Save America Ministries

Guest (Male): This is Viewpoint with attorney and author Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is a one-hour talk show confronting the issues of America's heart and home. And now with today's edition of Viewpoint, here is Chuck Crismier.

Chuck Crismier: Heritage in the past without purpose in the present destroys hope for the future. Let me repeat that. Heritage in the past without purpose in the present destroys hope for the future. Today on Viewpoint, we're going to deal with the reason for our being. The reason for our being, the raison d'être for America, and I'm glad that you've joined us. It's conversation with conviction, talk that transforms as always, and I have a series of questions for you as we launch into the deep here today on Viewpoint.

Why should America be preserved? Do we have a reason for being a nation? Did the political existence of America proceed from the spiritual, or did the spiritual issue from the political? When was the nation truly conceived? What was the initial seed that resulted in the nation's ultimate birth?

Try these questions on for size. How do we now, or did we ever, have a national purpose? What does our national heritage say about our national purpose? What is the Great Commission? What did the Mayflower Compact say about the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28 and the reason for the Pilgrim settlement?

What did attorney John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, say would happen if we broke covenant with God and failed to accomplish His reason or purpose for America? Here's the final question. If America's promise depends upon your part in fulfilling her purpose, what is America's future?

In other words, today's program has everything to do not only with the past, but with the present and with the future. It's great to have you on board here today on Viewpoint as we continue to progress toward the 250th anniversary, that is the political anniversary of our country, from July 4, 1776, to July 4, 2026.

But it didn't all begin there. It began long before that. It began in 1606, and then in 1607, then in 1619, 1620, and then in 1630, and then onward progressed from there. I have in front of me an article written by Dr. Paul Chappell. He is the pastor of Lancaster Baptist Church in Lancaster, California. That's north of Los Angeles in the desert. He's president of the West Coast Baptist College and author of a book called Founded on Faith: America's Christian Heritage and the Faith That We Must Pass On.

I want to share with you some excerpts from the article that came out from him in the Christian Post just a couple of days ago. He asked the question, why, or makes a statement, why a forgetful American church leads to an ungrateful nation, an ungrateful nation. Listen with your heart if you can.

Freedom, he said, is easy to enjoy and easy to forget. Most Americans wake up each morning with liberties so familiar that we scarcely notice them. We gather for worship without fear. We open the Bible in our homes, teach our children biblical truth, speak according to conscience, and share the Gospel in public life, all without fear.

These freedoms, he said, are normal to us, but they are not normal in much of the world, and they have not been normal through the long march of human history. With a gift so precious as freedom, American Christians should both value it and know the history that it gave to us. Memory, he said, is part of stewardship. When a people forget what has been entrusted to them, they lose the wisdom and gratitude necessary to preserve it.

Scripture repeatedly calls God's people to remember. Moses rehearsed Israel's history before they entered the Promised Land. Joshua reminded the people of God's faithfulness before calling them to renewed obedience. The Psalmist wrote, "I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old." So remembering is not primarily for nostalgia, but as a motivation for faithfulness in the future.

So it is with the freedoms we have inherited as Americans. We should remember where they came from, what they cost, and why they matter. Dr. Chappell goes on to say, for Christians, this responsibility is especially significant. We do not value religious liberty merely because it allows us to live comfortably. We value it because it gives us the opportunity to obey Christ openly.

We can preach the Gospel, send missionaries, train our children, plant churches, disciple believers, share biblical truth, serve our neighbors in the name of Christ. But a forgetful people will become an ungrateful people, he said, and an ungrateful people will eventually become careless with what they have received.

But a people who remember rightly will live differently. This is the kind of patriotism Christians should cultivate. Not a shallow, sentimental kind of patriotism, but a grateful stewardship. Not a faith in politics, but a recognition that God has given us unusual freedoms and that we are responsible for using them well.

Our ultimate hope, he said, is not in America; it's in Christ. This moment, we should seek the good of our country and use every freedom we have for the cause of Christ. Freedom is too precious to forget, and history is too important to neglect. As it has been said, by the way, those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.

Well, today on Viewpoint, we're going to take a look a little bit at history, but we're going to take a look a little more in terms of history as prophecy and setting the direction for our country from here on out. Do we have a direction? Do we have a purpose? Is it just about living comfortable? Is it about becoming the richest nation on the planet? Is it about becoming the most powerful nation on the planet?

