Finding a Mold for a Minister in Government
(Blog 0017 AndrewHadden.com)
Did you know that ministers fought in the Revolutionary War that founded this nation? Did you know that some of them left their pulpits to fight in uniform? Did you know that some rose in the officer ranks and distinguished themselves as military leaders? Did you know that many devout Christians, ministers, and even theologians participated greatly in the drafting of the Constitution? I encourage you to go to WallBuilders.com and buy the thoroughly researched and carefully footnoted works, written and on video, by their founder, historian David Barton. You would be shocked at how much gets left out of the so-called “history” of the nation, today, versus the well-known truth of prior generations.
It appears that liberal “historians” of today carefully picked who they labeled the “founding fathers,” carefully selecting one who had doubts about his former Christianity, and his work on the Constitution, at an age when many reach senility. They ignore others, apparently, specifically because they were resolute Christians, when they contributed a great deal to the founding process of the nation. It is quite evident they pick who they label “founders” to cast the Christian founding of the nation in doubt, when an honest and thorough researching of the founders reveals far different results. Enough lies. Let’s start digging out the truth. Take off the lenses they crafted for you of the “separation of church and state.” That is not even in the Constitution. And it was a concept mostly applied to keep government from interfering with the Church, and interfering with the public exercise of religion, not to keep the public exercise of religion out of government. Their frame of reference was Europe, from which many in this country had fled, for religious freedom, because governments there persecuted, even unto death, any that disagreed with the religion the king made the only officially allowed church. In contrast, the founders of this nation even held church in the Capitol building, and attended the services regularly, and saw no problem with it. And they funded providing Bibles to schools.
So, if we accurately research and report the historical examples, there is a lot of room for ministers to be involved in government, including the military, without the supposed concern about violating a principle not even in the Constitution. We had ministers fighting and leading fighting men in the war that founded the nation. They could also preach. The military has chaplains, highly trained ministers, there to minister to the troops, as they fight wars. They are military officers, and respected as such. In World War Two, there was a shortage of highly educated people who could meet the requirements to officially be a chaplain. They resorted to people with adequate training and/or experience that could fulfill the duties of a chaplain when one was not available. They called them “acting chaplains.”
My father was an acting chaplain, in World War Two, in the U.S. Navy. He made five invasions in the Pacific, to retake places taken over by the invading Japanese. He had duty as “secretary” to the captain early on, probably for his administrative skills, and then was assigned to be an “acting chaplain.” He also served as a “fireman” on the ship. The ship was a fleet oiler, a “floating gas can” for the whole fleet, so being a fireman was a critical duty, especially when they went into battle, with bullets and bombs aimed at a floating gas can. At one point he stood between burning fuel on deck, and a huge fuel tank behind him torn open by the attack of a different kind of suicide bomber, a “kamikaze” pilot trained to fly his plane right into a ship to destroy it, shooting machine guns all the way. A fireman’s hose saved the ship. But there were people that needed to be “saved” in other ways. He led sailors to eternal safety by praying with and for them as they lay shot up beyond saving physically. Men in the heat of battle need the reassurance of their faith to stay focused on the battle, to know they can find safety beyond the battle. It makes them better fighting men, who can better protect the nation.
Did you know that military commanders need a chaplain too? There is a great load upon them in making decisions that can cost others their lives. They can know that a decision that sent men to their deaths was still the right decision, and best for the country, and still suffer privately for being the one that made the decision. Even the commander in chief can need a chaplain. And they need people to pray for them as they make those kinds of decisions, and even need people to pray with them in that moment of decision. Wouldn’t you want someone to pray with the leader as they make the decision to send your son or daughter into harm’s way? How about a minister who everyone knows really does hear from God when he prays, who could tell what he hears, if asked?
Did you know there were these kinds of roles in the Bible? Read it carefully, and you will see those roles all over the Bible. They were called prophets. But they were also called wise men, advisors, and more. The prophet Daniel was one such advisor. He also was promoted to ruling in government, because he was also well qualified to govern, in national government, in the service of a succession of kings. But he heard from God when he prayed and received revelation that served well the secular or pagan kings he served. In fact, he knew things coming in the future that the world has seen fulfilled step by step for many hundreds of years.
The Jewish King David had a prophet named Nathan, basically on staff as his assistant, and Gad was described as David’s “seer.” That is a prophet who gets revelations from God in pictures, visions. Isaiah was a wise prophet that served the king of God’s people when a mighty army, the world power of the day, was threatening the nation with conquest and being led into slavery, as they had done to many others. The leader of God’s people, the king, the head of government, was desperate and prayed sincerely. God sent the prophet Isaiah with the answer. God had heard his prayer, and the threats of the pagan king against his people. God replied with the promise of his intervention, and his answer to the threatening of the pagan empire. God was sending his angel to deliver his people. That one angel slew the entire massive invading army of that pagan king in one night (per the Bible in 2 Kings 19:35, and Isaiah 37:36). And this was not a myth, or a bedtime story for children. Archeologists recently found the clear evidence of the battle camp those enemy soldiers died in.
In other cases, God did not reply with a plan in which they did not even have to fight, but with a battle plan that assured the victory, even when victory seemed doubtful. God used the prophet Elisha in the Bible to reveal the plans of the king of ancient Syria against ancient Israel, until that king was convinced he had a betrayer on his inner council (2 Kings 6:8-12). It is well documented that our CIA has used people for intelligence work with powers most knowledgeable people would consider to be occult and demonic. Would it not then be religious discrimination to exclude those who attribute their supernatural helps to God?
America proclaims, in its pledge of allegiance, that it is “One nation under God.” We also can expect the help of God, when we make our hearts right, and ask for his help. Let’s not prevent any of the help God has, in the past, chosen to use to help his people, including “chaplains” that hear from God, ministers, prophets, who can also help the nation. And let’s not exclude people from government, qualified people, just because they also happen to be ministers, or people of prayer. To do so would shock, and likely outrage, the true founding fathers of this nation.