebrew, Latin, or Greek. Many of these colleges even adopted some Hebrew word or phrase as part of their official emblem or seal. When Harvard was founded, the Hebrew language was taught along with Latin and Greek. Also, a significant number of the constitutional framers were products of these American universities.

Thus, we can be sure that a majority of these political leaders were not only well acquainted with the contents of both the Old and New Testaments, but also had some working knowledge of the Hebrew language. Most remarkable of all, a motion was made in the Continental Congress that Hebrew become the official language of the land. But needless to say, the motion was lost.

There were probably fewer than 3,000 Jews in the United States when George Washington became president. During the colonial period, Jewish settlers in America had first encountered much of the same kind of discrimination and legal restrictions that they had been accustomed to in Europe. Nevertheless, by the time of the American Revolution, they had gradually won civil, political, and religious rights that far exceeded anything that their fellow religionists in Europe enjoyed.

By the end of the Revolution, Jews had been chosen not only to local posts in some cities, but had also been selected for more responsible positions in many parts of the country. There was no inclination to bar these people from public office. The Jews of Philadelphia led by Jonas Phillips in 1783–1784 protested the requirement that members of the general assembly take an oath affirming belief in the New Testament.

A Revision to the Constitution

This led to the revision of the Constitution of Pennsylvania a few years later, explicitly barring the disqualification on account of religious sentiments of any person who acknowledges the Being of a God and future state of rewards and punishments. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia affirms that this petition proved later on to be instrumental in the revision of the Pennsylvania State Constitution in such a manner as to abolish the religious test oath.

On September 7, 1787, Jonas Phillips, a founder of Philadelphia’s Mikveh Israel Synagogue, also petitioned the framers at the federal Constitutional Convention:

It is well known among all citizens of the 13 United States that the Jews have been true and faithful Whigs, and during the late contest with England they have been foremost in aiding and assisting the States with their lives and fortunes. They have supported the cause and bravely fought and bled for liberty which they cannot enjoy. Therefore if the honorable convention shall in their wisdom think fit and alter the said oath as found in the altered Pennsylvania Constitution and leave out the words to viz: and I do acknowledge the Scripture of the New Testament to be given by divine inspiration, the Israelites (Jews) will think themselves happy to live under a government where all religious societies are on an equal footing. Your most devoted obedient Servant, Jonas Phillips Philadelphia, 24th Ellul, 5547, or September 1787.

Phillips’s petition undoubtedly bore weight with the framers, as did the personal relationships many of the framers shared with the Jews. Under the heading, “Jewish Influence on the Framing of the Constitution,” The Jewish People’s Almanac brags about George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison’s personal relationship with the Jews. Had the Constitutional Convention been open to the public, more than one eminent Jew would have had no difficulty in mingling on terms of equality with many of the best-known delegates.

It is important to note here that Benjamin Franklin, the oldest member of the Constitutional Convention, numbered many Philadelphia Jews among his friends. He was sufficiently friendly with them to be one of the contributors to the building fund for Philadelphia’s first synagogue, Mikveh Israel. Not only that, but Samuel Keimer, an English printer who was one Franklin’s first employers, was a Jew. To George Washington who presided over the sessions, Jews were of course no strangers.

During the Revolution he had on his personal staff Manuel Mordecai Noah of South Carolina, David Salisbury Franks of Philadelphia, and Major Benjamin Nones, a French volunteer. In his General Orders for April 18, 1783, announcing the cessation of hostilities with Great Britain, George Washington congratulated his soldiers “of whatever condition they may be,” for, among other things, having “assisted in protecting the rights of human nature and establishing an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religion.

The “bosom of America,” he declared a few months later, was “open to receive…the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges.

It is recorded that the following year, in 1784, when asking his aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman to secure a carpenter and a bricklayer for his Mount Vernon estate, he said:

If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe. They may be Mohometans, Jews, or Christians of any Sect, or they may be Atheists. I had always hoped that this land might be become a safe and agreeable Asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind; to whatever nation they might belong.

Washington emphasized that religious freedom is something more than mere toleration of opposing and differing religions. The most famous of the exchanges that American Jews had with President Washington was on August 17, 1790, by the Newport congregation who welcomed Washington to the city and then declared:

Deprived as we have hitherto been of the invaluable rights of free citizens, we now…behold a Government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance but generously affording to all liberty of conscience, and immunities of citizenship-deeming everyone, of whatever nation, tongue, or language equal parts of the great governmental machine…. For all the blessings of civil and religious liberty which we enjoy under an equal and benign administration we desire to send up our thanks to the Ancient of days.

