Save America Ministries

Intro Voiceover: 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: As our country celebrates and continues to celebrate its 250th birthday, congregations around the country have been singing patriotic hymns in church throughout the month of July and then perhaps before and after. They likely included the Battle Hymn of the Republic, America the Beautiful, My Country 'Tis of Thee, and God Bless America.

But there is one other hymn that is deserving of our attention. Actually, it is called America's National Hymn. Do you know what it is? It is called Faith of Our Fathers. It is called Faith of Our Fathers, and it begins, "God of our fathers." Who is the God of our fathers? That is what we want to talk about here today on Viewpoint: Who is the God of our fathers?

Well, we want to introduce that with a song that is the song God of Our Fathers. Some recall it Faith of Our Fathers, but God of our fathers, whose almighty hand. God of our fathers, whose almighty hand. Who is the God of our fathers? Who is God, anyway? Well, here we want to hear from a dozen men in just a few bars of that song in order to get it into the membranes of our mind. Here it is.

Choir: God of our fathers, whose almighty hand leads forth in beauty all the starry band of shining worlds in splendor through the skies, our grateful songs before thy throne arise.

Chuck Crismier: Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. But what does it mean? What does it mean? The words were changed slightly from the one that is sung in Protestant churches around the nation and has been for a very long period of time since the 1800s called God of Our Fathers.

A national hymn, a stirring patriotic hymn, became increasingly popular since it was first written by the American Episcopal ministry in 1876. Today, it is included in nearly every published hymnal in the country. God of Our Fathers is the product of Reverend Daniel C. Roberts, at the time a pastor of a small rural church in Brandon, Vermont.

It was written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of our country's Declaration of Independence and was sung for the first time at Brandon's 4th of July celebration to the music of the old Russian National Anthem. This tune, which has since come to be known as the Russian Hymn, is used exclusively today with the hymn God the Omnipotent.

Later, Roberts submitted his text anonymously to the committee revising the Episcopal hymnal, and it was included in their 1892 edition, wedding the Russian Hymn tune. At the time of our national centennial observance commemorating the adoption of the Constitution, Roberts' hymn text was chosen as the official hymn of that event.

Well, he was a very private guy. He was not known for announcing himself. He was just a humble fellow, this fellow Roberts, and he graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio in 1857. Showing much promise, the native New Yorker born on Long Island in 1841 had a genuine love for his country.

That patriotism was evidenced by his desire to serve with the 84th Ohio volunteers in the Civil War. When the war ended in 1865, Roberts was ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Later, he was ordained as a pastor, serving congregations in New England.

In 1876, while shepherding two small churches in Brandon, Vermont, Roberts felt compelled to pen a poem to celebrate the centennial of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That small town pastor had a deep appreciation for history, as evidenced by his being chosen to chair the New Hampshire Historical Society later in his life.

His hymn was used at his community's 4th of July celebration. Sixteen years later, in 1892, this humble man of God now serving a church in Concord, New Hampshire anonymously sent his hymn text to the hymnal commission of his denomination. His accompanying letter inquired if his work might be considered for publication.

It also indicated he would give them his name if they decided to publish his work, and to his delight, the commission agreed. George Warren, the chairman of the hymnal commission, who was himself an accomplished organist and composer, chose to write a tune for Roberts' words that would prove more singable than the one Roberts had originally used.

Warren gave his tune the name National Hymn and incorporated into the music the sound of a trumpet fanfare that would precede each verse. So when you sing, or if you would sing, the song God of Our Fathers, before each verse would be the sound of the trumpet.

Why would that be? Well, it would be because God is God, and his presence and direction needs to be sounded aloud, as the Scriptures continually tell us, needs to be sounded aloud to alert the people because he is God. So who is this God then? Who is the God of our fathers?

This song was based on Psalm 46, God of Our Fathers, and calls us to recognize the Lord's protection and guidance in our history. In the second stanza, he acknowledges God's role in the writing of our national story and offers a prayer for his ongoing intervention.

Thy love divine hath led us in the past. In this free land by thee our lot is cast. Be thou our ruler, guardian, guide and stay, thy word our law, thy paths our chosen way. What is our chosen way today in America? What is our chosen way today in America?