No, it isn't. Now, those may be accommodating parts of the greater vision for freedom, but they are not the substance. The substance has to do with the why. Not the who, what, where, and when, but the why of why we exist. That's the question very few people answer or even try to answer.

But heritage in the past without purpose in the present destroys hope for the future. That's the statement that I put at the very head of a chapter in my book, Renewing the Soul of America, called A Hope and a Purpose. When and how can hope well up in our hearts from the wellspring of our heritage? It's not enough that we be informed of our goodly and godly heritage; we have to be transformed by it.

Information without transformation, as we say all the time here on the program for years and years and years, leads to frustration, stagnation, and ultimate termination. That's true for individuals, it's true for families, and yes, even nations. And often the missing link is proper application.

Without proper application of the abundant information regarding our heritage, we are void of vision and will soon perish for lack of purpose. Today is all about purpose. What is your purpose anyway? What is our purpose collectively as Christians? What is our purpose collectively as American Christians? Do we have any comprehension of that purpose really? Is it really lurking right there in the front membranes of our minds each day? We'll be back.

Guest (Male): Once upon a time, children could pray and read their Bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown, as was child abuse. In our once great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation?

Hi, I'm Chuck Crismier, and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint, where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and homes. Could America's moral slide relate to the Fourth Commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station, or anytime at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: Welcome back to Viewpoint. I'm Chuck Crismier. Today we deal with the purpose, the raison d'être for the existence of the United States of America as we know it, going back long before the political foundation of the country with the Declaration of Independence and then ultimately with the Constitution in 1789.

We go way back. Way back earlier than that. We're not going to spend a great deal of time going back, but we are going to go back a bit to establish the foundation because, as a good lawyer, see, I want the jury to know the reason why we have this trial together here, why we're presenting the evidence, both documentary and testimonial, and where it's all supposed to go because they have to make a decision.

And you're the jury. You have to make a decision. As one person said long ago, listening to Viewpoint, they said you cannot listen to Viewpoint long and not be changed. You just can't. You have to make a decision. Many different kinds of decisions, some great, some smaller, but you have to make a decision, and they're all decisions for destiny.

Decisions issue from our viewpoints. That's why we say viewpoint determines destiny. So here on this program, we present things in such a way from a biblical or heavenly viewpoint, not primarily from an earthly viewpoint, so that we can catch the real reasons why we do what we do or don't do what we do, and how we can best be successful in fulfilling God's plan and purposes for our lives.

That's why this program is not dedicated to evangelism. It's not dedicated to the unbelievers and to convert them into believers. It's dedicated to professing believers who need to be brought to remember. Even though we know or should know, we are supposed to be brought to remember, just like the Apostle Peter said, "I know that you know these things, but I'm going to remind you anyway."

Moses basically said, "I know that you know these things because you've already been told, but I'm going to remind you again. Remember, remember, remember." Joshua said the same thing before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land. And so we do that here on Viewpoint today and have a series of these each week now so that we can get a better perspective on what this 250th anniversary celebration should really be about.

It's not about a sentimental thing. Now, I love the red, white, and blue. I have more patriotic flags and ties and shirts and so on. My wife said, "Cease and desist. No more, no more." But we've obtained a number of very patriotic-looking things for decorations and so on to help us celebrate. But behind it all, behind the sentimental, is something far more substantial.

When we launched Save America Ministries, people said, well, you know, they thought that this was all going to be about dealing with politics, it was all going to be dealing with law, and because you're a lawyer. But that's not what God had in mind. What God had in mind was saving America because America is made up of Americans, individuals, as the first three words of our Constitution say, "We the people."

The only way America can be saved is if the American people can be saved and the church itself can be saved. And I'm not using the word "saved" in the sense of eternal salvation. I'm talking about saved for our purpose. We've lost sight of the purpose. We engage in rituals, Sunday morning Churchianity so to speak, but in terms of actually seriously valuing what we have and why we have it, not so much.

And one of the reasons for that is it just doesn't market well. What does market well is what markets to the flesh. In other words, telling people what riches we can have, what power we can have, and perks and position and all of that. Well, yes, America does afford the opportunity to do that. But that's not its primary purpose.

That's one of the fruits of freedom, but it's not the primary purpose. The primary purposes for freedom are set forth in the Bill of Rights, Bill of Right number one, Amendment number one, beginning with freedom of religion. Not freedom from religion, but freedom of religion. That's what our founders determined, and that was correct.

