IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE?

Newt Gingrich makes a good case for impeachment against Pres Barack Obama because of his recent rejection of defending the law (specifically the "Defense of Marriage Act" -- that's the law that declares that marriage is between a man and a woman).

In an article in Newsmax, Newt says “Clearly it is a dereliction of duty and a violation of his constitutional oath and is something that cannot be allowed to stand.”

Indeed, imagine any other president coming along and just arbitrarily citing which laws he was going to adhere by and which ones he would not. Remember they already came into office swearing on a bible, affirming that they would uphold the laws of the land.

Suppose he decided that defending the nation against terrorism wasn't his cup of tea anymore. Which come to think of it, he may have been doing already by rejecting the war on terrorism, dismissing any clear threat from Islamic terrorists and by handling all such terrorist defendants in civilian courts.

Continuing Newt said that his decision sets a “very dangerous precedent” that must not be allowed to stand. I agree.

There was another issue as well. Do you remember when Obama sued the state of Arizona over the state's attempt to enforce the federal illegal immigration laws?

What? In this wildly illogical scenario, Arizona was actually trying to follow the federal law by protecting its borders against illegal immigrants and the U.S. government sued that state!

That may have been unconstitutional as well.

Sidenote here: Speaking about "dereliction of duty," what about those democratic lawmakers in Wisconsin fleeing the state and their duties in order to not pass legislation that they want no part of.

What is happening to our elected politicians? -- specifically our leftist-democratic officials? They are creating a political culture of immoral and unethical behavior, such as we've never seen before.

We are in desperate need of a tidal-wave change in our leadership -- we must have a new breed of political leadership that values our constitution and Judeo-Christian heritage, with convictions of right and wrong, wisdom and folly, righteousness and evil.

But getting back to the impeachment: I'm not at all for impeachment, but I would hope that presidents and all elected officials would uphold the laws of the land. That's what they were elected to do.

IN DEFENSE OF FREE SPEECH in the Netherlands

Geert Wilders, modern-day hero in the struggle to preserve European culture against Sharia Law, faces a retrial on so-called "hate speech" in Amsterdam. Here is his concluding statement at court. He needs our prayers.

The lights are going out all over Europe. All over the continent where our culture flourished and where man created freedom, prosperity and civilization. Everywhere the foundation of the West is under attack.

All over Europe the elites are acting as the protectors of an ideology that has been bent on destroying us since fourteen centuries. An ideology that has sprung from the desert and that can produce only deserts because it does not give people freedom. The Islamic Mozart, the Islamic Gerard Reve [a Dutch author], the Islamic Bill Gates; they do not exist because without freedom there is no creativity. The ideology of Islam is especially noted for killing and oppression and can only produce societies that are backward and impoverished. Surprisingly, the elites do not want to hear any criticism of this ideology.

My trial is not an isolated incident. Only fools believe it is. All over Europe multicultural elites are waging total war against their populations. Their goal is to continue the strategy of mass-immigration, which will ultimately result in an islamic Europe – a Europe without freedom: Eurabia.

The lights are going out all over Europe. Anyone who thinks or speaks individually is at risk. Freedom loving citizens who criticize islam, or even merely suggest that there is a relationship between islam and crime or honour killing, must suffer and are threatened or criminalized. Those who speak the truth are in danger.

The lights are going out all over Europe. Everywhere the Orwellian thought police are at work, on the lookout for thought crimes everywhere, casting the populace back within the confines where it is allowed to think.

This trial is not about me. It is about something much greater. Freedom of speech is not the property of those who happen to belong to the elites of a country. It is an inalienable right, the birthright of our people. For centuries battles have been fought for it, and now it is being sacrificed to please a totalitarian ideology.

Future generations will look back at this trial and wonder who was right. Who defended freedom and who wanted to get rid of it.