I received a publication from the Southwest Radio Ministries this week, and an article that was contained in there by Josh Davis has a headline very dramatic: If the fear of God is wisdom, we are getting very foolish. If the fear of God is wisdom, we are getting very foolish.

He says with each passing month, headlines describe the spiritual erosion happening within the church. More collapses of spiritual leaders, denial of orthodox doctrine by popular influencers, and the approval of sinful behaviors by entire denominations emphasize the continual march toward apostasy.

Although each headline contains different people in different places committing various levels of atrocity and apostasy, there was one common denominator in them all: The fear of God has evaporated from our lives. Wow. And we want to sing a hymn to the God of our fathers? Do we even know who the God of our fathers is?

Today, we are going to be reintroduced to the God of our fathers, as by the hymn, so also by our conversation here today on Viewpoint. I am glad that you have joined us. It is conversation as always with ever-increasing conviction, talk that hopefully transforms.

I hope you will hang in there for the balance of the program here today, friends, because we are going to open ourselves to an understanding of who the God of our fathers really is. We are going to go through the four stanzas of the hymn, our national hymn, God of Our Fathers. It is going to give us some direction, and then we will talk about it right here on Viewpoint.

Intro Voiceover: 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 am 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: It is one of the largest, longest names I have ever read or heard of. His name is Greg Asamakopoulous, and he apparently is Greek and a retired pastor who lives in suburban Seattle with his wife. He wrote an article for a recent edition, the July edition, of Mature Living published by Lifeway.

That article is titled "God of Our Fathers: The Him behind the Hymn." Here are the stanzas of that famous hymn, God of Our Fathers. God of our fathers, whose almighty hand leads forth in beauty all the starry band of shining worlds in splendor through the sky, our grateful songs before your throne arise.

Your love divine has led us in the past. In this free land by you our lot is cast. Be thou our ruler, guardian, guide and stay, your word our law, your paths our chosen way. From war's alarms, from deadly pestilence, be thy strong arm our ever sure defense.

Your true religion in our hearts increase. Your bounteous goodness nourish us in peace. Refresh your people on their toilsome way. Lead us from night to never-ending day. Fill all our lives with love and grace divine, and glory, laud, and praise be ever thine.

It is hard for me to read those words and not sing them because music is a big thing to me. It always has been since I was a very small child walking through the streets of Detroit. When I was two, three, and four years of age, my mother said I would walk through the town as she went shopping and I would sing hymns as loud as I could walking down the street.

Apparently, I got an early start on that, friends. So if some of you think I do that quite a bit, well, you will understand why. When I am speaking aloud, oftentimes I will do it even more so. But music is very important, and I like to tie these things together so that sometimes it helps us to get a better feel for what we are talking about.

God of our fathers. Who are our fathers, who is God, and who is the God of our fathers? Those three questions need to be answered, but before they can be answered, they need to be asked again: Who is God? Who are our fathers? And who is the God of our fathers?

We begin by taking a look again at this song, God of Our Fathers. "God of our fathers, whose almighty hand leads forth in beauty all the starry band," that is the whole universe, "of shining worlds in splendor through the skies, our grateful songs before thy throne arise."

God has a throne. He rules from his throne. And when the resurrection takes place, the judgment is going to take place before the throne of God and Jesus is going to be the judge. A throne indicates ultimate power. It indicates absolute power and authority: "before thy throne arise."

It is almost as if we have kind of forgotten that God, isn't it? Everybody says they believe in God, but what do they believe in? Who is this God? Israel had a very hard time comprehending that. In fact, they could never quite get it through their thick heads.

God did everything he could to try to get them to understand who he was. He tried to do that through the ten plagues that were brought upon the Egyptians in order to free the Israelites from the tyranny of Pharaoh, who represented a type of Antichrist at that time with seemingly absolute power on earth.

God showed his absolute power. The people got it, but not really. Then they were delivered from Egypt and sat there at the shores of the Red Sea and heard the thunder of chariots and horses coming after them. They were scared beyond measure and threatened to stone Moses, the very one who had just been used to deliver them.

