By Douglas V. Gibbs ——Bio and Archives--December 10, 2023

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Evidence of God’s Hand on the United States takes many forms. One of those pieces of evidence goes all the way back to the 1700s, and a span of forty years.

In the Bible the number forty appears 159 times. The number forty is an important number to God. It rained for forty days and forty nights. Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights to prepare himself to receive the Ten Commandments. Moses was atop Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights to receive The Law. The Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years after fleeing from slavery in Egypt. Manna rained down upon the Israelites for forty years. The Prophet Elijah walked forty days and forty nights to reach Horeb, the mountain of God. Jesus fasted for forty days and nights to prepare for his public ministry. Jesus ascended into Heaven forty days after His Glorious Resurrection. The human gestation period for new life is about forty weeks. To God, forty is an important number.

Forty is important to God because it means something. It signifies new life, new growth, transformation, a change from one task to another, repentance, newness, preparation for a new work or task, self-examination, task fulfillment, escape from bondage or slavery and entry into a period of renewal or liberty, nourishment or growth, a time to become spiritually ready for the task that is going to be at hand, and personal fulfillment such as redemption or salvation. Forty is biblical. Forty is significant. Forty often appears when God’s Hand is involved.

The number forty also appears during the founding of the United States.

Everything is a process. Nothing happens instantly, or at least in our world it doesn’t. The growth of relationships, the coming together of groups of people, or the process of altering a system of government takes time. The American Revolution was not an instantaneous event. The war lasted over a decade. The writing of the Declaration of Independence took time, which included many meetings of the Committee of Five, and many meetings of the Continental Congress before the final draft was approved, proposed, and ratified. And when it comes to God’s timing, forty years or forty days can be significant.

In 1662, the greatest generation, the original settlers of the English Colonies, had passed away. Their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren comprised a significant portion of the population of colonists in the New World. That first generation, those who arrived at Jamestown, the Pilgrims who had arrived at Plymouth, and others who had arrived on the shores of the Atlantic Coast during those early settlement years, were very involved in their Faith. In fact, the Pilgrims traveled to Plymouth seeking religious freedom. Their Faith was the main reason for leaving Europe and undertaking the perilous journey across the Atlantic Ocean and landing in an untamed new land.

The pews in the churches by 1662 were nearly empty. People were not attending church like they used to. So, in the hopes of attracting new congregants, the ministers in Massachusetts got together and decided to create a new policy, the Halfway Covenant. The new policy basically said that when you joined Christianity you basically became half of a new creature. As long as you followed God’s commandments 51% of the time or more, you were fine with God, and could still come to church and partake of communion. They began to water down The Word, they watered down their sermons, and they watered down the overall message of Salvation. The thing is, when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior you don’t become half of a new creature. The blood of Christ and the flow of the Holy Spirit within you completely changes you. Full repentance and a new direction becomes your new navigation. You don’t strive to be like Jesus half of the time. You are not supposed to bear good fruit only half of the time. How can one grow in Christ if one confuses their relationship with Christ with one foot lodged in the world? When it comes to Jesus Christ you are either all in, or you are not; when it comes to Christ you are either all for Him, or you are against Him.

That truth was set aside in 1662. They abandoned biblical truth in the hopes of attracting people to the pews. As a result the culture deteriorated. Sin worsened, and society became vicious and destructive. When pastors don’t take the lead with the right message, and they lead the flock astray, it gets ugly. That’s why right now in the United States, and around the world, we are facing serious moral challenges. Pastors have largely fallen asleep at the wheel. And when you fall asleep at the wheel, you drive the car right off the road. Today’s pastors are committing the same folly that the ministers in Massachusetts committed back in 1662 with their Halfway Covenant.

Politics is downstream from the culture. We can gauge where we are morally in our culture by watching politics. Here in America we understand that things have gone in a bad direction, and rather than work on the foundation we try to treat the symptoms. We are busy with our hammers and nails trying to fix the walls and the ceiling, and we are ignoring the fact that the foundation is cracked. If you don’t fix the foundation, none of the other work on the structure is going to matter. We cannot politically fix anything if we are not right with our Faith. We can’t get our political house in order until we get our religious house in order.

We have pastors right now in our current culture who have watered down The Word in a manner no different from the 1662 Halfway Covenant pastors. They don’t want to lose congregants, nor dollars in the tithing plate they pass around before service, so they proclaim we need to be a little bit like the world, and we’ll fly that........

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