The lights are going out all over Europe. Our freedom is being restricted everywhere, so I repeat what I said here last year:

It is not only the privilege, but also the duty of free people – and hence also my duty as a member of the Dutch Parliament – to speak out against any ideology that threatens freedom. Hence it is a right and a duty to speak the truth about the evil ideology that is called islam. I hope that freedom of speech will emerge triumphant from this trial. I hope not only that I shall be acquitted, but especially that freedom of speech will continue to exist in the Netherlands and in Europe.

URGENT: PRAYER ALERT FOR EGYPT

I thought this was important to pass along. It's a prayer update from Capitol Hill Prayer Partners about the ongoing situation in Egypt. It not only gives strategies for intercession, but it also gives a good overview of the "real" situation going on in the Middle East -- things that the media has no conception about. And, despite the West's "good" intentions, after all is said and done, we'll find that we've created a monster in the Middle East if we don't prevent it through intercession.

Anyone who'd like to receive future Prayer Updates can email: chpp@patriot.net

ALERT #2: PRAY FOR EGYPT --

A Guide for Intercession

"In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears." (Psalm 18:6)

	Introduction

Introduction

Last Tuesday, February 1st, we released a special edition called: "Alert: Pray for Egypt." That alert was written by an anonymous prayer partner, with great insight.

Tonight, our anonymous friend has sent us another message with great insight and, rather than keeping this to ourselves, we wish to again forward this information along to you.

Please note that part of this news is not from the mainstream media, but is based upon dreams and visions which we believe to be from the Lord.

Thank you all for prayerfully considering this alert, and for praying through its points as the Lord leads.

In His Grace . . . and watching with you . . .

Capitol Hill Prayer Partners

	Where Are We Now?

Where Are We Now?

It is hard to fathom what is going on in Egypt right now! Two and a half weeks ago, we would never have considered this kind of thing taking off as it has; opening the door to a fundamentalist, terror organization to hold governmental power at Israel's southern border. Did this come out of the blue or was this the result of problems incubating for a long time? The answer to that reads like the options in a multiple-choice question.

A. The protestors in Cairo are angry, impoverished, democracy-starved people; tired of living under a corrupt dictator for 30 years.

B. The protestors are largely members of (have been orchestrated by) the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been trying to destroy the Mubarack government (and his connections to Israel and the West) for nearly 30 years.

C. The protestors are deluded Egyptians, who have accepted the lie that Sharia law is the only way to improve their lives and to insure their rights. Furthermore, it is the only way to rid the region of the wicked Jews of Israel, in order to bring forth Islamic peace and justice.

D. The protestors are internationals . . . imported Moslems, and lawless terrorists . . . following an agenda that has been laid out, and paid for, by hidden power brokers, intending to overthrow the government of Egypt, for the destruction of Israel.

Very likely the answer to the question (what are these Egyptian protests all about?) requires a fifth option: ALL OF THE ABOVE. One thing for certain, the answer to the question is not: NONE OF THE ABOVE. While some secular college students in pursuit of democracy may have started the protests, the student voice was quickly replaced by something far from their goal. Still, the foolish left wing media, along with the international leaders of the free world, continue to declare that this is all about human rights and democracy. I have wanted to write this report for the past two days. It was just not coming together in a distilled fashion, so I waited for the Lord to bring His pieces of clarity to my understanding. He gave me three revelations that I can now share with you.

#1: The Lord told me that this action in Egypt is, what He called, A BAIT AND SWITCH operation.

#2: Last night I had a dream . . . details to follow.

#3: When I asked the Lord, what was the role of the intercessors, He told me that we are to be CIRCUIT BREAKERS.

I will address each of these three revelations individually.