In his reply, George Washington told the Newport Jews:

They have a right to applaud themselves for having given to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support…. May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of other inhabitants, while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

Washington’s statement has been called “immortal” and “memorable,” naturally delighting the Newport congregation and the Jewish congregations elsewhere in the United States. Historian Rabbi Morris Aaron Gutstein, best known for his work on the history of the Jewish community of colonial Newport, called it one of the “most outstanding expressions on religious liberty and equality in America” and insisted that it “will be quoted by every generation in which religious liberty is cherished.

Recommended Reading:

Ted Weiland, Bible Law Versus The United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective (Scottsbluff, NE: Mission to Israel Ministries, 2012)

Rabbi Ken Spiro, World Perfect: The Jewish Impact on Civilization (Deerfield Beach, Florida: Simcha Press, 2002)

Jonathan D. Sarna, Benny Kraut, Samuel K. Joseph, eds., Jews and the Founding of the Republic (New York: Markus Weiner Publishing, 1985)

Salomon, Haym, The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, 10 Vols. (New York: The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., 1941)

John F. Boller, George Washington and Religion (Dallas: SMU Press, 1963).

Os Guinness, Character Counts: Leadership Qualities in Washington, Wilberforce, Lincoln and Solzhenitsyn (Michigan: Baker Books, 1999)

Image description:  Statue of Robert Morris, left, George Washington, center, and Jewish financier Haym Solomon, right, in Chicago

One of the greatest authorities on revival, Leonard Ravenhill (1907–1994) declared that “America is in Danger yet America is Too young To Die….This is the most critical time in American history.”

“For the last fifty years I have watched Great Britain decay during her lingering agony of alternating fits of sanity and of stupefaction. Today England is no longer considered a world power. Most say that she is both morally and spiritually decadent. Must the United States follow her? I pray not. We are considered by most folk to be on the skids. Our dollar is sick.

Our morality is sick. At two o’clock one morning a man called me and tearfully sobbed, “Ravenhill, I am just reading Why Revival Tarries, and I found out three things: my Nation is sick, my church is sick, and I am sick.”

Just the other day Ron Paul described what is happening to America:

If Americans were honest with themselves they would acknowledge that the Republic is no more. We now live in a police state. If we do not recognize and resist this development, freedom and prosperity for all Americans will continue to deteriorate. All liberties in America today are under siege. It didn’t happen overnight. It took many years of neglect for our liberties to be given away so casually for a promise of security from the politicians. The tragic part is that the more security was promised — physical and economic — the less liberty was protected.

With cradle-to-grave welfare protecting all citizens from any mistakes and a perpetual global war on terrorism, which a majority of Americans were convinced was absolutely necessary for our survival, our security and prosperity has been sacrificed.It was all based on lies and ignorance. Many came to believe that their best interests were served by giving up a little freedom now and then to gain a better life.

The trap was set. At the beginning of a cycle that systematically undermines liberty with delusions of easy prosperity, the change may actually seem to be beneficial to a few. But to me that’s like excusing embezzlement as a road to leisure and wealth — eventually payment and punishment always come due. One cannot escape the fact that a society’s wealth cannot be sustained or increased without work and productive effort. Yes, some criminal elements can benefit for a while, but reality always sets in.

Reality is now setting in for America and for that matter for most of the world. The piper will get his due even if “the children” have to suffer. The deception of promising “success” has lasted for quite a while. It was accomplished by ever-increasing taxes, deficits, borrowing, and printing press money. In the meantime the policing powers of the federal government were systematically and significantly expanded. No one cared much, as there seemed to be enough “gravy” for the rich, the poor, the politicians, and the bureaucrats.

Michael Snyder echoes the same thing:

The country that our forefathers founded is dying. Now, individuals and organizations that attempt to restore the values that our founders once believed in so strongly are regarded as dangerous “extremists” that need to be watched carefully. In the name of fighting “terrorism” or “extremism”, our government is constructing a Big Brother police state control grid all around us.

Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize what is happening to this nation. As long as they are fed a constant diet of mindless entertainment, most Americans are perfectly content to let “the experts” do their thinking for them. We are steamrolling toward oblivion, and most of the country is dead asleep.

“Revival or Perish!”

