The last week of the year for many people is usually a time for reflection. Many will take stock of their accomplishments, or lack of, and news media will remind us of the significant events of the past twelve months.
Some events are so critically important that people never forget where they were when they first heard. You know, the "Where were you when" events. I'm too young to remember Pearl Harbor, but I have living relatives and friends who remember it well.
The first significant event I remember was November 22, 1963. It was lunch time at Asbury Elementary School in Denver and all the kids were on the playground when one of my classmates, Scott Haskins, who had gone home for lunch, walked up with a great big grin on his face and said, "The president has been shot." Nobody believed him, but when the recess was over and we got back to class, we all noticed the somber look on the face of our English exchange teacher, Miss Mundy. She explained it to us with a compassion that, as I look back, I would never have expected from a foreigner. School was dismissed and we all filed out in silence.
I was at my grandparent's house watching with interest on July 11, 1969 when Neil Armstrong took "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
On March 30, 1981, I was working at Wendy's when somebody pulled up to the drive through window and said, "Have you heard that the president was shot?" I remember my heart sinking; Reagan assassinated? All our hopes gone? We had no radio in the restaurant and we were asking every driver that came by all afternoon for updates. I could hardly wait to get home to see the news.
Another significant day was December 25, 1991. We were in the Philippines when we heard on the news that night that the Soviet Union had just voted itself out of existence. The Cold War was over. I had to let it sink in for a moment, but then I said to my wife, "We won!" It was rather surreal because the evil empire went out with such a whimper that almost nobody even noticed. When I went to work the next day there was no celebration, not even any discussion about it, but until 9/11 it had to be the single most significant event of my lifetime.
Of course I'll never forget 9/11. We were here in Kenya and I was a little ways north at a place called New Wood helping another missionary put up a new church building. Around 5:30 pm we got a call on the cell phone and heard about the World Trade Center attack.
As a historian (When I graduated with a BA in history my guidance counsellor told me that now I was a historian.) I often read about events that I wish I could have witnessed. I think the desire may have been planted when I was about ten or twelve years old by a collection of books called the "We Were There" series. The books were written for a young teenage audience and I think would have made good required reading in public schools.
One year at Christmas I received We Were There at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. It told the story of Rob, a teenager who wound up riding with Paul Revere to call out the militia, and then got his baptism of fire in the fight the next day. I loved the story and relived it over and over as I read the book probably a dozen times. I would like to have been there myself in those delicate days when the fate of our nation stood in the balance.
So, with these thoughts in mind, here is a list of events that if I were given the chance I would like to have personally witnessed:
- The look on the worried faces of the mariners on the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria, whose superstitious fears of falling off the edge of the world had nearly led them to mutiny, when someone cried out "Land ho!" What celebration must have taken place, and how stately the proud Christopher Columbus must have looked knowing that their discovery would change the world.
- George Washington on the march to Ft. Duquesne on July 9, 1755, when the British regulars were ambushed by a force of French and Indians. While the red coats panicked and fled, Washington, at all times exposed to enemy fire, rallied the militia to hold their ground and saved what was left of the army. Washington's coat was riddled by musket balls and several horses were shot out from under him, but he was miraculously unhurt.
- The stirring oration in St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia on March 23, 1775 when Patrick Henry declared, "Give me liberty, or give me death."
- The Constitutional Convention in 1787, when argument had become so vehement that nothing was being accomplished. Benjamin Franklin took the floor and said, "I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" I would like to have witnessed and then joined the delegates as they all got on their knees and began to pray for God's guidance.
- When the early morning fog and smoke from the cannons cleared on September 14, 1814, and revealed to Francis Scott Key the Star Spangled Banner flying over Ft. McHenry.
- The halls of Congress when on January 26, 1830 Daniel Webster trounced the nullification argument and finished one of the greatest patriotic speeches in history with the bold declaration, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!"
- The Alamo in 1836 to see if Travis really did draw a line in the sand.
- The dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg when on November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous address.
- The immaculately dressed and dignified Robert E. Lee offering his sword to the shabbily dressed, yet humble and gracious Ulysses S. Grant at Appomatox Courthouse on April 9, 1865.
- Custer's attack on the Indian village on the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, to find out exactly how events of the battle transpired.
