Darrow Miller and Friends

Erosion of TRUTH: Could America Become a Source of Terror?

Truth, not merely common sense, was the bedrock of America’s founding. But a long slide from the former to the latter has eroded much of the founders’ original set of intentions.

Vishal Mangalwadi laments loss of truth in AmericaThat’s the argument by our friend, Vishal Mangalwadi in a recent post at his web page Revelation Movement.

In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence (1776), Thomas Jefferson wrote,

We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

Readers who are familiar with the Declaration will notice some differences there from the final version. That’s because of the influence of Benjamin Franklin, among others, who preferred human “common sense” to sacred truth.

Under pressure from skeptics such as Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson’s word “sacred” (i.e. revealed in Holy Scriptures) was changed to “self-evident.” That change misled generations. They believed the myth that America’s great liberating ideas of human dignity, equality, and rights were not revealed by God. They were discovered by man’s “Common Sense.”

“Common Sense,” was an epistemological myth.  Thomas Reid, a Christian philosopher in Scotland invented it. Thomas Paine popularized the myth in America. The myth led to the secular hubris that man could know all Truth without revelation. What was not discovered by man could not be true.

Vishal goes on to point to some unsettling ramifications of this myth. He believes the current trajectory will lead to a drastic and unintended consequence.

Without revelation, the world’s champion of hope, the US, is becoming hopeless itself. Germany was the first Protestant nation. In the nineteenth century it turned away from God’s word and became the 20th century terror to the world. America is the most Protestant, and, therefore, the greatest nation in the world. As it rejects its soul, it is setting itself on a path to become a terror to the world. That is why the Revelation Movement has chosen the unpopular mission to renew the soul of western civilization.

 Go here to read Vishal’s entire post.

– Gary Brumbelow

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Gary is the Disciple Nations Alliance editorial manager. He manages Darrow Miller and Friends and serves as editor and co-writer on various book projects. For eight years Gary served as a cross-cultural church planting missionary among First Nations people of Canada. His career also includes 14 years as executive director of InterAct Ministries, an Oregon-based church-planting organization in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia. Gary is a graduate of Grace University, earned an MA from Wheaton College and a Graduate Studies Diploma from Western Seminary. He lives near Portland, Oregon with his wife, Valerie. They have two married sons and twelve grandchildren. In addition to his work with the DNA, Gary serves as the pastor of Troutdale Community Church.
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