And in order to support that, we had to have freedom of speech, we had to have freedom of the press, we had to have freedom of assembly and so on. Those are the first ones of the First Amendment. Now, what are they for though? You see, it's one thing to claim the freedoms; it's another thing to understand what they're for.

Why are we given those freedoms? That's what we want to talk about here for the balance of the program today. The Psalmist wrote this. Actually, God wrote this through the Psalmist. "Ask of Me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession."

You may be familiar, maybe you're not familiar, with the name Will Durant. He's one of the most renowned historians of all time. He wrote a 10-volume set, the History of Civilization. I have every one of those volumes, and one volume is called the History of Christianity. Here's what he said.

Even the mighty Roman Empire finally bowed her knee to Christ as Lord. He said there is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting sword with word, brutality with hope, and last, defeating the strongest state that history had known. Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won.

Isn't that great? Caesar and Christ had met in the arena, and Christ had won. Well, 13 centuries later, the church of Jesus Christ was marching across the Atlantic to the new world, ready to endure hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. And the church embarked in the shoes of, yes, the Puritans and the Pilgrims on what they called an errand into the wilderness along the American shores.

They carried their Gospel treasure of good news of salvation imperfectly in earthen vessels, just like you and me. And just as we are, but they did carry it. They did. The 1606 Virginia Charter provided full authority for their spiritual enterprise to be underwritten by their business endeavors. Because Virginia was then known to comprise nearly 80% of what is now the continental United States, believe it or not.

Let me explain that to you. Virginia, according to the original maps, covered from the East Coast to the West Coast. It was a slice of land that covered about two-thirds of the nation as I recall. About two-thirds, from the East Coast all the way to the West Coast and from a southern border to the north. About nearly 80% of what is now known as the continental United States.

That may sound strange, but the Virginia Charter was a commission to transmit God's truth to Virginia. Remember what we just said about Virginia. It wasn't just a state or a commonwealth as we have today. It was the entire 80% of the United States as a continent. So we shouldn't be surprised to learn that the Mayflower Compact then penned by the Pilgrims on November 11, 1620, should contain the identical purpose that was set forth in the Virginia Charter 14 years earlier.

What was that? Oh, it was a commission to spread the Gospel. Now, here the Pilgrims in the north had been blown off course by storms. They're landing at Cape Cod in Massachusetts, placing them outside the official lines of Virginia and therefore outside the scope of the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company under that charter.

So guess what? They had to form another charter because they realized they were outside the scope of the Virginia Charter of 1606. This established the Great Commission, the spreading of the Gospel, as the raison d'être or reason for being. So the Pilgrims got together and set up a compact.

It became the cornerstone of America's experiment in democratic form of government, and everybody wants to focus on the democracy part of that document, which is important. It was an extraordinary document in America and world history because it set forth the principles of representative government by the people. But it was for the purpose of effectuating a greater life purpose of the people.

The civil government facilitated through civil liberty proclaimed also the spiritual liberty in Christ. So here are the words of that simple compact. I know that you've heard them, but let's refresh our memory. "In the name of God, amen." In other words, so be it. "We whose names are underwritten, having undertaken..." Now, here listen very carefully. "Having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid."

What were the ends aforesaid? The glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith. That was their raison d'être. That was their reason for being. And the civil compact part of it was for the purpose of maintaining order and preservation so that they could fulfill the underlying purpose of their gathering.

Isn't that interesting? But you won't read about that. You won't hear that talked about. What they talk about is that this is the first representative government compact in America and except for the Magna Carta, the first one in the world. Well, but that's not the whole purpose. In fact, it actually averts talking about the real purpose.

The real purpose that we should note, by the way, is that all but one of the original 13 colonies found as its purpose what is called the Great Commission, that is the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to make disciples of all men, teaching them to observe and obey everything that Christ had commanded.

So they didn't seek religious liberty alone. The government's insurance of religious liberty in the temporal realm was to provide a secure and favorable environment from which to display and deliver the eternal message of salvation in Christ. So in reality, this ministry, Save America Ministries, is for the purpose of refreshing and reviving, in other words rebuilding the foundations of faith and freedom as a voice to the church first, declaring vision for the nation in America's greatest crisis hour here in the near ends of the Second Coming.