- The light in Thomas Edison's eyes when his incandescent lightbulb shone successfully for the first time in 1879.
It becomes a little harder to select events from the twentieth century because with news reels and modern media so much of it is available to be seen, but there are many events I would like to have seen first hand:
- The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk in 1903.
- Babe Ruth's called shot in the 1932 World Series or Mickey Mantle's monster homerun in 1956 that came within inches of being the only ball ever hit out of Yankee Stadium.
- Lou Gehrig in 1939 saying, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
- Kate Smith introducing and singing a new song by Irving Berlin in 1941, God Bless America.
- The flag raising on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima, February 23, 1945.
- Aboard the Enola Gay to see the reaction of the aircrew when they saw the mushroom cloud rising over Hiroshima, August 6, 1945.
- Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders in Apollo 8 orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve, 1968, and reading the first nine verses of Genesis Chapter One to the entire world before saying, "Good night."
- Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987 saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
- This past year I would like to have been able to attend the Restoring Honor rally held at the Lincoln Memorial by Glenn Beck on August 28.
I could go on ad infinitum but this is enough for now. You get the picture, and surely you can think of many events you would like to have seen yourself.
Suffice it to say that it is necessary that we remember particular events, not only in our lifetime, but in our entire history as a nation. In 1945 General Dwight Eisenhower ordered pictures and video to be taken of the Nazi death camps as they were liberated to create an indisputable record for the future because, he said, some day somebody will deny it ever happened. That is happening today frequently in spite of all the evidence.
The same can be said for America's Christian heritage. The ACLU, and many other leftist, socialist, and even muslim organizations, with the help of the current presidential administration, are trying to deny the Christian foundation of our country, and deny First Amendment rights to Christians. It is vitally necessary that we remember who we are and where we came from. We began as a Christian nation; the testimonies of the Founders, their writings and documents all attest to it. Those who say different either haven't read the Founders, or they are deliberately trying to deny the truth. When the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States he reported that America was great because America was good, and that her goodness was found in her churches which were found in every corner of the land. It's the Christian religion, that is, faith in Jesus Christ, that made America great, nothing else.
As Ronald Reagan once said, "If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
December and the Real Meaning of Christmas
December is a month stock full of significant historical events for Americans. There is Pearl Harbor day on the 7th, the "day that will live in infamy," when, in 1941, the Japanese surprise attack on Hawaii killed over 2400 US servicemen and brought the United States into World War II.
The 8th is another infamous day for those who are fans of John Lennon, who was gunned down outside his apartment in New York City thirty years ago. Lennon was a cultural icon for the sexual revolution and the hippie movement of the 60's and 70's. Often called a brilliant musician, he is said to have influenced a generation. Indeed he did, but his legacy was one of moral impurity, drug abuse and atheism; hardly a role model any decent parent would want for his children.
On December 11 and 12, 1862, Union General Ambrose Burnside wrecked an entire corps of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He ordered his men to charge across a half mile wide open field to dislodge Confederate troops under Robert E. Lee, who were well entrenched behind a stone wall. Thousands were cut down and many of the wounded left on the field died in the freezing temperatures of the night. When the sun rose Burnside wanted to try the same folly again but finally gave it up. The battle left a bitter pall over the nation that Christmas, and a growing fear that the Civil War could not be won by the North.
The 14th of 1799 was a tragically sad day as well. The Father of our Country, George Washington, at age 67 was in excellent health and condition. A few days before he had been out riding his horse, even jumping fences, when a winter storm blew in and he got caught in the weather. He came down with a severe cold that lingered until a medical doctor decided to bleed the bad blood from his body. In so doing he bled the life right out of Washington. Modern critics of the Bible often say it is unscientific, but 3,500 years ago Moses, under the inspiration of God, penned the first five books of the Old Testament and declared in Genesis 9:4 and Leviticus 17:11 that the life is in the blood. George Washington could probably have lived a much longer life if the medical profession had examined and followed the "unscientific" Word of God.
Twenty-six years earlier on the 16th of 1773, the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, boarded three British merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped their entire cargoes of tea into the bay. The event became known as the Boston Tea Party. It was a reaction to the Stamp Acts which had levied a number of taxes against the colonists. Protests were so severe that most of the taxes were repealed, but the tea tax was left intact. The result of the Tea Party was the Intolerable Acts, passed by Parliament to close Boston Harbor to all shipping in 1774. This led to the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord a year later and brought on the American Revolution.
