Dual Citizenship

 

Hebrews 11:8–10 (NLT)  It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

 

 Hebrews 11:13b–16 (NLT) They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

 

• Make no mistake – your citizenship lies first of all with God. You’re citizens of Heaven above all other allegiances.

Ephesians 2:19-20 (NIV) Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20  built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

 

Philippians 3:20 (NIV) But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.

-John Adams

Signer of the Declaration

1st Vice President, 2nd President

 

There are those who believe wrongly one or both of two things about the Separation of Church and State

• Falsehood #1: We are lawfully prohibited from bringing matters of faith into public life.
• Falsehood #2: Christians should withdraw from public life and politics, and focus only on spiritual matters.

 

Falsehood #1: We are lawfully prohibited from bringing matters of faith into public life.

Today, many people believe that “separation of Church and State” is in the First Amendment of the Constitution. But in the First Amendment the Constitution says:

 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

 

The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools.

– Benjamin Rush, 1789

Signer of the Declaration

the “Father of American Medicine”

helped organize America’s first Anti-Slavery society 

Ratifier of the U. S. Constitution

Treasurer of The U. S. Mint;

“Father of Public Schools Under The Constitution”

 

 

I verily believe that Christianity is necessary to support a civil society.

– Joseph Story

US. Congressman

“Father Of American Jurisprudence”

US. Supreme Court Justice

 

It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage…Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe. [1]

-James Madison

“Father of the Constitution”

4th President

 

 

 [T]he Christian religion – its general principles – must ever be regarded among us as the foundation of civil society.

Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.

– Daniel Webster

US. Senator

Secretary of State

”Defender of The Constitution”

 

 

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were… the general principles of Christianity.

-John Adams

Signer of the Declaration

1st Vice President, 2nd President

 

 

I am as satisfied that [the Constitution] is as much the work of a Divine Providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament.

– Benjamin Rush

Signer of the Declaration

“Father of American Medicine”

Helped organize America’s first Anti-Slavery society 

 

God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.

–Thomas Jefferson 

Signer of the Declaration

Secretary of State

Vice-President, & 3rd President

 

[T]he Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children under a free government ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

– Noah Webster

Revolutionary Soldier

Judge; Legislator; Educator

“Schoolmaster To America”

 

 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports… And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. …Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles.[4]

– George Washington

Member of the Continental Congress

Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army

President of the Constitutional Convention

1st President

“Father of his Country”

 

• In a speech in support of the Declaration of Independence given August 2, 1776

We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.

– Samuel Adams

Signer of the Declaration

“Father Of The American Revolution”

Ratifier of the Constitution

 

The Scriptures and the freedom to be fully faithful followers of Jesus were the basis for our Declaration, Constitution, and the future course of this country.

 

 

The Constitution itself was put together on the wisdom of the Scriptures:

• The Separation of Powers, our 3 branches of Government (Judicial, Legislative, and Executive) come from

 

Isaiah 33:22 (NIV84) For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.

 

• John Adams specifically cited Jeremiah 17:9 on multiple occasions to explain why we needed the separation of powers, but signers of Constitution George Washington and Alexander Hamilton also made the same point.

Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV84) The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

 

• The reason we have a representative form of government called republicanism (that is, of selecting our representative leaders at the federal, state, county, and local levels) set forth in the Constitution in Article IV has its origins in Exodus 18:21

Exodus 18:21 (NIV84)  But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

• In fact, Noah Webster specifically cited Exodus 18:21 in support of republicanism, as did Declaration signers John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush.

 

 

• the Constitution stipulates: “No person except a natural born citizen…shall be eligible to the office of President” (Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 5). That idea came from:

Deuteronomy 17:15 (NIV84) Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite.

 

 

So the idea that We are lawfully prohibited from bringing matters of faith into public life is clearly false.

 

Falsehood #2: Christians should withdraw from public life and politics, and focus only on spiritual matters.

 

Jeremiah 29:7 (NLT) Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.

 

Proverbs 29:2 (NLT)  When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan.

 

 

Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.

– John Jay

Framer of the Constitution

1st Chief Justice of SCOTUS

 

 

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have lost the only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?

• Thomas Jefferson