That phrase, that raison d'être, has been expressed hundreds and hundreds of times over the past 31 years. So it's interesting for those of you in Massachusetts that the Mayflower Compact, even though signed outside the official territory of Virginia, actually says that they're in Virginia. It's very interesting.

And so you're all up there sort of pseudo-Virginians, so to speak, the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. All right. So those who came, undoubtedly many that came to America, were not motivated for that noble spiritual purpose. And those who came with that purpose oftentimes failed to carry it out fully.

But in spite of the failures of those men, God honored the dedication of America's early founders by sending revival to America generation after generation and by establishing her as the greatest missionary nation the world had ever known. Now, the missionary effort started for large measure in our mother country, Great Britain.

Today Great Britain is no longer a missionary exporting country. In fact, they have been overtaken by the pagans by their own will. So the famous missionaries of yesteryear would be turning over in their grave if they knew what had happened to the mother country. But here we are as Americans, we still have a significant residue of the understanding of the raison d'être, the reason for being for the country, and we're refreshing our memory in that regard.

God has honored the dedication of America's early founders by sending revival to America generation after generation, and so the recitation of the Great Commission is important both politically and legally and spiritually if we have any hope to claim legitimacy as a nation. Are you listening? We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): There is so much more about Chuck Crismier and Save America Ministries on our website, saveus.org. For example, under the marriage section, God has marriage on His mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a fact sheet on the state of the marital union, a fact sheet on the state of ministry marriage and morals, saveus.org. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage, what does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at saveus.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project, saveus.org, and many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, saveus.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's Viewpoint broadcast live and archived, Save America Ministries' website at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: What was the hope and purpose in the founding of America? The original founding, going all the way back to 1607 and then moving forward successively to 1619, 1620, and then also to 1630, and then in the First Great Awakening in the mid-1700s, the Second Great Awakening in the, well basically, the early to mid-1800s, and then where we are today.

What were the reasons for all those things? That's what we're trying to look at here today and recapture, shall we say, in our own minds and our own hearts, so that we will not just think of the 250th celebration of the political birthday of the country as the real reason. It was not the real reason.

It was only for the purpose of enabling us to fulfill the real reason, which was to carry out Christ's Great Commission across the seven seas and the seven continents. About 25 years ago, I was waiting for a connecting flight in the Cincinnati airport, and I began, got engaged in conversation with a gentleman that was sitting near me, and we were briefly discussing our basic travel purpose.

He said he was from Zimbabwe in Africa. And so he asked some questions of me that haunt me then and still haunt me to today, and maybe they will haunt you when I share them with you. Here's what he said. "When I was younger, missionaries came to my country from America." He said, "We would ask them how it was that America was so great and prosperous, and they would always say America is blessed because she and her people love and obey God."

So he says this, he asked me this probing question. "Sir, would you tell me what has happened to America? Because we in Zimbabwe are very concerned about America." Huh. Now, in this country we might say, well, we're very concerned about Zimbabwe. Uh-huh. Well, they in Zimbabwe, professing Christians, were very concerned about America.

What a blow to American pride, hmm? But in a serious way, it's a more than observation of fundamental failure from America's purpose. It's a failure to fulfill our Great Commission in whole or in part that lies at the root of our current cultural anguish. And by the way, that was 25 years ago.

So the languishing of the American dream is rooted in the loss of the true American vision. The American vision was deeply connected to an understanding of a covenant. What covenant was that? The covenant that Americans made with God before the formal political birth of the nation. So it was the legacy of Puritan New England to this nation, which can still be found at the core of our American way of life.

It can be summed up in one word. Covenant. Covenant implies absolute commitment. Although men may break their contracts, they're bound to keep their covenants. So the concept of covenant was at the very core of our earliest founders' theology, understanding of the Scriptures. Liberty itself was intimately, shall we say, laced into the covenant both with God and with each other.

So that's what prompted John Winthrop, a godly attorney and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to warn us as a country. He said, this liberty that you're being given, you are to stand for with the hazard of your lives. Now, so this covenant speaks of a total commitment to Christ and to one another, which is deeper and more demanding than most of us are willing to make today.

We don't get it. It just doesn't compute because our culture has drifted so far that our raison d'être has been lost in the dust of time. So as a consequence, most of us modern American Christians are of little use to God in the building of His kingdom. We don't even have a kingdom-minded idea. It's all about me.

