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(THE REAL TRUTH...continued from Page 2)
However, as early as 1629, the government of Virginia established the Anglican Church at Jamestown Colony to be part of the govern- ment in the “New World.” This arrangement of the “government and church” being “one,” strongly continued even after the revolution in 1776.
Reuben Ford was born in Goochland County in 1742. He surrendered his life to Christ in 1762 at the age of 20 under the fiery preaching of George White- field. Later he surrendered further and answered the call to preach the Word, a calling at that time that was “illegal” without “the govern- ment and its church’s” approval.
A new group of Christians had emerged in the colonies as a result of Whitefield’s influence. They be- lieved that their calling to the min- istry came from God and not from man. Therefore, they did not need the government and its church
to provide them with ministerial credentials.
These Believers studied God’s Word for themselves, they began to believe that infant sprinkling (known as baptism) was not Bibli- cal. They believed the Bible taught that a person must repent of his or her sins and experience a new birth. Then they were to be “bap- tized,” by being fully immersed in water.
They also began to believe that God’s Word called for more than joining a church. They felt that a person must repent of his or her sins and experience a “new birth.”
These “new beliefs” placed the new churches that were beginning to spring in the colonies on a collision course with the “government and its church.”
Reuben Ford was 26 years old when the “government and its church” began their “purging” in Virginia.
The goal they had in mind, was to force the “rebel clergy” and their followers into submission.
In order to eliminate any com- petition of opposing views, the government decreed that only properly ordained clergy members of the Anglican Church would be allowed to preach. Later the Anglican Church would become known as the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The law was very clear. It was “against the law” for ministers to preach the Word of God or unite
a man and woman in holy matri- mony if they did not have a “gov- ernment approved” ordination. No churches could be established outside the “government and its church.” If Christians were to meet for any kind of services, it was un- lawful to call these meeting places “churches.”
Because of the colonists’ unwill- ingness to obey the “government and its church” laws, the govern-
ment began a reign of terror in Virginia in 1768. The intent was
to break “the religious rebels” who dared to defy “the government and its church” by not bowing at the “government’s altar.”
Soon the “long arm of the law” began to reach out across Virginia. Ministers who defied the “govern- ment and its church” and dared to preach the Word of God without government permission were sub- ject to being beaten and/or hauled off to jail. Ministers who dared to perform marriages without “the government and its church’s” ap- proval, were also jailed.
The “government and its church” were inseparable as well as unmerciful to any Christian who would not conform to their edicts.
Christians in America were ruled by a “government and its church” from 1629 until 1776. This was 147 years. And, then even af- ter the revolution, the government and the Anglican Church still maintained control in some areas.
During these years, ministers in various places in the colonies often knew what it was like to face the scorn and fury of a hostile “gov- ernment and its church.”
The “government and its church” must have thought they could beat the ministers into sub- mission. If they would not willing- ly bend to the “government and
its church’s” demands, they would be bent at the hands of mobs and government “officials” who were more than ready to use the whip.
In the reign of terror that fol- lowed, ministers were thrown into jail for disobeying the “government and its church’s” commands. They must have felt that these “rebels” who dared to defy their orders would soon run like scared chickens and the control the “government and its church” had maintained would continue in the colonies.
However, the preachers did not stop preaching and their congre- gations did not stop listening. If their pastor was arrested and put in jail, their services would go on, even if it meant the congregation had to stand in the street in order hear to their pastor preach his Sunday message through a jail cell window.
It was during these trying times that Reuben Ford purposed that he would do everything in his power to oppose the tyranny of a “government and its church” that was bent on destroying all reli- gious freedoms that did not meet with their approval.
According to history, Reuben Ford became more active than any other minister in lobbying law- makers to end the government’s oppression of those who dared to live as they felt the Holy Scriptures instructed.
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HAS CONGRESS CHANGED???
Congressional Fast Day Proclamation
Library of Congress
Congress proclaimed days of fasting and of thanksgiving an- nually throughout the Revolutionary War. This proclamation by Congress set May 17, 1776, as a “day of Humiliation, Fast- ing and Prayer” throughout the colonies. Congress urges its fellow citizens to “confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his [God’s] righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness.” Massachusetts ordered a “suitable Num- ber” of these proclamations be printed so “that each of the religious Assemblies in this Colony, may be furnished with a Copy of the same” and added the motto “God Save This Peo- ple” as a substitute for “God Save the King.”
Congressional Thanksgiving Day
Proclamation
Congress set December 18, 1777, as a day of thanksgiving on which the American people “may express the grate-
ful feelings of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor” and on which they might “join the penitent confession of their manifold sins . . . that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remem- brance.” Congress also recommends that Americans peti- tion God “to prosper the means of religion for the promo- tion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.’”
We pray today, “Oh God, give us politicions in government today, that honor and uplift you as our founding fathers did.”
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Proverbs 29:2
PROVIDING MINISTERIAL CREDENTIALS
TO THOUSANDS OF “INDEPENDENT”
MINISTERS AROUND THE WORLD SINCE 1933...
The sun never sets on the international ministries of
Evangelistic Messengers Association
If you have been called into the ministry or are presently in
the ministry, and need “independent” ministerial creden- tials, EMA may be able to help you. If you are a person of “integrity,” who is serious about your calling, go to:
www.EMAI.org
EMA is NOT a denomination, but an association of ministers. We are not interested in building another “denomination,” we are only interested in building the Kingdom of God. The desire of EMA has been (for over
70 years), for the “ministry” to unite and lay aside the sectar- ian walls that have divided the body of Christ for so long.
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