On August 19, 2019, Executive Editor Dean Baquet of the New York Times convened a meeting of newsroom personnel to discus concerns that the alleged independent “news source was becoming too soft in its coverage of the president and needed to intensify its portrayal of Trump as a racist” (The New American, Dave Bohon). The New York Times had just spent two years trying to convince America, as a nation, that candidate Trump had colluded with the Russians to steal the 2016 presidential election. That lie had been exposed by the release of the Muller Report, and now it was time to move on. With open candor, the Executive Editor instructed his staff writers to spend the next year retelling the story of America through a racial narrative. In others words, those who were to report the news were to shape the news along a preconceived bias. In this way, American history can, and will, be rewritten, by diabolical design.
The attempt to rewrite and reinterpret the history of the United States is nothing new, but it always disturbing. It is also very effective, reflected in what has happened beginning in the early 1900’s when public educators decided the original documents of the Founding Fathers were wholly secular, and void of any religious connotations. The audacity of the assertion is breathtaking on its surface, for God is mentioned four times in the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is God, not government from which gives basic rights to all men, and that truth is self-evident.
Nevertheless, a secular interpretation of the history of America was allowed to move forward as the novel concept was embraced by those in academia, and passed on to future generations of students.
This allowed another rewriting of American history in the 1960’s, which viewed everything through an economic prism. Charles A. Beard (1874 – 1948) promoted this concept in 1913 with his work, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. In time, the economic view of history would replace the providential view of history which preceding prominent historians, such as George Bancroft (1800 – 1891), had taught up to that time period.
The evidence of how successful this view of American history has been is reflected in a basic question which is universally answered in simplicity. The question is this. “What was the cause of the American Revolution?” The universal answer, “Taxation without representation.”
However, that reason is listed as number 17 of the 27 complaints filed against King George III of England in the Declaration of 1776. While taxation without representation was an important reason for the Revolution, it was not the only reason, nor was it the primary reason. The complaint was stated in only eight words: “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.” However, taxation without representation has been catapulted above all other concerns, by design, in order to advance the economic interpretation of America’s founding.
By reshaping America’s past, unscrupulous individuals can guide hearts and minds in a direction away from other important issues which concerned the Founding Fathers, such as governmental overreach, restrictions on liberty and self-government, abolishing racial inequality, immigration, trade, the abuse of military powers, stirring up domestic insurrection, and judicial activism. These were the greater grievances to the signers of the Declaration than taxation without representation.
It is better for those who want to shape the morality of a nation, to dismiss God, suppress religion, eliminate freedom of speech, and take away basic rights, to keep people’s mind focused on economic issues.
One result of focusing attention on an economic interpretation of America’s past is that today, the single most important issue when people go to vote relates to money. “It’s the economy, stupid!” is one of the most successful political slogans ever uttered. The economy overshadows issues of God, the right to life, decency, and morality. People will give up their souls for personal security. Socialist and Communist know that to be true about human nature, and have exploited it worldwide.
Because this is true, what can the Church do to arrest another false interpretation of America’s history, which is the story of God’s providence in human affairs.
First, Christians can be more skeptical, and discerning in which newspapers are read, and which news programs are watched. Investigate, and search out the truth of a story.
Second, Christians can start asking some important questions about the original documents of America and what they actually say. The knowledge of the universe is at the fingers to people today by way of smart phones, computers, and the internet. Take advantage of modern resources. “Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned, (Job 8:8, NIV). Search out earlier American school text books, such as The Story of Liberty, by Charles Coffin (1879), which taught God’s providential control of history.
Third, Christians can insist on the truth in private conversations, and from public figures. Outrageous claims should not go unchallenged.
Fourth, Christians can become students of the Word of God, and of history. What a blessing that could be. Godly change will come. When the Book of the Law was found during the days of the good king Josiah, the people read how they should live, and the type of people God intended for them to be. Revival came to Israel. Spiritual renewal can come to America. The nation can be saved if Americans learn what we are meant to be as a people.
Finally, Christians should remember that what people know or believe about their past will determine the course of the future.
If a generation is born that does not know America was “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” as Abraham Lincoln reminded the nations at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, then they will succumb to the proposition that some people are more equal than others and have the right to rule, reflected in Socialist, or Communist Politburos, and the only thing that matters in life is economic security. Government, not God will rule over the affairs of state, and people will be compelled to put their trust in some Dear Leader illustrated by the situation in North Korea. People will then be compelled to hate, so they can be controlled by racism and other forms of social unrest. The alternative to this foolishness, indeed this madness, is to rediscover the godly story of America’s history.
America has embraced Human Secularism, Economic Determinism, and is soon to be the victim of Racism, in order to advance the political, social, and economic power of a few. Only Christ can rescue our nation. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).