	Bait-and-Switch

Bait-and-Switch

#1: When I inquired of the Lord, what the turmoil in Israel was all about, He answered with a term unfamiliar to me . . . "WHAT IS GOING ON IS A BAIT-AND-SWITCH." I believe I had heard that term somewhere before, but I really didn't know what it referred to. I had to go to the Internet to seek out the definition, so that I could gain understanding regarding the Lord's answer to me. Here is what I discovered:

Bait-and-switch is a form of fraud, which is often used in retail sales . . . but which is found in other business dealings, in negotiation, settlement offers, and in other contexts as well. Here is how it works: Something is advertised in such a way as to make it appear very desirable and available for a limited time, at an amazingly low cost. The advertisement brings in the customer. Once inside the store, the expectant customer is told that the advertised commodity is no longer available (sold out most probably). However, that customer will be "generously" offered an even more desirable product, at a "slightly" higher price . . . but which is reported to be a much better value. In essence, the bait-and- switch suggests that the merchant is bringing comfort to ease the disappointment of the consumer (who is believing that he missed the big deal . . . but which in fact was really just the bait to bring him into the store). The added price paid by the customer (for the substituted, more costly item) increases the profit of the seller, and pays for the advertising needed to bring the buyer into the store (where he then purchases what the merchant really wants to sell him). The item that served as the bait was never freely available to all; but the customer never knows that. His disappointment is turned into joy as he purchases something he didn't intend to buy . . . at a higher price . . . because of the way that it was packaged and promoted to mislead his heart and understanding. The seller gets more of what he wants, while allowing the buyer to have the illusion that he is getting a good deal on more than he knew he needed.

When I read the description of the bait-and-switch, I knew instantly what the Lord was saying about the situation in Egypt. The "organizers and promoters" of this "uprising" might have used obtaining more freedom, democracy, prosperity, less corruption, or whatever, to bring the people to the Square to protest.

Once there, the message was switched. It became something like: "Let's take this higher and farther . . . let's go beyond just getting rid of corruption and police oppression (which we really don't have available as a possibility now) and go for a complete regime change; taking out Mubarak. Let's go even better, and call for total Sharia law (which is the highest and best law in the world). Sharia law will finally insure that we will finally be able to destroy Israel and the West. It only costs just a little more (actually it will cost these people dearly, as Sharia law denies all freedom, and is frightfully controlling, punitive, narrow, etc.). Like the American election two years ago, the change offered (the bait) hooked the people. Only later did the American people begin to understand that the agenda they "bought" had not been truthfully presented . . . but now it was too late to go back. So how do we pray against the bait-and-switch?

DECREE:

"Nothing is too difficult for thee!" (Jer. 32:17)

--Pray that the Lord would release an anointing of discernment upon all those Egyptians, who know Him . . . and upon all those who seek real truth and justice.

--Pray that the Lord would release a spirit of Mistrust of the Merchants upon those who are not led by the Holy Spirit . . . so that they will question the deal, and demand the details.

--Pray for a release of the Spirit of Truth, so that the deceivers will be unable to lie. Pray that the truth pours from their lips unrestrained; revealing what they are intending to do, as well as revealing the powers and personalities, who are really behind this uprising.

--Pray that the frustrated/disappointed people, who have been eager to buy Sharia law and the Moslem Brotherhood's leadership role as comfort, will suddenly become afraid of making that purchase.

--Pray that those, who have bought the switched goods in the past, will arise to shout a warning to the unsuspecting customers being baited.

--Pray that the Lord would totally uncover satan's bait-and-switch trick in regard to Islam . . . not only in Egypt, but throughout the world.

--Pray that the true freedom, offered by the God of Israel, would be presented to the disgruntled masses, in a way that they would see the truth of it and desire it.

	Revealed in a Dream

Revealed in a Dream

Last night in a dream, I was observing the birth of a baby. MANY attendants were on hand as part of the delivery team. As I was observing the baby crowning, with the end of labor at hand, I cried out, "Stand back! Do not touch this baby! I must not be received and nurtured to have life." No one would listen to me. Suddenly the baby was born with a great shout of joy from the crowd. I backed away even further from this scene. Within minutes, the baby literally exploded, killing everyone who was in the celebration circle.

