Save America Ministries

Announcer: 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: Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the 18th of April, in '75, hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march by land or sea from town tonight, hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch of the North Church tower as a signal light. One, if by land, and two, if by sea; and I on the opposite shore will be, ready to ride and spread the alarm through every Middlesex village and farm, for the country folk to be up and to arm."

Henry Longfellow, "Paul Revere's Ride." And today on Viewpoint, we take a look at the midnight cry. The midnight cry not only of Paul Revere that launched this nation, but another midnight cry that is coming to wrap up not only this nation but all nations. And so I'm glad that you joined us here on Viewpoint today as conversation with, as always, with ever-increasing conviction, talk that transforms.

When I was in the eighth grade, I had a wonderful teacher, a core teacher. She taught the basics: English and history and so on. And I learned about American history. I learned about American history. I learned about the United States government. What an amazing teacher this was. We called her General Scove, a woman, Ruby Scove. And she taught us like nobody else had ever taught us.

And one of the things that she made sure that we knew was the midnight ride of Paul Revere. "On the 18th of April in '75, hardly a man was still alive who remembers that famous day and year." Except those who memorized that poem by Henry Longfellow concerning the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Well, it was a very unbelievable time. It was surrounding the time called the shot heard 'round the world.

When populism surging in the colonies and King George III urged Parliament to crack down on the Americans gripped by the daring spirit of resistance and disobedience to the law, the two sides careened toward war. On April 19, 1775, some 700 Redcoats marched on Lexington Green to face off against about 77 patriots, and the first guns were fired at sunrise. And when the smoke cleared, eight colonists lay dead.

Well, on April 16, 1775, three days earlier, patriots started receiving tips that the British were planning to attack Concord in the coming days. On the 18th, Paul Revere began his nighttime ride to alert citizens. It's unlikely he announced "The British are coming," since the colonists considered themselves British. But indeed, they came against the British. At least many of them did.

And not only Patrick Henry with his amazing cry in Richmond, Virginia, on March 23, 1775. As the year drew to a close, he stood there in the gathering, almost a secret gathering there, the second Virginia Convention. A shadow government of leaders around the colony convened to discuss the strategy for dealing with King George III. Among the 120 or so delegates were some of Virginia's most distinguished citizens, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, and the 38-year-old lawyer and orator Patrick Henry, who had arrived in Richmond with the purpose to rouse Virginians into preparing for war.

And on March 23, 1775, he did just that, proposing a resolution to raise county militias to secure our inestimable rights and liberties. The Christian, strong Christian man, Patrick Henry, lawyer. Though tensions were running high throughout Virginia, delegates remained wary of provoking the Crown and nursed hopes that America's differences with Britain could be resolved peacefully. And as Patrick Henry sat quietly as fellow members voiced their objections, then rose to deliver his history-making pitch there at St. John's Church on Church Hill in Richmond, Virginia.

He said the war has actually begun. "The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" Then raising his wrists together as if they were shackled, he cried out, "Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" And with those words, Henry clasped a letter opener and plunged it like a dagger toward his chest. And it worked. The jury of the leaders of the colonies heard the message, the cry: liberty or death. And it became the cry of the revolution.

And it took less than a month for Henry's words to play out violently and dramatically in a pair of New England villages. And so today on Viewpoint, we take a look not only at the words of Patrick Henry, but particularly the words—well, that midnight cry. You know, when the ride through every Middlesex village and town took place from Paul Revere. Here's a little background.

John Hancock and Sam Adams planned to travel to Philadelphia for the start of the Second Continental Congress in early May. Instead of stopping along the way in British-controlled Boston, Hancock and Adams feared they would be arrested there by Massachusetts Governor General Thomas Gage. The two men hid out at Hancock's boyhood home in Lexington. And on the night of April 18, patriot leaders were tipped off that Redcoats were on the move outside Boston, that Gage was indeed searching for Hancock and Adams and that he planned to seize rebel-owned powder magazines in Concord.

To warn the men in hiding and rouse local farmers to arms, Dr. Joseph Warren, a member of the Sons of Liberty militia, summoned a Boston silversmith, Paul Revere, and a tanner by the name of William Dawes to ride into the countryside with a message that the Redcoats were coming. Dawes departed around 9:00 p.m. while Revere prepared to go north. First, they visited the sexton of the Old North Church with instructions on how to signal a British advance. The sexton was to hang two lanterns in the belfry. One light would be indicating an assault by land over the Boston Neck, another isthmus that connected the city to Roxbury. Two lights meant the Redcoats would row by sea across the Charles River.

