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: Is there hope in our heritage? That's the question before us here today on Viewpoint, and I'm glad that you've joined us. This conversation is always with ever-increasing conviction. Talk that transforms, and I trust that today will be just that. Here, as we're poised to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the political birth of our country.

America's heritage is a composite of the viewpoints, values, and voices of our past that have defined our path through roughly 400 years of history, going all the way back to 1607, by the way. Therefore, it seems that remembering that heritage is important. Heritage, therefore, becomes an ever-accruing monument to the past to be remembered for the future.

If we fail to remember, we risk falling into the historical trap that, as you know, the only thing we can learn from history is that we don't learn from history. So clearly, hope for the future hinges in a very significant way to our heritage. So we're going to take a look at that here today on Viewpoint, throw a few curveballs, maybe a few knuckleballs, and hopefully quite a few fastballs and get them over the plate.

Hopefully, we'll be able to hit them, maybe out of the park. So today on Viewpoint, by the way, that's a good illustration for America's history because baseball is America's official sport, so to speak. Those who love football might disagree, but baseball has always been America's sport.

At the time of our nation's bicentennial in 1976, a natural resurgence of interest in our roots, that is our heritage as Americans, both spiritual and secular, took place. Much was made of our forefather's struggle for freedom. Others focused on the search for a place in which to practice the purity of their faith.

Well, there were many voices that came out during that time. One was Peter Marshall, a good friend of this ministry, and he and his friend David Manuel had written a book called *The Light and the Glory*. It came out in 1977. Peter Marshall joined us a number of times here on this program.

Educators also had begun rebuilding the foundations of America's spiritual heritage in the early 1960s. For instance, one of the leading voices was a woman by the name of Verna Hall, who had written *The Christian History of the Constitution* in 1960. Then there were also Marshall Foster, who expanded the resurrecting vision with *The American Covenant* that came out in 1981.

Then there were David Barton and Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles. They came out in 1989. David Barton, a former high school teacher, came out to make a connection between our lost Christian heritage and the dramatic countdown of the nation's social structure. You might remember Barton came out with the book *America: To Pray or Not to Pray* in 1988.

It was a simple statistical analysis distilled from US governmental records revealing the profound decline in every area of America's social life following the official removal of prayer from our public schools in 1962 and the removal of the Bible in 1963. So where are we today? Where are we today? You may recall William J. Bennett, Secretary of Education under the Reagan administration.

He tried to translate the spiritual renewal to fill the moral vacuum in his book *The Book of Virtues* that came out in 1993, the day we formed Save America Ministries. That was followed by another book in 1995, *The Moral Compass*, the very year we launched this Viewpoint program. And so again, there was William J. Federer in his book *America's God and Country* that came out in 1994.

He's joined us many, many times on this program. And of course, he cites in that unbelievably cited book the farewell address of our founding president, George Washington. He said the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained.

On our gallery wall here at Save America Ministries, we have one of the most unbelievably beautiful calligraphed in all full-color presentation of George Washington's prayer for America. It's like the handwriting on the wall. On the other hand, we've seen other things that were handwriting on the wall. For instance, in 1992, we had such things as Newsweek and Time magazine and US News & World Report giving us such messages as "How the American Dream Unraveled."

Then Forbes magazine in 1992 came out with its 75th anniversary edition talking about how we had lost virtue in America, which our founders said was absolutely essential to preserve a republican democratic form of government. Virtue. Without virtue, they said we cannot continue to exist. We'll fall away.

So where does all this lead us if indeed at this moment we are being told that we're going to rededicate America in June or July, or all of the above, to God? When our national anthem and our national motto already say "In God We Trust," yet about 20 years ago, Time magazine had a little article that said "In So Many Gods We Trust."

So what God is it that we trust in? Who really is the God of America? Or has our heritage itself become a kind of God, a kind of idol? Now there's nothing wrong with the heritage in and of itself. We should remember that heritage, especially the godly part of it. On the other hand, if we hold up the heritage and forget the God of that heritage, the heritage itself becomes a kind of idol, doesn't it?

And unfortunately, over the past 25, 30 years, even through the culture wars, the heritage has been held up in many respects like a great Colossus. Like a great Colossus to be virtually worshipped, while our worship of the God who claimed to give us and birth that heritage has fallen on very, very hard times.

So that's what we're looking at here on the program today. We received announcement today that thousands are expected to gather on the National Mall in June for a massive day of prayer and worship aimed at calling the United States back to God ahead of the 250th anniversary. With one pastor predicting it could be the nation's largest religious gathering in more than 50 years.