#2: The dream of the birth and the exploding baby. I believe that many people, who were there to assist in the birth of this baby, were the leaders in the Western world (the USA, the UN, the EU members, etc.). The baby about to be born was "the new order" in Egypt . . . this little baby named Freedom To Choose. So many of the deluded western leaders think that those in the Arab world . . . and those from the Islamic world . . . desire democracy and freedom, as we know it in the West. They do not. We have seen that when Moslems (with Islam in operation) are given the freedom to vote and to choose, they choose sharia oppression and oppressive leaders. Where they do not make the choice for these things, most often the vote of freedom enables wicked people to usurp power; becoming oppressive leaders to silence the voices of opposition.

The exercise of freedom and democracy requires a Judeo-Christian foundation in order to function successfully . . . i.e. morals and values where all human life is precious . . . where love and truth are virtues . . . where kindness, honesty, fairness, generosity, and mercy are lauded . . . where males and females have equality . . . and where beloved children are protected from harm, etc. Democracy is incompatible with Islam. In Islam you find the following characteristics:

1) a foundational "conqueror vs. slave" mentality 2) a freely expressed/embraced hatred, mingled with excitement over the spilling of an adversary's blood, to further the Islamic agenda 3) the telling of lies is lauded and seen as a useful tool to gain advantage 4) personal freedom is disdained and condemned, etc.

The dream the Lord gave to me is saying that if those in the democratic West assist in the birth of this "democratic", Islamic Brotherhood baby, and give it support, that the baby will blow up in their deluded faces and end up killing them.
DECREE:
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

--In the dream, I was crying out for the delivery team to back away and let the baby fall, but they would not listen. We need to pray that those to have ears to hear . . . and those who have the position to influence this outcome . . . and those who have the message of truth to shout . . . will all fulfill their roles in this hour.

--We need to pray that blind people will open their eyes, to recognize the mother and father of this child. Islam is the father, while the Islamic Brotherhood, in conjunction with the one world global power brokers, have been the mother (the human seed, the incubator, and the delivery system to birth this baby into Egypt . . . and from there into the world). I am totally pro-life, but when an ideology, strategy, or methodology is evil, we must pray that the Lord would curse it with famine and deny it life and breath.

--Pray that this birthing team would smell the stench arising from this orchestrated conception and birth . . . that they might run from assisting it.

--Pray that the leaders in Israel will not give this emerging Islamic sharia arrangement any nod, encouragement, or support. God will protect Israel as long as we stand back from embracing this evil development.

--God wants to birth wonderful things into Egypt. He wants to birth Truth, Justice, New Life, Faith, and Blessing into Egypt. Let's pray those things into birth and into life for the people.

	"Circuit Breakers"

"Circuit Breakers"

#3: The Lord is asking the intercessors to serve as Circuit Breakers in this situation.

Again, I found myself hunting for information about what it means to be a circuit breaker, as I have never delved into that field of study.

Let's start with the foundation that the Lord has wired Egypt for prosperity in Him. However, satan has been busy laying down his circuitry and wiring to bring about his agenda. Right now satan is pumping unholy power, force and influences into this situation. His goal is to power up and to operate a deadly machine of sharia that will destroy Israel and all those who are counter to it (which must be the Christians as well as the Jews). A circuit breaker can literally shut down the power by removing access to the electricity that is flowing through the wires. A circuit breaker will provide protection to the wires against overloading; when too much current is trying to flow through them in regard to their ability to carry the current. They protect from "ground faults" . . . when hot wires happen to touch neutral wires; causing a sudden spike of current, because the resistance drops to nearly zero; allowing the current to flow dangerously uncontrolled/uncontained). Circuit breakers also protect against a short circuit; when a hot wire becomes broken, or when the insulation is worn through enough to make contact with a ground; causing a structural, electrical fire if the breaker fails to shut it down. The design of the circuit is to allow for the flow of power from the source to that which it will empower and then return to the source. The circuit breaker interrupts the flow; keeping the circuit from completing its course of empowering everything on its line. A circuit breaker can shut down the power and keep it down, until the breaker is reset. If the problem still exists, the breaker will keep shutting down the power until a repair or adjustment is made.