When God sent revival or a Great Awakening in Britain in the eighteenth century, He saved her from the bloodshed that had happened in France during the time of the French Revolution. This awakening was truly a reformation of the heart. The impact that this Great Awakening through both George Whitefield and John Wesley had on this country and its people was unfathomable; it had far-reaching effects and lasted well over a hundred years. In four waves, it crossed the Atlantic and brought conversion to of 20% of the population in America.

The urgent message echoing from coast to coast today in America and Britain is “Revival or Perish!” Revivalist Jonathan Edwards best known for the First Great Awakening and his sermon “Sinners in Hands of Angry God” once declared that:

The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present. They increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given, and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty its course, when once it is let loose.”

The work of the Holy Spirit went beyond convicting the sinner of the need for repentance and Christ. Edwards wrote that for the people it was a “dreadful thing” to think of being outside of Christ when hell awaited them daily.

The Spirit also burrowed into the hearts of believers. An example of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit is the story of an elderly woman in her 70s, who had spent most of her adult life under the teaching of Solomon Stoddard, who was Jonathan’s grandfather.

Reading his scripted sermon, about Christ’s suffering for sinners, she seemed to see it for the first time. She wondered how Stoddard could have missed such a wonderful concept, and then realized she had heard it from him many times. She understood how ungrateful she had been to sin against God and such a loving Saviour, even though everyone vouched for her as one of the most pious and good women in the town. But she was so overcome with this conviction in her heart through the Holy Spirit that her family thought she was dying.

Another eyewitness observed, “Before the sermon was done – there was a great groaning and crying out through the whole house.” Edwards warned: Let everyone that is out of Christ now awake and fly from the wrath to come.”

Indeed they awoke. The most noted sermon in American history caused a tidal wave throughout the colonies known as the First Great Awakening. Tens of thousands fell on their faces in repentance. Christians were revived. Pagans were converted. The hearts of the people were being prepared for the conflict just ahead that would determine destiny…the Revolutionary War. There is no more devastating judgment than war. Most of the great revivals in history came before the judgment, not during or after.

The first great awakening in America preceded the Revolutionary War, which terribly devastated the cities and countryside of America. The Second Great Awakening preceded the Civil War, which was the most devastating war in America’s history. The Welsh Revival, which greatly impacted the whole world, but especially Europe, preceded World War I.

Frank Bartleman (1871–1936) was one of the key players in the Azusa Street Revival. He wrote many articles for Pentecostal magazines and his extensive research became one of the most important sources in understanding the events surrounding the Pentecostal revival. In July 1905 he wrote an article for the Wesleyan Methodist in which he said:

Mercy rejected means judgment, and on a corresponding scale. In all of the history of God’s world, there has always been first the offer of divine mercy, then judgment following. The prophets ceased not day and night to faithfully warn Israel, but their tears and entreaties for the most part proved in vain. The awful destruction of Jerusalem, in 70 A.D., which resulted in the extermination of a million Jews and captivity of multitudes more, was preceded by the offer of divine mercy at the hands of the Son of God Himself. In 1859 a great revival wave visited the United States, sweeping a half a million souls into the fountain of salvation. Immediately the terrible carnage of 1861–1865 [the Civil War] followed. And so, as we anticipate the coming revival, which is already assuming rapidly world-wide proportions, we wonder if judgment will follow mercy, as other times. And judgment in proportion to the mercy extended.

What Should We do?

We need to repent, humble ourselves and seek God’s mercy and grace in this impending distress. Holy Spirit Prayers can make a huge difference. It doesn’t matter what those in power are trying to do. Remember we are not fighting against flesh and blood. We are fighting demonic powers that strengthen and guide human beings. It’s only the persistent and prevailing prayers, fasting and intercession of faithful men and women that will defeat the enemy. As Christians we have the authority from God to cast out and overcome these demonic forces through prayer and intercession in the name of Jesus Christ.

Yes, prayer does work. John Knox was a man famous for his power in prayer, It is not a surprise that Queen Bloody Mary is said to have feared the prayers of John Knox more than the trampling feet of the armies of Europe. And events showed that she had reason to do it. John Knox used to be in such agony for the deliverance of his country, that he could not sleep. He had a place in his garden where he used to go and pray.

One night he and several friends were praying together, and as they prayed, Knox spoke and said that deliverance had come. He could not tell what had happened, but he felt that something had taken place, for God had heard their prayers. What was it? Why, the next news they had was, that Bloody Mary was dead!