Ironically, four score and seven years later on December 20, 1860, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union setting in motion the events which led to the Civil War. The South stood on the 10th Amendment to the Constitution as the right to nullify Federal laws and secede from the Union, but the war ultimately decided there was no right of secession given to the States. Unfortunately the Republican led Union victory also opened the door to big government which in our day has become so enormous, that now Republicans are appealing to the 10th Amendment and talking about nullifying Federal laws. The State of Missouri even voted on and passed a law declaring parts of the Obama Healthcare law void in the state.
Christmas Day is an extremely important day in our history for more than the real meaning of Christmas. The year 1776 had been a bad one for George Washington and the Continental Army. They had been driven from Long Island, then Manhattan, then all the way across New Jersey in a series of delaying actions which kept the British at bay until the army escaped across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and both armies went into winter quarters. A force of 1400 Hessians, German mercenaries hired by the British to fight the colonists, held the town of Trenton, New Jersey, and had settled down for Christmas dinner and ale. No one expected an attack, night patrols were not sent out, and most of the Hessian soldiers, including their commander were fast asleep on the morning of the 26th.
Washington, who was not only the commanding general of the Continental Armies, but the one man, the only man, who could possibly have kept the colonies united in the struggle for freedom, wisely decided a daring stroke was needed to finish the year and encourage Americans to keep on. At 11pm on the night of Christmas, his army of 2400 men crossed the freezing waters of the Delaware in a snow storm. The storm prevented another 1200 men from crossing, but by 3am all that were coming were across. At 8am the colonists attacked, taking the Hessians completely by surprise and in ninety minutes the battle was over. It was a severe blow to the British cause but a catalyst for the Americans, convincing colonial leaders to continue the fight for independence.
The birth of Christ, of course, is the true reason for the season. We are living in a day when hatred for Christianity is so severe that the un-American un-Civil non-Libertarian dis-Union (ACLU) spends all of its efforts at this time of the year trying to remove nativity scenes from public places. Many businesses no longer allow their employees to say, "Merry Christmas." Just this week the Federal Reserve told a bank in Oklahoma that they had to remove all Christmas decorations they had put up in their lobby. It's an atheist attack upon the founding principles of our country and nothing else. It has nothing to do with "separation of church and state" or the Constitution. It is simply a small minority (1.8% of Americans claim to be atheist) of the population trying to bully everybody else into bowing to their ungodly will.
We won't do it. America was founded as "One nation under God," and as Ronald Reagan once enjoined us, "if we forget that ... we will be a nation gone under." It is high time we remember the Christ of Christmas, not only when we shop and tell the clerk "Merry Christmas," but at all times. Jesus is the reason for Christmas. Born in a lowly manger some 2,000 years ago, Jesus left the glory of heaven to become man so that He might redeem fallen mankind to Himself. Without that promise there is no hope for eternity. Do you know Christ as your Savior? Are you sure you are on your way to heaven? If you cannot assuredly answer these questions in the affirmative, may I encourage you to read the third page on my blog, entitled, A Free Gift.
To all of you who have faithfully read these postings over the last several months and to the many who have commented, mostly by e-mail but some here on the blog, my sincere thanks and I hope that you all have
A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.
The 8th is another infamous day for those who are fans of John Lennon, who was gunned down outside his apartment in New York City thirty years ago. Lennon was a cultural icon for the sexual revolution and the hippie movement of the 60's and 70's. Often called a brilliant musician, he is said to have influenced a generation. Indeed he did, but his legacy was one of moral impurity, drug abuse and atheism; hardly a role model any decent parent would want for his children.
On December 11 and 12, 1862, Union General Ambrose Burnside wrecked an entire corps of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Fredericksburg. He ordered his men to charge across a half mile wide open field to dislodge Confederate troops under Robert E. Lee, who were well entrenched behind a stone wall. Thousands were cut down and many of the wounded left on the field died in the freezing temperatures of the night. When the sun rose Burnside wanted to try the same folly again but finally gave it up. The battle left a bitter pall over the nation that Christmas, and a growing fear that the Civil War could not be won by the North.