Well, I remember it wasn't too long ago when we had another such gathering to call America back to God. And then at America's first landing, we also had another event to call America back to God. I was there. And then we've had National Solemn Assemblies over the past 30 years to call America back to God. Have we responded yet? It doesn't seem so. But why? Heritage and hope, that's today's program.

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. It's a conversation as always with ever-increasing conviction. Talk that transforms. We're not here to provide information per se, but here to use information as a means to lead to transformation if we will receive the information from God's viewpoint and apply it accordingly.

So it's a great privilege to be able to come before you every single day now for, well, just a couple of weeks, actually only six days under 31 years. On May 7, we will have completed 31 years, or we'll be beginning our 32nd year on the air, confronting the deepest issues of America's heart and home from God's eternal perspective.

That's a pretty long journey in the same direction. Somebody has said that faith is a long obedience in the same direction, and it has been a privilege. I don't count it as a burden. I count it as a privilege to be able to come before you every single day. Some people might say, "Well, in fact they do say, how can you come up with so many different varied programs? How can you do that?"

Well, I have to trust the Lord to lead me in that regard, to inspire me with regard to what needs to be talked about at a particular time. And you'll note that we have such a variety of issues that we deal with, all from God's eternal perspective. Whether we're talking about the economy, whether we're talking about prophecy, whether we're talking about Iran, Russia, Turkey, China, all of these things, they always, always end up being talked about with the central focus of what God has to say about the situation and how it applies at the import for you and for me.

Well, today is no exception because we're talking about our heritage. But we're not here to establish our heritage as a kind of lordship. Was Jesus Lord or was He not Lord in our heritage? Well, it depends on where you look. It depends on what time you look at. For instance, if you were to go back to 1630, you would find a very clear declaration that Jesus was Lord. You really would.

How do we know that? Well, because at that time, an attorney by the name of John Winthrop, a godly attorney, penned a document called "A Model of Christian Charity." Some historians have said it was the best expression of what America was to be and become. His words began and remained a model of what life in America was meant to be.

He said we must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our community as members of the same body. What body was that? It was the Body of Christ. That's what he was talking about. Then he went on in his many-page document to set forth what was like a spiritual constitution for the, not the Pilgrims, but the Puritans before they landed. Four boatloads of Puritans before they landed.

And he said in that document we are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ. We ought to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love and live in the exercise of it. That which most people in churches only profess as truth, we're going to bring into familiar and constant practice.

We must love our brothers without pretense. We must love one another with a pure heart and fervently. We must bear one another's burdens. We must not look on our own things but also on the things of our brethren. Nor must we think that the Lord will bear with such failings at our hands. He says thus stands the case between God and us. We're entered into a covenant with Him for this work.

But if we neglect to observe these articles of this covenant and dissemble or play games with our God, and embracing this present world and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us and we will be revenged of such a perjured people, and He will make us to know the price of the breach of such covenant.

So then he goes on to tell us the only way to avoid this shipwreck is to provide for our posterity to follow the counsel of Micah: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must knit together in this work as one man. We must hold each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to rid ourselves of our excesses to supply others' necessities, and we will keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace in this way.

And the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us as His own people, and He will command a blessing in our ways. And the Lord would make you a praise and a glory, for we must consider that we shall be like a city upon a hill. It wasn't Ronald Reagan that came up with that phrase. It was John Winthrop, a godly attorney in 1630, who took it right out of the book of Matthew.

So this godly attorney went on to say if we deal falsely with our God in this work 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, and we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we are forced out of the new land where we are going.

So he says choose life. Choose life that both you and your seed and your country might live. By the way, that entire message—I only read about a third of it—is in the appendix of my book, *Renewing the Soul of America*. *Renewing the Soul of America*, one person at a time beginning with you.

What a collection of the most amazing quotations, the most amazing words of encouragement and direction for this unique moment in American history, the 250th anniversary of the political birth of the country. You can get a copy of it for $15 on our website saveus.org. It's probably worth double that. $15 right there on our website, *Renewing the Soul of America*.

Give us a call, 1-800-SAVE-USA. Write to us at Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia 23255. Write a check and add $6 for postage and handling. By the way, this book is used by pastors, has been used by many pastors across the country because of the wealth of not only information, but information for transformation and the way it's provided, the quotations that are provided and so on. And you're going to find it equally valuable, maybe more so.