The scriptural record about the blood begins in the Garden of Eden. Then the Lord made a covering for them by shedding the blood of an innocent animal, prophesying of the atonement that Jesus would make by shedding His blood for our sins. Even if we have sinned, we have confidence into the presence of the Lord, not because of anything we can do, but because of the blood of Jesus.

All our confidence is in Him, not ourselves and not even our ability to repent. His atonement not only reconciles us to God, but it also great enough to cleanse our consciences and make us pure. We are never to let our sins drive us away from the Lord, but rather to His cross until we are intimate with Him again.

The first sin committed by the first man caused the second man to kill the third. Because of envy, Adam’s eldest son killed his middle son. Envy was responsible for the first murder in history that Jesus Himself said, the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, had been spilled…. (Matthew 23:34-35).

According to the Kings James Translation, Cain means “gotten”. Eve said I have gotten him from the Lord, whereas Abel means “breath or vapour”. God favoured Abel the younger child of the two, because he did not want anybody to think they had a natural right to His gift and inheritance. Often in Scripture we find God choosing a younger person over an older one. That sacrifice offered by the younger son, was also a prophecy that it would be the “last Adam” that would make the sacrifice acceptable to God.

Abel had learned from his parents that the only sacrifice worthy of God was a blood sacrifice- the result of a life being taken. Remember God had already covered the sin and shame of our first parents by killing animals and providing a covering from animal skins. The principle was being established that blood would be shed so that their shame could be covered which ended with Jesus Christ on the cross at Moriah which later became Calvary.

When Abel came to worship God he brought an animal sacrifice but Cain simply brought fruits and vegetables. The problem that divided them was that God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and rejected Cain’s. This was a prophecy of the enmity that would exist between those who tried to offer God their good works for acceptance, and those who would trust in the blood of Yeshua. The struggle for freedom began among the first two brothers. Jealousy led to oppression, insecurity and it has continually been the source of human conflicts.

Then came the Flood when God judged the world because of sin, after Noah had left the ark, he offered a burnt sacrifice to God:

And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done (Genesis 8:20-21 KJV).

Then came the divine call of Abraham. Abraham was old when Isaac was born, old enough to have been his grandfather but God chose him to take his son Isaac to Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice to God. The son represented everything sacred to his father’s heart: the promises of God, the covenants and the promised Messiah. Isaac, the son of promise was to be surrendered to God only by death.

So Abraham entered into a covenant relationship with Abraham and God tested his faith which would follow the same basic plan later in history. The Bible tells us that Abraham was willing to kill Isaac as a sacrifice because he believed God would raise him from the dead after he had killed him. Remember Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said, here I am, my son. Isaac said, See, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice? Abraham said, My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering….. (Genesis 22:7-8).

Here Abraham spoke prophetically, and referred to that Lamb of God which He had provided for Himself, Who in the fullness of time would take away the sin of the world, and of Whom Isaac was a most expressive type (Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with a Commentary). For Abraham was a prophet (Gen. 20:7). Jesus said Abraham hoped for “My day My incarnation; and he did see it and was delighted” (John 8:56).

Most of the written and image representatives of the sacrifice of Isaac paint him as a boy of 12. However, according to the ancient historian Josephus, Isaac was perhaps 25 years old or was in his early thirties at the time of the sacrifice.

The Bible also tells us the length of Isaac’s mother Sarah was 127 years, which would make Isaac to be 37 years. This means he could have resisted easily but he submitted in faith to his father Abraham. Through the blood that was shed on Mount Moriah, the life of Isaac was spared. By that blood, he was in another sense raised again from the dead.

After a period of four hundred years, Isaac bore Jacob who later became, in Egypt the children of Israel. Then the Lord delivered the nation of Israel from Egyptian bondage. God appointed that, on the night they were to go out of Egypt, each family should kill a lamb.

Remember Jesus said that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. So you cannot understand the New Testament without the Old. That is why so many of the words in Exodus are used again in the New Testament-words such as law, covenant, blood, lamb, Passover, Exodus, leaven. These words are used in the New Testament but derive their meaning from the book of Exodus.

Another example is, six months before Jesus died on the cross He was 4,000 feet high on top of Mount Hermon in the north of Israel, talking with Moses and Elijah. Luke’s Gospel tells us that they talked about the Exodus which Jesus was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.