Do you see God's wisdom in this intercessory strategy? Satan is running his agenda; hoping to empower his "appliances"(his servants) throughout the world. In Egypt right now there are many ground faults . . . where neutral people (note: the term secular in Islam refers to those who are not subscribed to Sharia . . . it does not mean that the seculars do not embrace Islam) are connecting to hot Islamic people, and are being suddenly, surprisingly, altered by the power spike. Right now, the insulation is very thin. The heavy flow of demonic, Islamic, power could cause a devastating structural fire, not only throughout Egypt's society, but consume many others as well. The fires of hell are keen to burn on the earth . . . going from the source and then back to it). Israel is certainly within striking distance. It would take very little for Europe and the USA to be set ablaze as well.

In the past 24 hours, 11 Coptic Christians were slaughtered as Moslem neighbors broke into their homes through the roof; descending like an unholy fire upon them with murderous hatred. If this isn't an example of unholy current that needs to be shut down, I don't know what is. We need to step into this revealed strategy of being circuit breakers, and begin to move in it.

DECREE:

"Overcome evil with good." (Rom. 12:21)

--Pray that the Lord would inspire us with words of declaration, out of His Spirit, that would shut off the power in this demonic flow of energy into Egypt.
--Pray that the Body will come together in sighted unity . . . not in blind harmony . . . to meet this challenge.
--Pray that the Lord will reveal to us the precise places where there are unholy "ground faults" . . . where tolerant people are allowing the demonic powers to run through their neutrality of tolerance to reach others.
--Pray that the Lord would pour out living water on the fires that are already burning; and which are consuming people, nations, and institutions. Too much of this Islamic current is being allowed to flow in great power/authority.

--Decree that the Lord will empower our prayers, arising out of His wisdom, so that the heavy flow of demonic power pouring into Egypt right now would be shut down.
--Pray that we will continue to click off the power every time the circuitry repairs itself or whenever satan makes a new strategy of evil.
--Pray that the Lord will give us intercession and decrees to shut down the power, which is currently coming through broken wires; causing short circuits (through foolish politicians, through the media, religious leaders, foolish laws, and unwise justices)
--Lord teach us to be circuit breakers and give us the courage and the faith to play our role successfully to Your honor and glory.

	In Closing

In Closing . . .

I will conclude this update at this point. There is more revelation to come, but I want you to receive this as quickly as possible. May the Lord lead you in the application of these revelations and add to your understanding of them.

This afternoon the Lord said these words to me: "Call the people into the shelter of My hand. The storm is not coming. It is HERE."

May the Lord bless, lead, and keep you . . . in the shelter of His hand,

[Name withheld upon request]

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM IS A BIBLICAL CONCEPT

Dedicated to Ronald Reagan on his 100th Birthday, on his advocacy of American Exceptionalism.


"I believe this blessed land was set apart in a very special way, a country created by men and women who came here not in search of gold but in search of God. They would be free people, living under the law, with faith in their Maker and their future." -- Ronald Reagan, Natl Prayer Breakfast, 2/4/82.

Centuries of belief in American Exceptionalism was almost erased by President Barack Obama during a press conference in Strasbourg, France (April 2009), when he was asked the question: Do you believe in American Exceptionalism?

"I believe in American exceptionalism,” he stated. And just when you thought he really associated himself with countless presidents before him, he continued, “Just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." (1)

Sigh.

The president saw no real value in defending American exceptionalism. But what is American exceptionalism? How does it distinctively separate us from other nations? Is that even a politically correct thing to say? While there are varied aspects of American exceptionalism, including secular, let’s primarily discuss the religious implications of the term.