All right. Now in that book, in the last third of the book, there is a series of chapters that deal with our future. The first is called "Heritage and Hope." Heritage and hope. And Patrick Henry, that stirring voice of the American Revolution, declared in a speech at the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, he said this: "I know no way of judging the future but by the past."

The past not only judges the future but also gives purpose to the future. The real challenge then is whether we can glean from our past that which is worthy of both forming and informing our future. Can we find hope in our heritage? Wow. Well, Patrick Henry spoke there just a few miles from where this broadcast emanates, right there in a church on Church Hill in Richmond, Virginia.

That's where he gave his "Give me liberty or give me death" speech. Very profound Christian man spoke seriously into the life of this country for courage. Because if courage is lost, all is lost. So if we're going to rededicate America in June or July or from now on until then to God, how did we un-dedicate America to God? Have we un-dedicate America to God? If we have to rededicate America to God, have we un-dedicate America to God?

It seems that we have. At least 50% of the nation has been un-dedicated or has the most strange view of what it means to be dedicated. So if we have an all-day event on the Mall with many thousands of people—let's say there's a quarter of a million people—that would be a lot of people. You'll remember the days of the Million Man March years ago.

Would this be that large? I don't know. An all-day event, supposedly a historic gathering that will feature scripture, testimony, prayer, and rededication of our country as one nation under God. So words are cheap. Have you noticed that how cheap words are? It's very easy to speak. What's difficult is to live out the truth of what we say.

Now, Dr. Robert Jeffress, Pastor of the First Baptist Church there in Dallas, has been on this program many a time. He's endorsed two or three of my books, and he has a real heart for our country. He says we should celebrate the 250th birthday of America and we will do it in a great, glorious way. But he said it's also a time for America to rededicate herself to God.

He believes that Donald Trump believes that, and so he said. He went on to say if America's going to experience revival, then I first have to have a revival in my heart. For America to rededicate herself to Christ means I must rededicate myself to Christ. And that's the angle he said that I'm going to take in my talk on the National Mall on May 17. Okay, it's coming up in two weeks, friends, May 17. I got it wrong; it's not June, it's May 17.

So Jeffress reminded us of the words of the Founding Father John Adams, who became the second President of the United States. On July 2, 1776, which actually is when the Declaration of Independence came out, he predicted that the day of July 4, when all the signing took place, would be a day of celebration but also an occasion where people would make solemn acts of devotion to God.

In fact, he went way further than that in a letter to his wife, Abigail, and said there's going to be all kinds of amazing celebrations with fireworks and so on because it is as if this is a major Christian endeavor for all of history. Now that's part of our heritage.

But he also said our government was made for a moral and Christian people and is inadequate to the government of any other. So the understanding of those founding fathers then was that, yes, we had the right principles, the right foundation, but if we didn't live them out, it wasn't going to be a pretty picture.

The heritage would fail and become a kind of hell on earth because we did not adequately, fairly, honestly protect that which God in His mercy had provided to the planet. That's how they looked on it. But then in 1997 came one of the most egregious statements in the history of our country. It was a statement made on November 8, 1997, by William Jefferson Clinton, then president.

Even though he carried a Bible to church on Sunday, he swung it like a wrecking ball at the moral and spiritual landmarks on Monday through Saturday. He said we have to broaden the imagination of America. So he was the first president to ever intentionally and knowingly address an entirely homosexual audience in California, or anywhere. And here's what he said.

It was like a death warrant that the historical, moral, and spiritual sensibilities of the American people would completely be wiped out forevermore. Here's what he said: "We are redefining in practical terms the immutable ideals that have guided us from the beginning." Let me repeat that. He said we're redefining—remember he's got this big Bible—he said we already know what those terms are in truth and in practice, but we're going to redefine them.

He said they are immutable ideals, and he said they're unchangeable ideals that have guided us from the beginning, but we're going to change them all. William Jefferson Clinton in 1997. Where are we today? And what's the hope for 250 years? 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 broadcasts live and archived at Save America Ministries website at saveus.org.

Chuck Crismier: Heritage and Hope. A five hundred some million dollar judgment has been assessed against a state and part of its governmental institution within that state for refusing to allow a Christian group of female students to carry on their sports endeavor. I think it was a basketball season because they refused on one occasion to play a game against a team that had included a male masquerading as a female.

That government of that state said, "Okay, not only are you not going to play in this state, we're going to ban you either forever or for years to come from ever playing in this league again." It was a religious ban. They were saying that they could not practice their legitimate faith, and over a $500 million judgment was rendered. Well, that's one.