What is more Jesus died at 3:00 P.M., (see Luke 23:44), the very time when thousands of Passover lambs were being slaughtered. This is confirmed in the gospel of Luke chapter 22:7-20. Even the man carrying a pitcher of water that met the disciples and directed them to the Passover guest room were the meal was to be taken was foretold in the book of Deuteronomy:

You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns which the Lord your God gives you, but at the place which the Lord your God will choose in which to make His Name [and His Presence] dwell, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening at sunset, at the season that you came out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 16:5-7).

Christians also have a Passover meal regularly, for the Lord’s Supper is a Passover Meal, commemorating the liberation of Christ. Paul again speaks of keeping the feast and getting rid of the yeast or leaven because Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

The Old Testament Passover Lamb, which is a type of Christ, was examined for 72 defects. The true Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, was absolutely without fault. That is why Pilate said to the chief priests and to the people that I find no fault in this Man.

This lamb was to be eaten in the way that God instructed, and the blood had to be sprinkled on the door-posts, to mark the houses of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians. The angel of the Lord, when destroying the first-born of the Egyptians, would pass over the houses marked by the blood of the lamb which became the Passover (See Exodus 12:12-14).

When Israel reached Sinai, the Lord gave His Law as the foundation of His covenant and that covenant had to be established in blood as the Book of Hebrews says: But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people (Hebrews 9:7 KJV).

The blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the altar, on the book, and on the people. They could not get acceptance from a holy God, in any other way except through the shedding and sprinkling of blood (See Exodus 24:6-8).

The sprinkling of the blood continued on the Day of Atonement which represented the time when the people confessed their sins as a nation, and the high priest went into the Most Holy Place to make atonement for them. Again sacrifices were made and blood was shed so that the people’s sins could be covered until Christ’s sacrifice on the cross would give us the opportunity to have our sins forgiven (See Leviticus 16: 11-19).

Throughout the Old Testament, the priests sacrificed the blood of goats, bulls, and turtle doves but all these could never wash away sin on a permanent basis, but merely temporarily cover sin. This same ritual had to be repeated every year until our Lord Jesus Christ’s death replaced this system once and made an end of all shadows by opening the way to the Father in fellowship with Him in spirit and truth.

Jesus fulfilled all Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah: He was born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, in the line of Abraham and David; He was rejected by His own people; His hands, feet and side were pierced, but no bones were broken; and He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you know Me, you will also know My Father. … The one who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:6-8). He also said, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am” (John 8:58).

Here, Jesus claimed not only to have pre-existed Abraham but also that His pre-existence was eternal, as would have been the case had He said, “I was.” More significantly, “I AM” was a name for God. He further identified himself as the God of the Old Testament when proclaiming, “I am the light of the world” (Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation”) and “I am the good shepherd.”(Psalm 23:1 says, “The Lord is my shepherd.”) When responding to the high priest as to His deity, Jesus said, “I am and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62).

A True Story – The Blood of Yeshua makes the Difference

An Indian evangelist named Sadhu Chellappa was on a mission trip to a village north of Madras, when in the middle of the night he suddenly sensed God speaking to him: Leave this house quickly and run away! Not exactly a convenient thing to do.

But Chellappa was used to accepting even strange instructions from the Lord without discussion, so he dressed quickly and ran into the darkness. After a while, he was in the open country. Then as he passed beneath a large tree, he felt the Lord tell him, “Stay here and start to preach!”

Now, even for an experienced evangelist, this was puzzling-there was no one to be seen. Why did God want him to preach to an empty field in the middle of the night? But he stopped under the tree and began to preach the gospel. Finally he reached the point at which he called on his unseen listeners to give their lives to Jesus.

He was surprised to hear a voice from the top of the tree and see a man climb down crying. The man tearfully gave his life to Jesus and accepted His sacrifice. When Chellappa asked why he was in a tree out in the middle of nowhere, the man admitted, “I came out here to hang myself.”

Another story is for a young farming couple who were attending an evangelistic meeting in Durban South Africa. They had traveled 100 miles to the meeting, and at the conclusion, they climbed back into their car for their return home. They spoke very little for the first part of their journey until the wife broke the silence.

She said: “I should have gone forward tonight and given my life publicly to Jesus.” He replied, “So should I. When the evangelist read the verse about being hot or cold, that spoke to me very strongly.” She then told her husband that the very same Bible verses spoke to her. So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth! (Revelation 3:16). Apparently, both of them were waiting for the other to make the first move.