And Revere then borrowed a merchant's horse and departed for Lexington at about 11:00 p.m. to begin his midnight ride through the town of Medford. Revere succeeded in contacting the leader of the local militia and then reached the house where Hancock and Adams were concealed and urged them to flee. They were in danger. It was called the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Welcome to Viewpoint, friends. Today on Viewpoint, we're going to be taking a look on this midnight ride. Well, we've already taken part of the ride. We'll continue the ride when we get back.

Announcer: 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: The midnight ride. That's what we're talking about here on Viewpoint today. And there was a midnight ride. The midnight ride of Paul Revere started at 11:00 p.m. through every Middlesex village and farm, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow recorded in his poem later on in the mid-1800s. It became very famous. And in fact, it helped to secure the overall picture. Some would call it the myth, or the myths arising from the American Revolution, securing freedom and liberty.

But it was no myth for Patrick Henry. It was no myth for Paul Revere. Why is it called the midnight cry? Because in fact, it was a very dangerous time. The concerns were rising, the tensions were increasing. There were signs, signs that were developing that something serious was about to happen, that something was about to explode. Maybe history was about to be in the making, and the dangers were increasing.

Patrick Henry, as he stood there in the St. John's Episcopal Church there on Church Hill in Richmond, Virginia, gave that famous statement. He was known to be a tremendous orator as a godly attorney, by the way. Truly a godly attorney. And his voice rang out there to the 120 that were gathering, almost like the 120, in a sense, that were gathered in the upper room there on the Day of Pentecost. You remember the Day of Pentecost, don't you? Right there in Acts chapter two. They were all hunkered away there with expectations that something great was going to happen.

Jesus had told them to wait, wait for the outpouring of the Father, the gift that would come in the form of the Holy Spirit. And it did, it did come. And they poured out of that upper room, 120 of them, and it just absolutely shocked the people around that were gathered from all over the world. Then indeed, and you might think it a little troublesome that I make these analogies, but you'll understand the significance when we're through here today on Viewpoint. There, 120 were gathered in Richmond, Virginia, at the Episcopal Church there on Church Hill. And they were gathered because there was a similar sense of foreboding.

They did not know what was going to take place. The drumbeats of war were sounding. And Patrick Henry stands up and delivers that amazing statement. "Is life so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I care not what others may think, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" Well, interestingly, in a sense, that's exactly what Jesus said. He said, "I don't care what others may think, but there's only one way to have liberty. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me."

Not everyone was willing to hear the cry of the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth, who was sent for a propitious moment in world history to extend an invitation that those who would follow and would hear the voice of His warning and wooing and winning, that they would be saved and that they would actually have true freedom and liberty. For the scripture had been written: "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." You see, here we are as Americans on the near edge of the 250th anniversary of the political birth of our country. 250 years. 1776, July 4. Some would say July 3rd or 2nd when the Declaration of Independence was actually written.

But we'll say July 4th. That's the official day. 250 years. And a cry went forth. A cry went forth from Paul Revere. "Listen, my children, and you shall hear." He went through every Middlesex village and farm, spreading the alarm that something was coming. Something was coming that was very serious, perhaps very dangerous. Get ready. Get ready. The Christian lawyer, Patrick Henry, gave a similar type of message, saying, "What is it that's keeping us from getting ready? What's keeping us from making the steps that are necessary in order to prepare? It's happening, friends, my brethren, the 120 in the so-called upper room of St. John's Episcopal Church on Church Hill in Richmond, Virginia. Get ready."

He was very passionate in that cry. Sometimes it even takes a lawyer to express that kind of passion because, in effect, a lawyer is to appeal to the jury of his peers. Maybe that's one reason why a lawyer is speaking to you today. Maybe this lawyer was called also to give a midnight cry to the country that he loves, the people in the country. "Listen, my children, and you shall hear. Please, listen up. The British are coming! The Lord is coming! People, get ready. Jesus is coming!"