The former Spokane mayor there in Washington is seeking a $10 million judgment from the city for irreparable harm she claims to have suffered since city leaders formally denounced her for attending a 2023 worship event hosted by a conservative activist missionary and received prayer from him during the event. Because of the public censure that was rendered by the city, she lost the election that year.

The claim against the city alleges that the resolution denouncing her was a violation of her First Amendment rights, freedom of religion, and so on. On August 20, 2023, she attended the "Let Us Worship" event in Spokane and received prayer from the leader about a minute after he declared that there is one answer in response to same-sex marriage and trans-indoctrination and his name is Jesus Christ.

Ten million dollar suit for damages, irreparable harm. Where will that go? It'll be interesting to see. Will it go the same direction as the $500 million actual judgment against another state for its refusal to allow a Christian girls' sports team to play because they would not play against a team with a man masquerading as a woman?

Now, you say, "Why are you talking about this in the midst of a program called 'Heritage and Hope'?" Well, the reason is so that we can gain a real perspective of where we are. Remember William Jefferson Clinton in 1997 said we are in practical ways changing the immutable or unchangeable ideals that have guided us from the beginning.

So he embraced the practice of homosexuality and abortion. In other words, he was changing the very ordinations of God in Genesis chapter one and two, the foundation of the entire Bible. That's what he was changing. He said those things have guided us from the beginning, but not anymore because I'm William Jefferson Clinton, I'm the president, and I'm going to decree otherwise.

And he wasn't the only one because then along came Barack Obama and did the same thing essentially. In fact, he went even further. He made it his singular purpose to advance abortion across the whole world and cause Americans to pay for it. That was one of his campaign slogans and then to spread the practice of homosexuality and all of the other permutations and combinations that defied God's creation ordinance in Genesis one and two. And for all of those things, he was called over 20 times "the Messiah."

Now let these things sink in. I'm not making these things up. I have them all documented. So now let's take a look at what's happened right now. That's what we're doing. A mega-church pastor in Kansas, supposedly he is the pastor of the largest United Methodist Church in the world in Kansas. Sixty-one years of age, he's decided to run for the United States Senate as a Democrat, which means he embraces everything that the Democrat party embraces, which is pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, pro-transgenderism, all of those things that are contrary to the creation ordinations of God in Genesis one and two and then all through the scriptures by the words of Jesus, the Apostle Paul, Peter, and so on.

He says, "I'm an independent-minded Democrat. I'm going to lead from the center." In other words, I'm not going to embrace truth. I'm going to embrace people side-stepping the truth just like Bill Clinton said, just in different terms. He calls himself a theological progressive who has long advocated for same-sex marriages to be received in the United Methodist Church.

He is, in fact, a form of resurrected William Jefferson Clinton, and he's going to run for the Senate ostensibly for the purpose of bringing the nation together. About what? On what basis? How do you bring the nation together if you defy the very truth upon which the nation was founded? And what's fascinating about this, it's almost like blasphemy. He is the pastor of the Church of the Resurrection.

So rather than a resurrection of the nation according to biblical heritage, it's going to be the diminution of the nation in the name of Christ. You want to know where we are right now? We're talking about heritage and hope. Where does our heritage fit right now and where is our hope? In addition to that, I have another one in front of me here.

Ryan Burge. Ryan Burge wrote a book called *The Vanishing Church: How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations Is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us*. He was a pastor-turned-political scientist, and he was raised a Southern Baptist. But he decided he found thing more comfortable in the American Baptist Churches of USA. Why? Well, he said they're a conservative mainline denomination and he said this brand of Christianity sits in the middle of extremism and unbelief.

He said it's a perfect fit for a doubter like me. Now remember he was a pastor. He said the American Baptist Churches is a perfect fit for someone like me. The denomination has always emphasized a middle path, he said. For American Baptists, each believer gets to make up his own mind about what the Bible says.

In other words, you don't receive instruction from a pastor or pulpit, even trying to help you interpret. No, everybody makes up their own mind. In other words, going back to the nation of Israel before the time of the judges, every man did that which was right in his own eyes. That's the American Baptist version, by the way, that's the name of a denomination. That's different from the Southern Baptist.

He went on to say if the majority of Americans believe that two men should be able to get married, that's moderate. If the majority of Americans think that women should have access to abortion, that's moderate. He said I think the big criticism of my book is what I call moderate. A lot more conservative evangelicals would call it liberal. And he said I don't know how to square that problem.