Or as the billboard about 15 years ago coming out of Chicago airport said, "Me, Me, Me." But for the Pilgrims or Puritans, it was a very different thing. They saw their existence here as fulfillment of the Great Commission that was essential to the fulfillment of God's covenant with them. So they saw themselves as covenantally commissioned, so to speak.

For that reason, John Winthrop, an amazing attorney, in his Model of Christian Charity, which was written before they disembarked on American shores to guide their lives much like the Mayflower Compact, but it's much longer, he said this. "Thus stands the case between God and us. We're entered into covenant with Him for this work. We've taken out a commission. But if we neglect to observe these articles, and dissembling or playing word games with our God, shall embrace this present world and prosecute our carnal or fleshly intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us and be revenged on such a perjured people, and He will make us pay the price of the breach of such covenant."

Whoa! Whoa! That was written in 1630, friends, by a godly attorney. Maybe God can use attorneys. Maybe He can use the voice of attorneys that will speak directly and as if they're pleading the ultimate cause of a lifetime to a jury of their peers. And isn't it interesting, whenever year we have the celebrated State of the Union address, what is it all about? If the economy is strong, we declare the union is strong.

But for Winthrop or any of the other early American fathers, the condition of the union was defined by commitment to the covenant. If we fail in the commission, we fail in the covenant, and that failure is not without consequence. So we had a hope, and we had a purpose, and the hope was based upon a heritage.

But the fulfillment of the heritage and hope could only be fulfilled if we fulfilled the purpose. So as we launched the program today, I quoted the entry statement in my book, Renewing the Soul of America, in the chapter called A Hope and a Purpose. Heritage in the past without purpose in the present destroys hope for the future.

Our hope for the future, friends, is not predicated on the celebration of 250 years of political endurance as a country. It's based upon whether or not we'll fulfill the original purpose or commitment or calling or covenant. That's what it's based upon. But for generations, we Americans have gradually lost our sense of commitment, haven't we?

We have abandoned God's concept of covenant. And maybe we should take heed to the prophetic words of that godly governor back there for the first 30 years guided by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I'm going to share those with you in a couple of moments. But I want to make available to you my book, Renewing the Soul of America.

Perhaps now you can begin to see why 38 national Christian leaders endorsed this book. Unlike anything that was ever written or has been written concerning our country in the last 25 years and forward. It sets forth the plan, the purpose, and our role in fulfilling that heritage. It's exhortational, in other words.

It's vastly informational, but it's exhortational in that it provides a hope and a plan and a purpose for each one of us to say, okay, Lord, where do I fit in this picture? What do you want me to do? What would you have me to be in this moment of history? God has a plan for you. He does. He has a plan for you and for me.

I'm doing my best to fulfill that plan even though it caused me to have to leave the practice of law at the height of my career and to plead this cause to a jury of my peers for the past 32 years without remuneration. But I do it because God called me to do this. This is the most important thing of a lifetime.

Donald Trump feels what he's doing to preserve the political and economic position of the nation is the most important thing that he's done. But this is far more important. This is the foundation of everything. This goes to the very reason why God would enable this nation to be formed. But if we fail, it ain't a pretty picture. And you and I have a place.

Renewing the soul of America one person at a time, beginning with you. $15 will put this $18 book in your hands. It's on our website, saveus.org. You can give us a call at 1-800-SAVE-USA, 1-800-SAVE-USA. Write to us at Save America Ministries, P.O. Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255, and $6 for postage and handling.

What an incredible book this would be for your small groups right now. Your house church, your small groups, for pastors to be able to use from their pulpits. Many, many pastors have used, quoted from this book in their congregations. It's a treasure trove and it ties these things together in such a way that it doesn't leave things to our imagination. It is a breath of fresh air for our country that's in deep distress. Get your copy. Don't wait. Do it today. 1-800-SAVE-USA. We'll get the book out to you ASAP.

All right. So the godly attorney John Winthrop there in 1630 said, if we deal falsely with our God in this work, the Great Commission we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, there are going to be some very severe consequences. I'm going to share those with you in just a few moments. Stay tuned, friends. Destiny is on the line. We'll be right back.

Guest (Male): Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a hard longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study showed 53,000 people a week are leaving the back door of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years?

Could it be that God is seeking to restore first-century Christianity for the 21st century? Jesus said, "I'll build my church." Is Christ by His Spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family, and it was said by all who observed, "Behold, how they love one another." Incredible, but the same can be found right now. Go to saveus.org and click cell church. We can revive first-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's saveus.org. Click cell church.