The 14th of 1799 was a tragically sad day as well. The Father of our Country, George Washington, at age 67 was in excellent health and condition. A few days before he had been out riding his horse, even jumping fences, when a winter storm blew in and he got caught in the weather. He came down with a severe cold that lingered until a medical doctor decided to bleed the bad blood from his body. In so doing he bled the life right out of Washington. Modern critics of the Bible often say it is unscientific, but 3,500 years ago Moses, under the inspiration of God, penned the first five books of the Old Testament and declared in Genesis 9:4 and Leviticus 17:11 that the life is in the blood. George Washington could probably have lived a much longer life if the medical profession had examined and followed the "unscientific" Word of God.
Twenty-six years earlier on the 16th of 1773, the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, boarded three British merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped their entire cargoes of tea into the bay. The event became known as the Boston Tea Party. It was a reaction to the Stamp Acts which had levied a number of taxes against the colonists. Protests were so severe that most of the taxes were repealed, but the tea tax was left intact. The result of the Tea Party was the Intolerable Acts, passed by Parliament to close Boston Harbor to all shipping in 1774. This led to the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord a year later and brought on the American Revolution.
Ironically, four score and seven years later on December 20, 1860, South Carolina voted to secede from the Union setting in motion the events which led to the Civil War. The South stood on the 10th Amendment to the Constitution as the right to nullify Federal laws and secede from the Union, but the war ultimately decided there was no right of secession given to the States. Unfortunately the Republican led Union victory also opened the door to big government which in our day has become so enormous, that now Republicans are appealing to the 10th Amendment and talking about nullifying Federal laws. The State of Missouri even voted on and passed a law declaring parts of the Obama Healthcare law void in the state.
Christmas Day is an extremely important day in our history for more than the real meaning of Christmas. The year 1776 had been a bad one for George Washington and the Continental Army. They had been driven from Long Island, then Manhattan, then all the way across New Jersey in a series of delaying actions which kept the British at bay until the army escaped across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and both armies went into winter quarters. A force of 1400 Hessians, German mercenaries hired by the British to fight the colonists, held the town of Trenton, New Jersey, and had settled down for Christmas dinner and ale. No one expected an attack, night patrols were not sent out, and most of the Hessian soldiers, including their commander were fast asleep on the morning of the 26th.
Washington, who was not only the commanding general of the Continental Armies, but the one man, the only man, who could possibly have kept the colonies united in the struggle for freedom, wisely decided a daring stroke was needed to finish the year and encourage Americans to keep on. At 11pm on the night of Christmas, his army of 2400 men crossed the freezing waters of the Delaware in a snow storm. The storm prevented another 1200 men from crossing, but by 3am all that were coming were across. At 8am the colonists attacked, taking the Hessians completely by surprise and in ninety minutes the battle was over. It was a severe blow to the British cause but a catalyst for the Americans, convincing colonial leaders to continue the fight for independence.
The birth of Christ, of course, is the true reason for the season. We are living in a day when hatred for Christianity is so severe that the un-American un-Civil non-Libertarian dis-Union (ACLU) spends all of its efforts at this time of the year trying to remove nativity scenes from public places. Many businesses no longer allow their employees to say, "Merry Christmas." Just this week the Federal Reserve told a bank in Oklahoma that they had to remove all Christmas decorations they had put up in their lobby. It's an atheist attack upon the founding principles of our country and nothing else. It has nothing to do with "separation of church and state" or the Constitution. It is simply a small minority (1.8% of Americans claim to be atheist) of the population trying to bully everybody else into bowing to their ungodly will.
We won't do it. America was founded as "One nation under God," and as Ronald Reagan once enjoined us, "if we forget that ... we will be a nation gone under." It is high time we remember the Christ of Christmas, not only when we shop and tell the clerk "Merry Christmas," but at all times. Jesus is the reason for Christmas. Born in a lowly manger some 2,000 years ago, Jesus left the glory of heaven to become man so that He might redeem fallen mankind to Himself. Without that promise there is no hope for eternity. Do you know Christ as your Savior? Are you sure you are on your way to heaven? If you cannot assuredly answer these questions in the affirmative, may I encourage you to read the third page on my blog, entitled, A Free Gift.
To all of you who have faithfully read these postings over the last several months and to the many who have commented, mostly by e-mail but some here on the blog, my sincere thanks and I hope that you all have
A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.
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