Well, I know how to square the problem. You have to decide what is truth and what's not. That's what you have to do. You have to decide whether God meant what He said in His word or didn't. It's very simple. But at this time in America, it's not nearly like it was in the days of John Winthrop in 1630 or William Bradford in 1620 or even the first landers in 1607.

We're way beyond that now, friends. Way beyond that. He said American religion has become an all-or-none position. It is. Christianity is all or nothing. You either—Jesus said you follow Me or you don't follow Me. As the Father sent Me, even so send I you. To do what? To do the will of the Father and obey His voice just like Jesus did. That doesn't seem to be the goal in American churchianity anymore.

At least we would have to say the nation is dramatically divided. At least 50% divided, maybe more so. So where does our heritage now, the wonderful heritage that we have, going to lead us? Billy Graham said back in 1995 in a book called *The Spirit of '76*, he said, "If America is to survive we must elect more God-centered men and women to public office, individuals who will seek divine guidance in the affairs of state."

Well, I wouldn't disagree with that in and of itself. But what is godly? Heritage is not something to worship in pride, but to honor in humility and to live out faithfully in life. Isn't that our future?

Guest (Male): Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a heart 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: Heritage and Hope. Hope is a wonderful thing. Without hope, we have, well, things are pretty dismal. That's why salvation provides us with hope. Jesus came that we might have hope, that we might have peace, that we might have hope, that we might have salvation from a death penalty. That's why we have hope because we were all under a death penalty.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But we have to live that out. It's not a matter of making a confession. It's a matter of living what we say we believe. The so-called moral majority of Jerry Falwell has become the immoral superiority.

Now it's interesting. We've had a National Day of Prayer for at least 50 years now. I was head of the National Day of Prayer Task Force for the Commonwealth of Virginia for four years. We've had so many things in our country. But when one leader of the National Day of Prayer told me the reason why we didn't have any emphasis on repentance was because it's too negative, it told me an awful lot about why, in spite of all of the seeming focus on heritage, we were diminishing our hope. Because repentance is the only hope that we have.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So if the gathering there on the Washington Mall on May 17 is not about repentance fundamentally, not repentance by the nation but repentance by the church because the church is the heart of the nation. Jesus said if the light that is you—He said you're the light of the world. He said, "I'm out of here now. I was the light of the world. I'm leaving. Now you're the light of the world." But if the light that is in you be darkness, then how great is that darkness? That's our problem, friends.

Our light has been ever-increasingly diminished because we try to win the world by becoming like the world. That was the church growth movement, then the seeker-sensitive movement, and other movements after that. So now we're at a place where it's fish or cut bait. We're at the ultimate fulcrum moment for our country.

Now from the spiritual viewpoint, America's favorite pollster, George Gallup Jr., reported back in 1997 America's religious heritage seems to persist in outward appearance. He said the religious or spiritual condition of America today can best be described in terms of gaps. He speaks of an ethics gap, a knowledge gap, a faith gap.

He said while religion is highly popular in this country, evidence suggests it does not change people's lives to the degree one would expect from the level of professed faith. In other words, we're a bunch of hypocrites, he said. So I ask the question in my book, *Renewing the Soul of America*, in light of the past generation of American history, what is the status of America's hope?

To answer that question, we have to re-examine whether heritage has become our servant or our master. Has our godly heritage guided us back to God or has it become our God? As Abraham Lincoln suggested in his call to the nation for a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer, which by the way, I have this on our gallery wall as well here at Save America Ministries.

He said it behooves us to humble ourselves before the offended power. That whole idea doesn't really catch the wind in America's spiritual sails these days. Humble ourselves? No, we're raising ourselves up. If we were going to humble ourselves, we would come clean, starting in God's house. We would come clean with how we have not obeyed His voice, how we have rebelled against even His creation ordinations in Genesis 1 and 2, the very foundation of everything else.

So ultimately, heritage, as wonderful as it is, is a matter of the heart today. It was a matter of the heart then, 250 years ago or 430 years ago, whatever it was, but it's a matter of the heart today. And if it's not—if the heritage is not lived out in the heart today in spirit and in truth—it has become a hypocritical God. We're looking at our heritage to save us, and God has no grandchildren. He just doesn't have any grandchildren.

So ultimately our heritage for the future, it's speaking into the future as a matter of our hearts today. That's why when I wrote the book *Renewing the Soul of America*, the company that was working with me at that time actually created the subtitle, "One Person at a Time Beginning with You." In other words, it's a book not just about information, but about transformation.