What are you doing? Is life so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery in sin and rebellion against the Lord? Doing your own thing? People, get ready. Well, there was a cry that went out. And in fact, another cry was put into music years ago. It's been one of the more popular songs, Southern Gospel songs. And we're going to hear it right now. "The Midnight Cry" was sung by Gold City. Well, we were headed, of course, according to Jesus, to a city with streets of gold. And let's listen to "The Midnight Cry."

Gold City: I hear the sound of a mighty rushing wind. And it's closer now than it's ever been. I can almost hear the trumpet as Gabriel sounds the chord. At the midnight cry, we'll be going home when Jesus steps out on a cloud to call His children. The dead in Christ shall rise to meet Him in the air. And then those that remain will be quickly changed. At the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again.

I look around me. I see prophecies fulfilling and signs of the times. They're appearing everywhere. I can almost hear the Father as He says, "Son, go get your children." And at the midnight cry, the Bride of Christ will rise when Jesus steps out on a cloud to call His children. The dead in Christ shall rise to meet Him in the air. And then those that remain will be quickly changed. At the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. At the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. When He comes again.

At the midnight cry, at the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. And then those that remain will be quickly changed. At the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. At the midnight cry, at the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. The midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. He's coming! And then those that remain will be quickly changed. At the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. At the midnight cry, at the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. When Jesus comes again. When Jesus comes again.

Chuck Crismier: And then in the 1970s, Bill Gaither and his group sang another song: "The King Is Coming. The King is coming. I heard the trumpet sound and 'round His face I see, 'The King is coming. The King is coming. Praise God, He's coming for me.'" Well, how would we know He was coming for me? You see, the problem is that we don't necessarily see ourselves in the context of the midnight cry. Do you know that in the American history, back there in 1774, 1775, 1776, do you know that massive numbers of the colonists refused to be part of America's cry for freedom? They preferred to be the British. They preferred to stay under the bondage of King George III. Liberty did not call them.

Yet behind, for 150 years behind the 250th anniversary of the country, was a spiritual cry that went up in America. It began in 1607 at Jamestown. Then in 1619, 1620, came the Mayflower Compact and the Pilgrims, giving us the first document of representative government in America. Ten years later, in 1630, came the Puritans with a model of Christian charity setting the theme by another lawyer, a lawyer by the name of John Winthrop. John Winthrop penned a document then that was like a cry to the world. It was like a cry to those who would hear the voice of Christ calling to freedom, to liberty in Christ. Because the cry for liberty on earth as human beings could only be found truly in Christ. And believe it or not, our founders actually believed that.

They actually believed that. Whatever happened? Do we need another midnight cry? Is that perhaps what we've been doing here for 31 years on Viewpoint? We'll be back.

Announcer: 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 factsheet on the state of the marital union, a factsheet 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: About 20 years ago, 64% of the adults in America believed that they were religious. According to George Barna in his 1991 report on what Americans believe, indicating a decline from 72% in 1985. Because nine out of 10 senior citizens describe themselves as religious, it's easy to see what happened to the younger generation. Traditional religious commitment dropped off dramatically. Barna reported at that time that two-thirds of all adults either agree or somewhat agree that America is a Christian nation.

A decade later, George Gallup reported that 45% of all adults classify themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians. 95% at that time said they believed in God. Yet a profound gulf lies between America's vowed ethical standards and the observable realities of American life. What may be even more damning, according to George Gallup Jr., is that the gap between Americans think they do and what they do, he calls it a national schizophrenia, justifying his newsletter headline: religion is gaining ground but morality is losing ground.

Even the secular writers Patterson and Kim in their book, "The Day America Told the Truth" in 1991, said God is alive and very well in America, but right now in America, fewer people are listening to what God has to say than ever before. Quite a statement coming from two advertising executives. Apparently, God is not the one who has changed. Americans have changed. And so today on Viewpoint, there's a need for a midnight cry. A midnight cry to Americans, and even especially professing Christian Americans, to get ready. It's not the British that are coming this time. It's the Lord who is coming. And before He comes, a counterfeit is coming far worse in tyrannical authority than George III ever was in the days of the colonies.