Arriving home that night, absolutely worn out, she took a bath and called out to the kitchen for her husband to make her a hot drink of chocolate. He put two cups on the bench, boiled the jug, made himself a cup of tea, and a cup of hot chocolate for his wife. Upon handing it to her in the bath, she cried out, “What an evil trick to play on me at this time of the night. This chocolate is freezing cold.”

Mystified, they left both cups, which had been filled with hot water from the same jug, and came to the very quick realization that Almighty God Himself had intervened in their lives, and that it was high time to make a firm decision for Jesus Christ.They traveled all the way back the following night, and when the invitation was given by the evangelist, once again at the conclusion of the meeting to confess Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior, this couple were the first two to walk down the aisle hand in hand to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ.

The challenge is clear. If God in heaven put so much value on human souls so as to send an Indian evangelist in the middle of the night for one soul who was about to commit suicide without knowing his Savior; and to reveal Himself supernaturally to two people living in the farthest end of South Africa, you can be sure that He knows your address as well.

Some people believe mankind is progressing – growing wiser, getting better. But the authors of The Race to Save Our Century point out the last 100 years were the deadliest in recorded history, and the next century may be even deadlier. Co-authors John Zmirak and Jason Jones lay out the reasons that genocide and total war, eugenics and totalitarianism were able to triumph over the principles of humane civilization in the 20th century.

Slaughtered 133 Million Citizens

“Poison gas, concentration camps: nobody in 1913 – the era of Sherlock Holmes – would have imagined the evils of the 20th century. But there were reasons they came about,” Zmirak told CBN News.

“And they came about because modern secular philosophy had undermined the core principles of the moral law that the Judeo-Christian civilization had relied upon for centuries,” he said.

That allowed a culture of death to flourish, and a century where governments committed mass “democide” and murdered 133.1 million of their own citizens.

Americans who think their country is too civilized to commit such barbarism may want to consider how average folks all around them have killed more than 56 million of America’s most vulnerable citizens through abortion.

“Abortion I would say is the rock foundation of the culture of death,” Jones said. Jones asserts that violence in the womb cannot help but spread out beyond the womb.

Your Children Will Die in the Camps?

“If we don’t see full legal protection for the human person from the moment of biological beginning through natural death, you can expect your children or grandchildren to die in the gulag, to die in the concentration camp,” Jones said

Jones doesn’t believe this just because of his study of history. He feels it deeply in his bones, because for Jones, this is incredibly personal.

As he put it to CBN News, his life didn’t bring him to the abortion issue; the abortion issue invaded his life.

It started two days before his seventeenth birthday with a visit from his high school sweetheart.

“She came over to my house and woke me up with the words, ‘I’m pregnant,'” Jones said.

They then came up with a secret plot: in two days, Jones would join the Army and soon be supporting their little family.

But then while he was at basic training, his girlfriend called him, weeping uncontrollably before her dad grabbed the phone away.

“And then her father said, ‘We know your secret now and you can come home. It’s gone. We took Katie to get an abortion,'” he recalled.

‘He Killed My Baby!’

Jones went wild and screamed at his commanding officer. “Call the police. Call the police. He killed my baby!” Jones recalled yelling.

But Jones said the captain replied, “‘Private, why would I call the police? Don’t you know that abortion is legal?’ And, you know, I didn’t.” That same day, the young Army enlistee made a pledge to his girlfriend that has steered his entire life.

Jones recalled saying to her, “‘Katie, I promise you for my child, that if it takes me the rest of my life, I’m going to end abortion in America.'” And that is what he’s been working for since, producing and promoting pro-life movies like “Bella” and “Crescendo” and writing books like this one.

Jones and Zmirak believe the culture of death that allows abortion is the same one that leads to genocide, ethnic cleansing, and governments murdering their own citizens.

But before that culture of death overwhelmed the world 100 years ago, Zmirak said most mankind believed like people today that civilization was on an upward trajectory.

One Assassination Led to Two World Wars

“A hundred years ago, the world was at peace. In western Europe you didn’t need a passport to go from country to country. There was vast technological progress,” Zmirak explained.

“Everyone thought that the 20th century would be an era of peace, progress, international tranquility, and wealth. Then one archduke got shot in Austria and 20 million people died,” he continued. “And then 20 years later that war laid the groundwork for another war in which 60 million people died.”

Jones believes humanity could be headed down the same path now.