Chuck Crismier: The famous columnist Cal Thomas says we serve a low fat Jesus today. We'll get to that in just a moment. But going back to 1630 and John Winthrop, that godly attorney in his Model of Christian Charity, by the way, which is included in the appendix of my book, Renewing the Soul of America. It is as important as anything else in that book. It's about seven or eight pages.

The appendix, some historians have said that that Model of Christian Charity is the clearest expression of the American vision ever penned. And most Christians don't know anything about it. Why? Well, apparently their pastors don't know anything about it. Why? We've missed the whole boat. We just don't get it. We don't understand our past. We don't understand.

You see, that's what happened to Israel. They forgot their past and because they forgot their past, they didn't know what they were doing in the present or what they were trying to do. So Woodrow Wilson, our president, said a nation that doesn't remember what it was does not know what it is or even what it's trying to do. That's where we are today. We're all mixed up. We've lost our sense of purpose.

So Winthrop goes on to say, if we deal falsely with our God in this work, the Great Commission we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world. We shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all believers in God. We shall shame the faces of many God's worthy servants and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we are forced out of the new land.

Well, that's almost identical to what Moses said through the mouth of God to the children of Israel. So as a nation, we're increasingly becoming a story and a byword throughout the world, despised for our pride, derided for our morals, and denigrated for our materialism, right?

We have a nation that's opened the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God. While professing to be a nation under God, we have the highest rates of social breakdown among the industrialized nations, including the highest divorce rate, the highest murder rate, the highest violent crime rate, the highest illegitimacy rate, the highest sexually transmitted disease rate.

I mean, we're shaming the faces of many of God's worthy servants, aren't we? We've lost the holy fear of God. We're confounded, and shame has covered our faces. So having failed increasingly in our purpose, we are also failing in our promise. So destiny now awaits our decision. In other words, the future is dependent on the decisions we make right now. Will we the people re-embrace our founding purpose, or will we pursue personal pleasure and its elusive perks?

Destiny is written in our decision one person at a time. You and I cannot change, you know, it's kind of like a former professor of mine. He saw me right after we had formed Save America Ministries and he didn't know what I was doing. He knew I'd been practicing law. And so he asked me on the steps of the church right across from my law office, "Chuck, what are you doing now?"

And I said, "Well, we just formed Save America Ministries as a nonprofit." And in his usual acerbic style, he said, "Well, at least you didn't bite off more than you could chew." And you know, it's pretty humorous. Save America Ministries, yeah, you got to be kidding me. Well, no, it's not about saving America as a political entity. It's about saving a people.

It's about saving us for the purpose for which God called us. That's the purpose of this ministry. If you haven't figured that out yet, you haven't been listening very long. That's why every day I urge you to join with us. We're preparing the way of the Lord for history's final hour through this country, the only country that you and I are part of.

God called us for a purpose, just as He called Israel for a purpose. We are a Gentile nation that God called for a purpose to advance His kingdom and to prepare the way of the Lord for history's final hour. That's what we're doing. So help us get the message out, please. It's very difficult. It's getting harder and harder.

People have lost their reason for being. And then with the 250 celebration, they're losing their reason for the celebration. It's becoming a sentimental thing, a flag-waving thing, as opposed to returning us to the sensibility of why we even have a flag. There's nothing wrong with the flag-waving. There's nothing wrong with the celebration, but we've got to remember the roots and we've got to live out the root from which the fruit of the flag-waving has come.

Because Jesus said, every branch in Me that bears not fruit, He takes away. And to whom much is given, much is required. So much has been given to this country, and it's true of nations as it is of individuals. In God's eyes, all nations are a drop in the bucket and were counted to Him as less than nothing.

That principle is true as well of the land of the stars and stripes, right? The world's only remaining superpower. Our promise and our hope is predicated on fulfilling our God-given purpose. Question, will we do it? Will you? Do you personally know this God who has made and preserved us as a nation? Do you just know Him by name? Do you say you believe in Him?

But do you believe Him? Do you take Him at His word? Do you obey Him in every aspect of your life? So help you God, do we do that? So you see, this matter of national purpose becomes increasingly, if not intensely, personal. I can deny the commission or embrace it. I can believe in God but refuse to believe Him.