Patterson and Kim said as we enter the 1990s, it became suddenly and urgently clear that a tumultuous change was occurring in America. The ground beneath our feet began shifting. Yesterday's verities or truths had vanished. Unpredictability and chaos became the norm. We can no longer tell right from wrong. It raises fear and doubt which often leads to depression. And Americans have more of fear and doubt and of depression too than they did previous generations. Americans wrestle with these questions in what often amounts to a vacuum, a moral vacuum. The religious figures and scriptures that gave us rules for so many centuries, the political system that gave us our laws, all have lost their meaning in our moral imagination.

Well, I guess if it takes secular advertising executives to sound the alarm, so be it. Somebody has to tell the truth, right? So here we are. 31 years on the air confronting the deepest issues of America's heart and home right here on Viewpoint. The audience not the pagans, the professing Christians. Because that is God's warmest audience. That was His warmest audience there on the Day of Pentecost, and it's still His warmest audience. But when the light that is in His warmest audience becomes ever darkening, how great is that darkening until it becomes like midnight. And that's where we are today.

What would Patrick Henry say today? Is life so sweet and peace so great as to be sacrificed by chains and slavery? Would he not say, "Forbid it, Almighty God!"? As for me, give me liberty or give me death. Give me true liberty in Christ. In other words, help me to walk free of the chains of sin and darkness and the cultural mandates on our lives that are keeping us from walking according to the word, will, and ways of the Lord in God's own house. Knowing full well that the scripture said that judgment would begin at the house of God. As the scripture says, if judgment begins first at the house of God, then how shall we then be saved?

The message is just not being reached. It's not being preached. Not really. It's a kind of milky-toast kind of feel-good churchianity that makes everybody feel good but does almost nothing to help them to walk in righteousness or be good. Yet the scripture says that without holiness, no man will see the Lord. So we put all these things in context here. Could it be actually that America's sojourn on this planet is very much akin to what happened with the children of Israel in Egypt?

How long were the children of Israel in Egypt? The Bible said it was about 400 years. How long have we been in this country, other than the Native Americans? How long have we who profess the name of Christ, in whole or in part, how long have we been in this country on these shores? Just a little over 400 years. Depending on where you start. If you start in 1607, it would be more than 400 years. If you started in 1620, it would be 406 years. If you started in 1630, 400 years would be in just four years.

So we've been here about the same time the children of Israel were in Egypt. When they first got to Egypt, for a long time, things went very well and they multiplied and they did well and they were treated well by their government at that time, Pharaoh, and under the hand of Joseph, who was a godly man and who provided direction even through very difficult times, much like the difficult times that America faced in its earlier days. But then there arose a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph.

We've had leaders who arose who knew not the God of our fathers, who knew not the faith of our founding fathers, who knew not the John Winthrops of the day, who knew not the William Brewsters of the day in the Puritan colony. Who knew not the foundations of the scriptures that were taught to every family in every Middlesex village and farm in America. But by the 1700s, by the early 1700s, there had been such a falling away just like there was in Egypt, that God's people were increasingly under slavery in this country.

Even such institutions as Harvard and Yale that were formed for the very express purpose of preparing Christian ministers were very quickly abandoning their roots. It was necessary for a great shake-up to take place. So a cry went out from a pastor who was nearly blind in Enfield, Massachusetts—or was it Connecticut? Anyway, he gave a sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It wasn't a rabble-rousing sermon. He actually just read the sermon. But the Spirit of God came upon those words and so spoke to the people, it was like a midnight cry. They were shaken. They were shaken to the foundations of their very lives.

And they grabbed for the posts and the pillars of the church lest they should fall into an eternal destiny that was not desirable. And it changed the world at that time. It was called the First Great Awakening. It prepared the way for what was going to happen with the confrontation with Britain, a great confrontation of liberty versus well, dominion and monarchy. Some would have called it slavery.

And then, once a Constitution was put together, it was difficult times. It was difficult times for the nation that had been formed. There had been terrifying war for eight years. How do you pick up the pieces? How do we pick up the pieces today from all that has been going on in our country for the past 40 years? Wars and rumors of wars within our nation that have been tearing the country apart so badly that there are more people today in America who do not worship God, who are not interested in being relieved of the chains of slavery, spiritual slavery, than are.