And could American exceptionalism possibly be traced to the Bible?

ORIGINS OF THE TERM
The French historian Alexis de Tocqueville seems to have coined the phrase in mid-1800s when he described the United States and the American people in his book "Democracy in America" as “exceptional.” (2)

Exceptional, but why?

That notion that America is exceptional can be traced even further back to colonial times, at the very founding of the nation. The Puritans regarded the settling of the North American continent as a Promised Land, where a new Canaan can be built as a model for the rest of the world. (3)

President Ronald Reagan’s favored term, “city on a hill” (Matt 5:14) to describe the United States, can be traced to Puritanical leader and first governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, John Winthrop.

(INCIDENTALLY: To all those who think that Christians need to be separated from politics –Surprise! Here we have an early Christian leader who was also a politician! – as was Reagan himself.)

Winthrop delivered a lay sermon aboard the Arbella, during its passage to New England in 1630, in which he declared that his fellow settlers "must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are upon us." What an understatement!

His words, having been circulated in manuscript form throughout the colonies, have since become one of the main formative texts of American self-identity and meaning. Inherent in this notion of the “city on a hill” is the belief that the American colonists, and those who have followed them, were uniquely blessed by God to pursue His work on Earth and to establish a society that would provide this beacon for the betterment of all humankind.(4)

That is what American exceptionalism means! God has blessed this nation!

GOD IN AMERICA
The preponderance of proof that America was founded upon religious principles with a fervent allegiance to God cannot be denied, despite the prevalence of present-day revisionist historians.

Having understood that government is ordained by God (Romans 13), the early settlers knew that God must be in the forefront of all its institutions. Early government was led by Christian, God-fearing men. Early schools and colleges (Harvard and Yale, for example) were instituted by Christians (knowing that you couldn’t convert people who couldn’t read the Bible, therefore it was Christians who started the educational curriculum!). Most all state governments had God and bible-based morality mentioned in their state charters and they used the Bible as the foundation of their civil laws. (5)

But one of the most outstanding characteristics of this modern government, unlike any other government previous to it, was the notion that God gives us unalienable rights – not the government, not man – but God!

Therefore these rights are given personally to the individual from God – and have nothing to do with the government.

The freedoms we enjoy today all have as their cornerstone the fact that God gives us that freedom! Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly – all come from God.

ACLU…are you listening?

This relationship with God was so crucial to the original concept of our founding that we’ve incorporated it into our 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.”

The government doesn’t give us these rights, we receive them from God and then loan them to the state.

It was so much a part of our national identity, that by the time the U.S. Constitution was written, it began, “WE the people…”

No other nation on the face of the earth ever acknowledged God so prominently in its founding as did the United States.

Well, maybe one other did. But we’ll hold that thought till later.

VAST BLESSINGS
The facts speak for themselves. There has been no other nation that has been more blessed than America. The “city on the hill” became the greatest nation on the earth, setting the standard for industry, economics, inventions, technology, food production, entertainment – and unselfishly proclaiming that people from all the world are welcome to come and experience a portion for themselves.

As President Abraham Lincoln said, “We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards fertility of soil, extent of territory, and salubrity of climate…. We…find ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or the establishment of them.”

Generous to a fault, the United States has blessed the world for decades with food distribution, nation building, charitable donations, missionary work, technology sharing and saving the world in two world wars.

Is this a coincidence? That this nation that has acknowledged God more than any other should be so blessed?

Not at all. We merely subscribed to a divine law that any nation that submits to God will be blessed and any nation that rejects God won’t be (Deuteronomy 28).

Can you also see that since the mid-20th century, when we’ve removed all semblance of God from our society – we can’t read the bible in school, we can’t pray in school, we can’t even have preachers endorsing political candidates anymore, for crying out loud – can you see how our nation has deteriorated in every aspect of society?

