American Democratic Faith

The American Democratic Faith

At ﬁrst I thought it strange that an authority on the history of American
Thought would call his book THE MAIN DOCTRINES OF THE
AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC FAITH. However though the years as I have
pondered what Bible teachers and believers substitute for the faith of the
Bible and of Jesus, it has dawned on me that the substitute is an American
Democratic Faith. I use to gainsay what former prime minister of Israel
said about Americans and Jews. What he said was that “we in Israel are
born Jews just like you Americans are born Christians.” At ﬁrst it sounded
ridiculous, but that the two kinds of faith have been mixed should be
obvious. I think there are some overlaps because it is obvious that during
this time of the Fulness of the Gentiles, the period during which the Jews
are blind to the Gospel, the United States has been the undisputed leader
in the spread of the Gospel to every nation.   This is another way of saying
that God has indeed used the United States to help in the spread of the
Gospel to every nation. Some of us also reluctantly accept the
observation by a foreign student of the US who said “to be an American is
more a religion and a character than a set of beliefs or a mater of
citizenship.” More often you will hear from mister average citizen what I
heard as a young pastor visiting with a man up the valley in Arkansas when
I asked him if he was a believer. “Yes”, the indignant reply was, “I was born
in this country!” And, “Did you think I am a heathen?”

Quickly I would mention ﬁve obvious differences between the American
Democratic Faith and the Faith of the Bible and Jesus. (1) The majority is
king in the American Democratic Faith while it is the minority in the Bible
that goes the narrow way that leads to life eternal. You will note that the
schools as the chief custodians of American culture, government, and
society do most of their work in terms of the priority for the majority.
Always, in the Old Testament, and in any movement or country in history,
there has been a “remnant” of real believers, deﬁnitely a minority type word
and concept. Quite often in the Old Testament, God preferred a dedicated
minority to a majority. Jesus taught the parable of the broad and narrow
way, clarifying that the many that go the broad way to destruction are the
majority and the few that go the narrow way that leads to eternal life are
the minority. One might contend that the United States is completely
different from the world in which Jesus taught in that now in our country
and in our time, the majority of US citizens go the narrow and right way
and the minority of US citizens go the broad and wrong way. Perhaps, if it
were ever true of this country, in this time in which our country has also
become part of the world wide Falling Away movement, it is no longer true.
As far as real faith in God, Christ, and the Bible there is little difference
between citizens of America and citizens of any other nation, and you can
make a much better case for that conclusion.

We might put it this way for simplicity and agreement: While the emphasis
in America is on the priority for the majority, the emphasis in the Bible is
on priority for the minority.

What difference does it make? Well, without this Bible concept of priority
of the minority, you will be more inﬂuenced by the world. Satan, the prince
of this world, runs this world whether it is in the United States or elsewhere,
and consequently he uses the majority of this world in order to deter and
destroy faith in Jesus and the Bible.        {By the way if you claimed that
the majority in American go the narrow way that leads to life, then maybe
you would be inclined to think that Satan only works in other countries.
You could have the simplistic concept that all evil is in Korea, Iraqi, and I
forget what the other country is.} What difference does it make? Well,
without this Biblical majority-minority concept for now and in this country,
you will have trouble accepting the Scripture, “all that will godly in
Christ Jesus will suffer persecution”, and this is not limited by any means
to physical persecution.        The politically correct in churches,
government, and society can separate you as a member of that Jesus
minority.

The greatest danger of all is that you can subject yourself to Bible teachers
and believers that have already become victims of the Falling Away. You
will tend to become like them, and you will listen to what they do teach and
preach even though long ago they came to the point where they would not
endure sound doctrine, “they out of their own desires heaped up teachers
with itching ears”, turned away from the truth and turned into fables. {One
word of caution, look for Bible teachers and believers that are preaching
(1) the Falling Away and (2) A 9 month of so new birth, and shun the
progenitors of silence on the Falling Away.}

(2) A second major difference between the American Democratic Faith
and the faith of the Bible and Jesus is on the concept of “toleration”. So
much that believers know to be true they will not even speak, for the fear
that they will seem non-tolerant and therefore non-American. An extreme
example is that the Presbyterian Church a few years ago voted whether to
decree that a stop should be made on the claim that Jesus is the only way
of salvation, because it seems too intolerant. I don‛t know how the vote
came out, but the very fact that a so-called Bible believing denomination
would have to vote on such a fundamentals Bible belief about Jesus and
salvation is within itself intolerable.