Could it be that actually belief in God is killing America? I think so. Belief in God is killing America. You know why I say that? Because God never called us to believe in Him; He called us to believe Him, and there's a difference. The devil believes in God. The devil believes in Jesus, and the demons tremble, unlike many Christians.

You see the difference? That's why I wrote the book, The Secret of the Lord. It's about restoring the fear of the Lord in the land. If we don't restore the fear of the Lord in the land, the holy purpose for which we was founded will never ultimately be brought to fruition. We have to get back to the foundation.

The fear of the Lord is the very beginning and foundation of wisdom for our country, for you, for me, for moms and dads, for pastors, parachurch leaders, for presidents, potentates, anyone, schoolteachers, lawyers. We've got more Bibles per capita than any other people on the face of the earth. There are over 350,000 professing Christian congregations, over 2,200 denominations.

What in the world are we doing? Elton Trueblood, well known gospel leader in the past, said the test of the vitality of a religion can be seen in its impact on the culture. Now, the measure of the decadence of American culture can be seen in the impact on Christian character, he said. So how does this curse connect with the Great Commission?

Well, the Great Commission was twofold. Go therefore and make disciples, that means bringing people to a knowledge of Jesus Christ to surrender to Him, not just believe in Him, but believe Him. And then teach them to obey, do His will, to obey everything I've commanded. That is the gospel enterprise in a nutshell. It's not about necessarily going to all the world out there.

Your world starts where you are, where I am. Not everybody can go out and travel the world, and most Christians that are out traveling the world are not doing it for the Gospel's sake; they're doing it to go on cruises, right? So are we kingdom-minded? Are we seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, or are we not?

We have to decide. And that decision is one decision at a time. Do we have other priorities? Well, Cal Thomas says what's become known as the Great Commission, Jesus put discipleship at the head of His list of priorities. But we've had too often other priorities, and that's why the church of Jesus Christ lacks the power to transform lives.

He said we must start with ourselves before we can transform others. Why is there so much apathy? The answer is that there are too few real disciples. We prefer a low fat Jesus who doesn't require us to make disciples or to be a disciple, quite frankly. So we're living in a situation where we're moving from blessing to curse.

Question is, can we move from curse to blessing? What a nation needs more than anything else, wrote the former president of Zambia there in Africa, is not a Christian ruler in the palace but a Christian prophet within earshot. Can you believe that statement? The former president of Zambia said what a nation needs more than anything else is not a Christian ruler in the palace, but a Christian prophet within earshot.

Maybe that's what we're doing right here on Viewpoint. Maybe we've been doing that for 32 years, 31 years, having just completed 31 years on the air on May 7. America's promise rests in re-embracing our purpose. Hope lies in fulfilling our purpose. Parents, let's dare to discipline our sons and daughters to be true and clear in obedience to the word of our God who has made and preserved us as a nation.

Pastors, preaching and teaching your parishioners to hold truth might not be popular, but it has promise. Only a discipled nation at home can disciple the nations abroad, and destiny knocks at our door. Destiny knocks at our door. So how about this? Who knows but what you and I are called to the kingdom for such a time as this, in this particular unique moment?

Will you put your heart and hands to the plow, not to restore America to her former glory, but to her future promise? You and I have been placed here for such a time as this. I'm convinced of it. I've given my entire life to that. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

In front of me is a wonderful little plaque I keep it right here on the broadcast desk to remind me constantly because the tests of delivering truth, straight-out truth without compromise, can be immense. There's always a tendency to want to compromise, to want to soft pedal things. But here is the statement from Joshua chapter 1 verse 8.

Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Be strong and courageous, friends. It's going to take that kind of commitment. It's going to take that kind of understanding. And you say, you know, I'm having a hard time really coming to grasp what you're saying.

Ask the Lord to open your eyes to it. To open your ears, to open your understanding. To help, you see we've got to have a change that God can really believe in if He's going to invest the rest of this holy purpose in our lives. We've got to be good stewards of it. Not just hearers, but doers also. Thanks for joining us.

Get a copy of the book, Renewing the Soul of America. It'll be so encouraging to you. It really will. You can use it with your kids. Discussions with your kids, it's just an immense reservoir, a treasure for these times. $15 will put the $18 book in your hands. It's on our website, saveus.org. Call us, 1-800-SAVE-USA. Write to us at Save America Ministries, P.O. Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255, and $6 for postage and handling. And please, seriously ask the Lord about becoming a partner. Don't delay. Do it today.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the church declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next hour on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.