“From Ebola to the border crisis to Russia invading Ukraine to the war in Israel to the ethnic cleansing of Christians across the Middle East, we see the same things happening today in our world that were happening 100 years ago with the Bolshevik Revolution, the Armenian genocide, and World War I,” he warned.

In The Race to Save Our Century, these gentlemen propose several core principles they believe can save the world from a vast, bloody re-run.

“And there are five core principles that we think anyone, any rational good-hearted person of good will could accept,” Zmirak said. “And they really correspond with the natural law that Saint Paul said is written on the human heart.”

Acknowledging a Universal Law

One of those principles is acknowledging there is a natural, God-given law, or as Zmirak put it, “the existence of a transcendent moral order that is higher than any secular law, which can tell you that segregation or abortion or apartheid is intrinsically evil regardless of what the Supreme Court or the dictator or the secret police says.”

Zmirak and Jones declare the U.S. Supreme Court basically threw out this transcendent moral order and made man the ultimate authority when it said in a 1992 abortion case it was up to each human to decide what is life and death.

The Court wrote in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and of the mystery of human life.”

So much for godly authority. If you decide a human is not a human, then they’re not.

That leads to the need for this next core principle: accepting the infinite dignity and worth of each human person.

“We must reaffirm the founding truth of humanism – that every human being is important, unique, and dignified,” the authors say in the book. “He or she deserves the same reverence we demand for ourselves.”

“We see the rise of this beautiful civilization that we inherited,” Jones said, looking across history over the last two millennia. “But with the denial of the incomparable dignity of the human person, we will see everything that we take for granted disappear.”

‘The Wiper of Every Runny Nose’

Among the other core principles to save humanity – and liberty – is trying to get back to small, decentralized government that’s close, responsive, and accountable to its citizens — not the kind of government that butts into everyone’s lives, tries to solve every problem, and meet every need.

Zmirak characterized such government as “The wiper of every runny nose.”

“Because when the government grows and steps into those roles, it invariably exerts control over people, and then you don’t have a free society anymore,” he said.

In the last century, vicious dictators like China’s Mao Tse-Tung and the Soviet Union’s Josef Stalin could squash the freedom of hundreds of millions and slaughter tens of millions. But the hi-tech world ahead will allow future tyrants close to total, computer-controlled domination of their citizens. And it will give future warriors weapons that could actually exterminate all mankind.

“The next world war is going to be much shorter and immensely more violent. It’s unimaginable,” Jones stated. “To think of World War III is actually unimaginable.”

That’s why Jones and Zmirak say we so desperately need a Race to Save Our Century.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGKJ2bn5NF4]
© Copyright 2015, Christian Broadcasting Network  

When God confronted Adam with his sin, he blamed Eve and thereby forfeiting his God-given responsibility which led to a spirit of blame and irresponsibility entering the human race. The Bible says: “The man replied, ‘It was the woman You gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it’ (Genesis 3:12). In other words, Adam was telling God that because He was the One who gave Eve to him, and she was the one who gave him the fruit, therefore it was God and Eve’s fault that he ate the fruit.

The Bible says: “The man replied, ‘It was the woman You gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it’ (Genesis 3:12). In other words, Adam was telling God that because He was the One who gave Eve to him, and she was the one who gave him the fruit, therefore it was God and Eve’s fault that he ate the fruit.

Adam was suggesting that God was responsible for the choice and decision that he made. If Eve had used other means of force to give the fruit to Adam, then the woman would have been responsible, but she didn’t force him in any way; it was Adam’s choice alone.

The woman said that it was the serpent’s fault. Since God put the serpent in the garden, she was also implying that the whole thing was God’s fault. If Adam had not tried to blame Eve, or even God, but had responded in repentance, God could have forgiven him on the spot. History might have turned out very differently. Instead we have the same problem of blaming each other for our sins. Cain blamed Abel and killed him and the list goes on and on.

Although Adam blamed God when he sinned, God will never tempt us, but He will test us. This difference is God’s tests are “open book tests.” He tests us in the hope that we will pass those tests. In fact God has promised us that we will never be tempted more than we can bear-which means that the devil is totally under God’s control.

He cannot touch us unless He gets permission from God first. A good example would be the experience of Job. It’s the devil who tempts us and wants us to fail. In fact he wants to steal kill and destroy. However, he can only tempt us by own evil desires (lust, passions) which he uses to make us take his bait.