Our culture is shattered beyond recognition. Moral restrictions have been lifted from our society, that we have very little regard to what is right and wrong anymore. Our schools turn out educated amoral citizens. And these will be the leaders of tomorrow.

Our moral compass has been set to calling evil good, and good evil.

Economically we have fallen. Our currency, once the standard of the world, is slowly being edged out by other currencies. We’re 14 trillion dollars in the hole and subservient to China.

Militarily we have fallen. We are subject to global terrorism and have no answers.

We’ve saved the world twice before, but now our global influence is so weakened on the world’s stage that we can only watch on the sidelines as Egypt falls and the Middle East moves toward global Jihad.

Lincoln’s proclamation for fasting and praying for this nation from 1863 is all the more relevant today: “It is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God…and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord…. We have been the recipients of the choicest blessings of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. “We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation ever has grown; but we have forgotten God! We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.”

The light on that city is flickering, slowly dying out – because in our modern, enlightened, ACLU-dominated culture, we’ve removed God from our land.

But there’s still hope. We can still see a reversal in our future.

BIBLICAL CONCEPT
Earlier I referred to another nation that was founded upon God; another nation that was “exceptional” because of its unique relationship with God – that nation was the nation of Israel.

God led a small, ragtag outfit out of Egyptian slavery and gave them a homeland and blessed them there. God set up a special relationship with the Israelites that if they would follow God, then He would set them up as “exceptional” and “blessed” and “prosperous” over all the other nations. Sound familiar?

They would be unique among the nations.

Take a look at Deuteronomy 28. While some mistakenly use these scriptures to apply to individuals, this entire chapter is laying out the ground rules to nations that would submit to God. The founders of the United States knew these scriptures:

(1) If you indeed obey the LORD your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.
(2) All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the LORD your God:
(3) You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.
(4) Your children will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.
(5) Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed.
(6) You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
(7) The LORD will cause your enemies who attack you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction but flee from you in seven different directions.
(8) The LORD will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do — yes, he will bless you in the land he is giving you.
(9) The LORD will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments and obey him.
(10) Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the LORD, and they will respect you (that’s the city on the hill motif!)
(11) The LORD will greatly multiply your children, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he promised your ancestors he would give you.
(12) The LORD will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.
(13) The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his commandments which I am urging you today to be careful to do.
There is a cause and effect in this chapter. Simply put, if a nation follows God, even as the United States has followed God and His word, that nation will receive abundant, “exceptional” blessings. It’s not different from today. America in many ways has been the recipient of national promises and blessings God promised to Israel.

Therefore let Israel be our guide. Read the scriptures. When righteous leaders led Israel to God, the people prospered. When unrighteous leaders led Israel astray, the people suffered.

Now continuing in the chapter, if a nation that knew God turns away from Him, there are natural consequences that come as a result of God removing His hand of blessing.

And please note, that this is not God being vindictive. It is merely a cause and effect of God removing His blessings from a people who reject Him and embrace darkness.

(14) But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship them.
(15) "But if you ignore the LORD your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force:
(16) You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.
(17) Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed.
(18) Your children will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.
(19) You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out…

Do you get the point?

Now here’s the good news. Since American Exceptionalism is a concept that dates back to ancient Israel, it’s not exclusively American. It is for any nation on the face of the earth that will submit to God – not Allah, not a host of other gods – but God! They too can be exceptional.

So, let us not be ashamed of American Exceptionalism. It is our relationship with God that has set us apart. Therefore, let us embrace it and return to the God of our forefathers to continue enjoying His rich blessings upon us and avert the coming disaster.


References:
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism
(2) “Democracy in America,” by Alexis de Tocqueville, “The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one.”
(3) http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Exceptionalism-The-roots-of-exceptionalism.html
(4) http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/Exceptionalism-The-roots-of-exceptionalism.html#ixzz1CYREJnkq
(5) “The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States,” by Benjamin F. Morris (1863, republished in 2007)