Whatever happened to the United States of America? Whatever happened to we the people? Just like what happened in Israel, there under Pharaoh and the dominion of the spirit of Egypt. No wonder over 400 times from Genesis to Revelation, God called His people out of Egypt, out of the spirit of Egypt. It wasn't out of a geographical place called Egypt; it was out of the spirit, the bondage of Egypt. And He's been calling us out ever since. But we didn't hear the voice because the voice hasn't been loud enough. The voice hasn't been clear enough. Because it didn't pan to the voices of our day. Have pander to the cultural sensibilities of the people rather than the spiritual sensibilities, and they do not hear the cry because the cry isn't there. It's just a soft-spoken, lisping message: "Be nice, feel good, Jesus loves you."

So what are we going to do? Will we hear the midnight cry again? Will there be a midnight ride like Paul Revere, a spiritual Paul Revere to ride in and say, "People, the British are coming! Satan is coming! The Antichrist is coming! Are you ready?" 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 backdoor 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."

The sixth President of the United States, John Quincy Adams, declared on July 4, 1821: "The highest glory of the American Revolution was this. It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. From the day of the declaration, they, the American people, were bound by the laws of God," he said, "which they all and by the laws of the gospel which they nearly all acknowledged as the rules of their conduct." You want to find out what's happened to America? Those things are no longer true. That we're bound almost universally by the laws of God and the gospel, which we acknowledge to be the rules of our conduct. No. The fear of the Lord has been abandoned in more than half of this country.

More than half of this country, yet that's what bound us together. You see, maybe just maybe the voices of the past, whether it's Paul Revere, John Adams, who said, "Religion and virtue are the only foundations not only of republicanism but of all free government, but of social happiness under all governments and in all combinations of human society." Where are those voices today that righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people? As John Adams called for on a national fast day in 1799.

How about John Adams' statement in 1798? "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion, which by the way they meant Christianity. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

That's why we're having such problems. That's why you have to continue to expand more and more and more and more laws like King George III to put the people under more and more bondage because we refuse, refused to walk in the liberty that is in Christ. Which is based upon a rebirth of our minds and hearts and spirits. It's quite amazing. John Adams wrote a letter to Thomas Jefferson. He said, "Have you ever found in history one single example of a nation thoroughly corrupted that was afterwards restored to virtue?" And without virtue, there can be no political liberty.

So what is the foundation for the virtue? Our founders believed and stated that the foundation of the virtue was Jesus Christ. That's what they believed. They believed that without that conviction, there was no hope for us. When the Declaration of Independence was being signed in 1776, Sam Adams said, "We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun let His kingdom come."

He said, "A general dissolution of principles and manners," in other words, our life ways, "will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. That our biggest problem is not Russia. Our biggest problem is not China. It's not Iran. It's us." He said, "Neither the wisest Constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners have become universally corrupt. He, therefore, is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue," as defined by the Bible, by the way. "Who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power or trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. The sum of it all: if we would most truly enjoy the gift of heaven, let us become a virtuous people."

How would we know we are a virtuous people? Defined by the Bible, the foundation of it all. So there's a cry coming out. Do you hear the cry? I remember back 32 years ago when I was still in Southern California, wrapping up my law practice, and was asked to speak after forming Save America Ministries in 1993. Was asked to speak to a group of consummate conservative people in a group. They were well known for their conservative beliefs and had asked me to speak.

So I spoke there, still as a lawyer, had not formed this—had not started this radio program. And as I spoke, I began to translate the understanding of our founders and where we were as a country. Where we are now, but where we were then, 32 years ago. It was a spiritual message like a midnight cry to the people. Many of those people claim to be Christians. But one would wonder what the extent of their Christianity was. They believed facts, they believed in Jesus, they believed in God, but that was about the extent of it. It didn't connect with their politics. It didn't connect with anything else.

And so as I finished speaking, I remember what one guy said. He came up and he said, "Mr. Crismier, if we had wanted to hear a message like this, we could have and should have gone to church." Here's the problem. They weren't hearing any message like that when they went to church. That was exactly the point. And that's been the point ever since then, and it's deteriorated more and more and more in our country over the past 30 some years.