James also teaches us that there is a difference between being tested and being tempted:

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:12-15)

Temptation comes from our own evil desires not from God so there is no point in blaming God or someone else when we are tempted as Adam and Eve did. When Adam and Eve sinned, they felt a great amount of guilt which happens to everyone of us. This guilty conscious bothers you that you broke God’s laws, and you start blaming others, which is then translated into your body. As a matter of fact scientists discovered that we have no enzymes or chemicals to handle guilt. It is only the blood of Jesus Christ that can set us free from this guilt of sin.

What about the Consequences?

The Bible says, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) It was through Adam that sin entered the world. When Adam sinned, he immediately died spiritually—his relationship with God was broken—and he also began dying physically—his body began the process of ageing and dying. From that point on, every person born has inherited Adam’s sin nature and suffered the same consequences of spiritual and physical death.

The good news is that Jesus paid for our sins and offers us His righteousness. He personally bore our sins in His own body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (2 Corinthians 5:21-22)

But becoming a Christian doesn’t necessarily fix all things. When convicted of our sin, we sincerely repent, and ask God to forgive us. He forgives us and sometimes the consequences of our sins are removed. The only problem is God will not stop the natural consequences of our sin from affecting our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

Sometimes the consequences will cause great problems years later. David a man after God’s own heart broke five of the Ten Commandments. He thought his sin with Bathsheba was dealt with forever, but the consequences caught up with him years later and almost caused him to lose his life and throne. At the time when he should have been enjoying his life and honours, David was forced to flee from his palace in fear after the betrayal of his son and his close counselor.

God does not change the law of cause and effect. Everything about you and me will change once you repent, but your circumstances might not change immediately. This is what most Christians don’t understand. Personally I am still reaping from some bad choices. Behind me are things I regret and people I have hurt terribly that I wish I could go back in time and change the past, but I cannot apart from repenting and asking forgiveness in order to build a better tomorrow. We cannot blame other people for our sins or on our past environment because that can never deliver us from the consequences of those mistakes until we accept the responsibility of our sins which means repentance. To repent is to acknowledge that it is our fault, and we sinned or made a mistake.

It’s the repentance inspired by the Holy Spirit that results in forgiveness and reconciliation, with God and man. For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly breeding and ending in death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Every now and again; the Holy Spirit will put you through the process conviction, repentance, obedience and then joy. Just when you start to think that your heart is pure and spotless, the Spirit of God reminds you of your hypocrisy, bitterness un-forgiveness, lust or any kind of sin you actually forgot about.

Temptation promises that which self desires and when we desire the pleasures of sin more than we desire being in God’s presence we will fall. So we have to take our crosses daily and to die to everything in our souls and minds that contradicts God’s truth.

I am reminded of a story I heard from a Chinese convert. When the missionary asked him how he was coping with life as a Christian, he said, “It feels as if I have two dogs fighting within me, one white and one black.” “Which one is winning?” asked the missionary. “It depends which one I feed,” came the reply. The battle can only be won on your knees.

We think that to die once is sufficient but the temptations and the spirit of the world, loosed upon this generation is so strong in these evil days—that it is only in a continual daily crucifying of the flesh that we can withstand temptation. The devil, the flesh, and the world are too much for any man or woman! The old man may be dead, but he won’t lie down! The struggle with sin can be greater after conversion than before.

Most of the New Testament is addressed to believers and it’s full of exhortations to continue the moral and spiritual battle until the final victory is won. (See Hebrews 12:14; Philippians 3:14) We are to keep ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. (Jude 21-23)

It’s the reason Jesus says not to judge and criticize and condemn others who have fallen from grace or you too you will judged and then He finishes by saying, that we are to first remove the plank from own eye, before we will see clearly to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)

There is a story that says a few years ago two elders had the task of approaching a man in their church who was in an adulterous relationship. On their way to the man’s home one elder said to the other, “Do you believe that you could fall into this sin?” the reply: “No I cannot.” The elder who asked the question then said, “You are not qualified to go in and approach this man” and the visit was cancelled.

Paul admonishes us in Galatians 6:1 that brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. The lesson here is: the person who knows full well that he or she could do the very same thing if at all it’s not by the grace of God is the only person qualified to help a fellow Christian caught in any kind of sin.

The Bible says, He who trusts in his own hear is a fool but whoever walks wisely will be delivered. (Proverbs 28:26) We all depend on the grace of God to empower us to live in holiness and victoriously in every area of our lives. You cannot be a better person through will power or human effort. It takes the supernatural, all sufficient grace of Jesus Christ.