How we really make a change in our country. How heritage really works. What can really happen. As Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade, said, "As a country and as individuals we stand at a crossroads to continue on a path to godlessness or to return to the way of righteousness." How can we return?

People are being told that God's returning to them because He loves you so much. That's not what the Bible teaches. Yes, the Bible does teach that God loves us, but He says you return unto Me and then I'll return unto you. You return unto Me and I'll return unto you. We just don't believe that anymore.

People say, "I already did return. I confessed Christ as my Savior 40 years ago at a Billy Graham rally and I'm in like Flynn." Why are you living like hell today? Oh, because I have eternal security. Yes, you heard me correctly. That's what's killing America. We don't have a living faith.

We have a third of the nation that thinks they have eternal security because they once made a confession of faith, however deep or not deep it was, and have been told because some evangelist wanted a notch in his belt for public consumption so he could market it, or the denomination or a church could market it to the denomination. Look how many people we saved this year. God will not be mocked, my friends. He will not be mocked.

After the founder of the Christian Coalition left and went to Texas to be a consultant to Republican politics, Pat Robertson installed Don Hodel and Randy Tate. I believe that they were both congressmen, but I could be wrong, at least one of them was. He installed them as the directors of the Christian Coalition. And in their preparation for what they called the "Road to Victory" conference in 1998, saying that it was a time for spiritual renewal, a time for revival, they made this statement, a very shaking statement.

Here it is: "Even if every leader in this country from the White House to the schoolhouse shared our political goals," they commented, "this nation still will not change. America cannot change until the hearts of the people change." And for that statement, they were removed by Pat Robertson from heading the Christian Coalition. Why? Because that statement wouldn't raise money.

We had to say we were the white hats, they were the black hats, and that's how we raised money. They didn't say that. They said even if we fill all the elective offices of the United States with professing Christians of the ilk that we have today, America will still not change. America will not change until the hearts of we the people change.

So here's my question: What is the role currently of the heritage of the past? The psalmist said that indeed we have a goodly heritage. I agree. We have a goodly and godly heritage. It's wonderful. Woodrow Wilson said a nation that does not know what it was does not even know what it is or even what it's trying to do. We don't remember what we was, friends. Yes, I know that's bad English. We don't remember what we was. So how do we know what we are and what we're trying to do?

And how secure is America's hope based upon living out our heritage through your heart today? You see, living out that heritage is a legacy of hope. A legacy of hope. And where does that go? Just as we're ready to wrap up, let me just tell you, it's linked to our purpose. Heritage in the past without purpose in the present destroys the hope for the future. I wrote that right in my book, *Renewing the Soul of America*, which you need to get, friends.

If there's any book you need to have at this time with the 250th anniversary of the political birth of the country, it's this book. This book will unite your—it's not just about information. Everything else is going to be about information about godly heritage and all that kind of stuff to cause us to worship our heritage. Forget that. The heritage should lead us back to the God of that heritage in spirit and in truth and in repentance. And if it does not, we're in deep trouble.

So heritage in the past without purpose in the present destroys our hope for the future. It is at the point of purpose that our hearts make connection with our heritage. When purpose is either forgotten or abandoned, we lose heart. And a people who have lost heart have lost hope. So how do we now, or did we ever have a national purpose? And if we can identify that purpose, we might just define our destiny.

And that's what we'll be focusing on in another program: How to connect our hope and heritage with purpose. Because purpose—another word for purpose is a French word or phrase, *raison d'être*, our reason for being. What is our reason for being? What is our country's reason for being? Is it to be the richest country in the world? Is it to be the most powerful country in the world? No.

Those are incidental blessings or things that have happened because of the depths of the heritage. But as we have walked away from those depths, the very blessings can become a curse and we don't even realize it. We dare not be bragging about our great wealth. We dare not be bragging about our great health. We may not be bragging about our great power because it can all go bye-bye in an instant. Just ask Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Just ask Belshazzar, his son, in Babylon. In one day, they lost it all. One day.

I love my country, always have. But I'll tell you one thing, if we don't get serious and stop playing games in God's house and in the pulpits of America, we're going to be in deep, deep trouble. As Alexis de Tocqueville said, until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness, only then did I understand the secret of her genius and power. Get a copy of the book *Renewing the Soul of America*, friends. $15 will inspire you to no end. It really will. $15 on the website saveus.org. Call us at 1-800-SAVE-USA. Write to us at Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia 23255. Write a check and add $6 for postage and handling.

Yes, pray for our country, pray for our leaders. We do, we need to. But more than that, we need to obey the God of our heritage.

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 time on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.