I remember in 1996 when I was asked to appear at a gathering of 4,000 Christian leaders in St. Louis. Dr. Bill Bright had won the Templeton Foundation Award for contribution toward religion, and he used the million-dollar stipend to promote prayer. And so he sponsored this particular gathering in St. Louis, which was the first time there had been a significant call of Christian leaders broadly to pray for the church in America.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss—she was then known as DeMoss, later she remarried Wolgemuth—but Nancy Leigh DeMoss gave the keynote address. The keynote address was based upon a lawsuit that I had filed, giving a clarion cry to the church and its leaders six months before. It was called "Jehovah God, the Lord of Nations versus the Spiritual Leaders of America," aka pastors, parachurch leaders, broadcasters, publishers, and so on as defendants. Filed in the courts of heaven, not the courts of men, and was served on 300 of the most prominent Christian leaders in the country.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss received one of those and called me a few days later. She said, "Chuck, you have no idea. You could not possibly have known that I was going to give the keynote address to Fasting and Prayer '96." But she said, "I was struggling to understand how to communicate what I felt was on my heart. And when I received that lawsuit, it all solidified what needed to be said." So she delivered the keynote address and it was called "Begin at My Sanctuary."

It was a cry. It was like a midnight cry to the church in America in 1996. Begin at my sanctuary. What happened as a result? Almost nothing. It just rolls like water off a duck's back. I guess the trumpet hasn't sounded loud yet. When the trumpet sounded loud when God appeared on Mount Sinai before the Jewish people then called Hebrews, it says it sounded louder and louder and louder as the mountain shook. In other words, God was not going to let the people get by without experiencing the midnight call, the midnight cry to the people.

And they were so terrified, they said to Moses, "Don't let this God speak to us anymore. You talk to Him." We don't yet have an understanding of what the fear of the Lord is like. No grasping of it. Yes, it's a wonderful thing to anticipate the coming of the Lord. I can—we had that wonderful song coming out of the Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe. "Mine eyes can see the sounding of the trumpet of the Lord. He is sounding out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He is lifting up His final sword. His truth is marching on."

It was like a clarion call, a cry, almost like a trumpet sound. We've forgotten that too. So what does it take? God in His mercy and by His compassion for us is doing whatever He can to get our attention. If He has to send Paul Reveres on a midnight ride, He'll do it. If He has to send lawyers to speak the truth when the people won't listen to their pastors, He will do it. Whatever He has to do, He will do it. Even if He has to lift up the trumpet to sound louder and louder and louder and louder until the whole place shakes.

Yes, His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness and that's why He's willing to do that. That's why He's willing to give the trumpet sound. That's why He's willing to bring the cry. "Is life so sweet and peace so dear as to allow ourselves to be in bondage of chains and slavery?" Patrick Henry would rise again. Come on, folk. There is no liberty without Jesus. There is no liberty without liberty in Christ. And that liberty is not antinomianism, which means lawlessness. That's freedom from Christ, not freedom in Christ.

So the lyrics say, "I hear the sound of a mighty rushing wind. And it's closer now than it's ever been. I can almost hear the trumpet and Gabriel sound the chord at the midnight cry. We'll be going home." Some will be. "When Jesus steps out on a cloud to call His children. The dead in Christ, in Christ, shall rise." This is not a confessional thing, friends. This is a relational thing. To meet Him in the air. And then those that remain shall be quickly changed at the midnight cry when Jesus comes again.

At the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. I look around me. I see prophecies fulfilling and signs of the times. They're appearing everywhere. I can almost hear the Father as He says, "Son, go get your children" at the midnight cry. The Bride of Christ will rise. That is those who are the Bride of Christ. And then those that remain will be quickly changed at the midnight cry when Jesus comes again. At the midnight cry, when Jesus comes again. When He comes again.

Messiah is coming. The King is coming. I can hear the trumpet sound and 'round His face I see, said the Gaithers back in the 1970s. The message has been clear and it's been rising, it's been increasing. But have we heard it yet? Where are the Paul Reveres now? Not for the political in the country, but for that which undergirded the country itself: our spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ, the God who made and preserved us a nation in the get-go.

Get a copy of my book, "Renewing the Soul of America." It'll stir your heart. $15 on our website, saveus.org. $15 on the website saveus.org. "Preparing the Way of the Lord," get a copy of the book, "Messiah: Unveiling the Mystery of the Ages." $18 will put it in your hands. It's on the website saveus.org. Become a partner, friends. Send your gifts by faith to help get the message out, the midnight cry. Until Jesus comes again.

Announcer: 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.