Moses, wondering what to do, God said, "Now Moses, you stretch out your arm. You stretch out your arm over the sea." God expected humanity, his servant, to be cooperative with him in order that God might display his mighty power. So Moses did that.

The Bible says Moses stretched out his rod, but God divided the sea. God showed his mighty power to Israel over and over again in a variety of circumstances throughout the Old Testament. We find that happening, but in every instance, Israel turned away from it and still did not comprehend it.

Ultimately, they decided they wanted an earthly king. They did not want to have to trust God, whom they could not see, even though they had seen his mighty power. They knew that there was a God, but they wanted an earthly king. Samuel the prophet was just ready to pull his hair out over the issue.

He took the situation to God, and God said, "No, they are not against you, Samuel, they are against me. Give them what they asked for. Give them their king." So Samuel warned them what a king would do. He is going to take twenty percent of everything you have.

He is going to take your young men. He is going to take them to war. It is going to be a very difficult thing for you. They said, "Give us a king." Sounds an awful lot like Americans today, doesn't it? If God was our king, we would trust him.

We would really trust him and not put so much trust in government. But increasingly, we want government to be our king. We want an earthly king. We do not want to have to trust God, whom we cannot see. We want to trust a government that we can see.

Does that not sound familiar? That is why the taxes get higher and higher and higher. That is why the lack of the fear of the Lord increases the crime in our streets that requires more and more government intervention, more and more laws, more and more law enforcement that we despise because we want to do what we want.

Doesn't that all sound very familiar? It sure does. So this gives us an understanding of maybe we just don't know who the God of our fathers really is. Our fathers were back there: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those were the historic fathers, the patriarchs. They weren't perfect guys either.

We know that. But God worked with them and through them was able to accomplish great and mighty things. We read about that in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, the great faith chapter. You might want to go back and read it again. It shows how they trusted God in spite of the fact that they carried this treasure in earthen vessels.

They still trusted God, and God worked through them, showing that he was God and they weren't. The whole history of humankind is demonstrating that story. The very birth of this country is demonstrating that story and the intervention of God in so many different ways through human beings on earth.

Even with George Washington crossing the Delaware in the midst of a massive fog, had they not been successful, there would never have been an America. So many stories like this, friends. "God of our fathers, whose almighty hand." And then there's "Thy love divine hath led us in the past."

Yes, we like to live in the past, don't we? So we talk about our godly heritage. David Barton, about thirty-five years ago, was traveling the country introducing Christian leaders and pastors and people to our godly heritage. He did a wonderful job.

The problem with that is we began to worship the heritage and not the God of the heritage. If we begin to worship the heritage and not the God of the heritage, it is a form of idolatry. God doesn't want to live in the past. He wants us to live in the present because he is the God of yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? So he wants us to worship him as God today. He wants us to obey him as God today. For in the book of Hebrews, chapters 3 and 4, he says, "Today is the day of salvation."

Don't harden your heart as they did back there in the wilderness coming out of Egypt. Don't harden your heart like that. Today is the day of salvation. Today I am God. Today I will deliver you. Today I will hear your voice. Today I will respond to you if you will only do my will, just like my Son did.

So, "Thy love divine hath led us in the past, in this free land by thee our lot is cast." Isn't that true? You and I are here in this free land, still relatively free. We are losing our freedoms rapidly. We are actually giving them up intentionally.

We are forfeiting them to certain religious people who are intent on destroying the country. Destroying the God of our fathers, replacing the God of our fathers with new gods, just like Israel did. It didn't go well for Israel, and it won't go well for us.

In this free land, our lot is cast. So the writer of the hymn said, "Be thou our ruler, guardian, guide and stay. You be our ruler, guardian, guide and stay." Can you imagine what would happen if we really, really, really believed that and prayed that honestly and with integrity of heart?

It would change our whole outlook on politics. It would change our whole outlook on government. It would change our whole outlook on the purpose and future of the country. It would change everything, including our own families, including our own marriages. It would change everything. "Be thou our ruler, guardian, guide and stay." But then the writer of the hymn gives how that happens. Listen very carefully.