A Devotion for 8 July 2020 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
28 Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.
Proverbs 22:28
If the modern insurrectionist and pro-communist globalists have their way, the past glory of America will be a mere shadow of that by which the world has come to know her. The monuments and statuary of America might be compared to a family cemetery. The grave markers are intended to serve as a memorial to those whose lives are cherished by many who remember and love the deceased person. Our national statuary serves the same purpose. We are intended by our Founders to be one people and one nation. These monuments are stones of remembrance for our posterity symbolizing the great sacrifice in blood and treasure of men and women of great patriotism and perseverance who have paid for the freedoms we enjoy today.
Moreover, these monuments are landmarks of who we have been in decades past, and who we should be today. The notion that statues of our forefathers should be demolished or removed for whimsical and politically correct reasons is driven by both a lack of love of country and a lack of devotion to the Providence that guided her founding. Our colleges and university, once beacon lights of scholarship and hope, have become a laughing stock among institutions of higher learning around the world. Instead of offering education in the liberal arts and sciences, these institutions have become centers of radical indoctrination by a radical class whose intentions are neither commendable nor tolerable for a people whose desire is to perpetuate the American principles of freedom and liberty.
Many of us have witnessed, on evening news, students from formerly prestigious Ivy League campuses being quizzed about the most fundamental and elementary aspects of political history. Their responses have been less informed than those of a five-year-old of years past. Did you know, for example, that Adolph Hitler was President of the United States during World War II? Some of those same students could not name the current Vice-President of the United States or designate the number of Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet these same ‘Wonders of Modern Ignorance’ feel gifted to inform the American people on the evils of the American government and the great advantage of radical socialism.
Who among our elder citizens could have believed fifty years ago that we would today be debating the legitimacy of homosexual marriage, or worse, transvestitism? Who would have guessed that we would be murdering more than 50 million of our most innocent lives by means of abortion? Who would have believed that we would actually be seriously debating over whether or not to defund the police departments across the nation and with the assent of a Democrat candidate for President? Who would have believed that the Boy Scouts would have undertaken a policy of allowing child sex predators to serve as Scout Masters resulting in that formerly traditional American institution becoming bankrupt – both financially and morally? Who would have believed that professional and college athletes would broadly dishonor the flag of the United States under which many better patriots than they have died defending their right to do so?
How do you suppose God views these irrational excursions into immorality and hedonism? Our Lord has blessed our nation above every nation on the face of the earth. It is the freedom of the American people that have allowed them to excel in science, agriculture and finance. But the detractors scream that we are a nation of racism! If so, how do you explain the assorted races of the world exerting such effort to set foot on our soil in an attempt to live in this dreadfully discriminatory nation?
I am proud of the American flag and the patriots who perpetuated our existence as a “nation under God.’ But I am not ashamed of a number of my forefathers who fought for the Confederacy. They did not fight to perpetuate slavery! Many had not even seen a slave. They felt their dignity and honor as sovereign states was being impinged upon. Two of my great, great uncles and my great, great grandfather were killed at the Battle of Resaca. They were reluctant to join the Confederate Army at the beginning of hostilities. But when the ruthless and unprincipled W.T. Sherman invaded Georgia and burned the homes of women and children, turning them out in the cold without food or shelter, these four decided to defend their homes. I am proud of them. And I am proud of General Joseph E. Johnston whose statue stands on the main street of Dalton, Georgia, in memory of his defense of the city from ruin ahead of Sherman’s undisciplined horde. I am proud of General Robert E. Lee who Winston Churchill claimed was the greatest military commander of the modern age. That does not mean that I am not proud of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin or of Union General McLelland of the Army of the Potomac. The men of the Union Army demonstrated a patriotic zeal not in the least different from that of the Armies of the South. Honest history reveals the open wounds of a nation as well as the heroic exploits. We must not be ashamed of our history for it is prelude to the future.
“Remove not the Ancient Landmark, which they fathers have set!” We are not radical Moslems who destroy every vestige of a peoples history in order to force them into submission; nor are we like the Fascists of Germany and Italy, nor like unto the Maoist and Stalinist Communists who destroy the institutional memory of a nation and her people in order to establish a new order of inhumane nature. We are Americans – proud of our country, our flag, and our history. We have fought hard wars to insure our future generations will remain free under a Providential God. Do we now simply cast off our glorious history and slink into the shadows of fear and failure?
Below are definitions of the term ‘Landmark’ taken from the Online Dictionary:
1. an object or feature of a landscape or town that is easily seen and recognized from a distance, especially one that enables someone to establish their location. “the spire was once a landmark for ships sailing up the river”
2. the boundary of an area of land, or an object marking this.
3. synonyms: boundary marker • demarcator • boundary line • boundary fence • pale • picket • terminus
an event, discovery, or change marking an important stage or turning point in something. “the birth of
a child is an important landmark in the lives of all concerned”
Our national statuary represents the Landmarks of our nation. It reveals waymarks of our development and progress as a nation. But the term, landmark, has a greater meaning less thoroughly described in item number 2 above – It is an immovable point, usually marked by a large stone or metal rod, from which all land and property lines are measured. If the landmark is moved, even a tiny bit, every other property line becomes inaccurate.
The Ancient Landmark, from which all our law and understanding, is measured is the Word of God. Though modern translators and political manipulators are attempting to render the Bible sterile by diminishing the force of meaning of the Received Text of the Reformation Bibles, we do have an unchanging landmark in Holy Writ as presented in the King James Version as well as other Reformation Bibles such as the Geneva Bible. God has promised to preserve His Word inviolate, and He has. The preppy manners and luke-warm preaching of the modern pulpit are a disgrace to a biblically-oriented Church. Those organizations in America that are popularly known as churches are neither churches nor havens of truth, but filled with error and false apostles. I would more likely class them as synagogues of Satan.
Truth is immutable. It is rigidly set in the concrete of time. We may not like its impact or effect, but that is because our own hearts are not fixed upon the Author of all truth. Our thoughts and minds, without Christ, are weak as water and vascilating as the tides of the sea. True glory does not fade, but beams forth more and more in effulgent, gleaming rays of light. Glory and Truth are inseparable!