Join Us For “A Great Awakening”

By: Lisa Van Houten

As Benjamin Franklin left the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, he was asked what kind of government had just been established. His reply: “A republic, if you can keep it.”  By God’s grace, for nearly 250 years we’ve been able to keep it, but with the ever-growing assaults upon the U.S. Constitution and our Republic, one wonders how much longer it will stand.  As Daniel Webster warned, “Such a government, once gone, might leave a void, to be filled, for ages, with revolution and tumult, riot and despotism.”

Our Constitution is under attack like never before from those who want to tear down the faith and freedom upon which our nation was founded.  For example, Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has proclaimed his commitment to follow Sharia Law – which is diametrically opposed to the U.S. Constitution.  Anyone who seeks to be “Sharia-compliant” should be disqualified from holding office in the United States, but he could soon be the next senator from the state of Michigan.  In addition, the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA), who are welcomed into the “big tent” of the Democratic Party, are not shy about their plans to dismantle America and replace it with a socialist state.  The DSA’s party platform calls for the elimination of the U.S. Constitution and the drafting of a new constitution – as well as abolishing the office of the President, the U.S. Senate, and the Supreme Court as defined by the U.S. Constitution.

This Thursday, September 17 we commemorate Constitution Day – the day the delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed this founding document that protects our freedoms and secures our liberties.  Yet with the growing efforts to undermine that freedom, it’s more important than ever that we point our fellow Americans to the Source of our liberty – Almighty God, whose providential hand has been at work throughout our nation’s history.

Which is why we are hosting a free showing of the compelling movie, A Great Awakening, this Thursday, September 17 at our American Decency headquarters at 203 E. Main Street in Fremont, Michigan at 1:00 pm.

A Great Awakening, tells the true story of the spiritual revival which laid the groundwork for American independence and the establishment of one nation under God.

Without that spiritual awakening, America as we know it would not exist.  People learned self-governance not through laws, but through changed hearts.  As John Adams said, the American Revolution began not on a battlefield but “in the minds and hearts of the people.”

While history books focus on political figures and military battles, this movie centers on the spiritual awakening that preceded the American Revolution and explores the God-ordained friendship between evangelist George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin. With the colonies on the brink of collapse, God used Rev. George Whitefield to help spark this first Great Awakening, with his thundering proclamation of salvation in Christ.  A Great Awakening traces the events leading to the American Revolution, highlighting how Whitefield’s revivals and his surprising friendship with Benjamin Franklin helped unite the colonies.  The film also showcases how Whitefield’s influence on Franklin bore fruit years later as a frail 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin beseeched the Constitutional Convention to seek God’s guidance in the framing of our nation’s founding document.  He implored his fellow delegates with these words:

In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.’  I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of the City be requested to officiate in that service.

Months later, after a long, hot summer of debate and deliberation, on that first Constitution Day when the framers signed the Constitution of the United States, Benjamin Franklin reportedly wept as he signed it.

Today, Constitution Day receives little recognition, but considering these facts, it’s not surprising.  A majority of Americans have never read the Constitution, while another poll shows that 58% don’t know the main purpose of the US Constitution, 57% can’t explain why we declared independence, and 45% don’t know how many branches of government there are.

As a growing radical faction within our nation openly rejects our founding principles and seeks to tear down and replace the Constitution and the biblical precepts upon which it was established, we must be continually vigilant in striving to preserve this “house” which the Lord has built.

This powerful film reminds us that spiritual revival is still the only hope for America. As John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Join us for a free showing of A Great Awakening on Thursday, September 17 at 1:00 PM at American Decency, 203 E. Main Street in Fremont.

 

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