by Bill Nugent
Article #94
Imagine a world without America. Hitler comes to power in the 1930s and launches his war against Poland, England and France in ’39. England fights bravely but since there is no America to come to England’s aid, she is overrun by the Nazis by 1942. Soviet Russia likewise has no aid from America and quickly falls. World Jewry is annihilated down to the very last person. Asia falls to Imperial Japan. Fascist Italy takes all of north Africa. The world plunges into a dark age of totalitarianism, militarism and genocide.
Such would have been the case if there was no America. Where does America get its backbone? Where does England get her courage? The US and England are the two nations whose governing philosophies have been most closely attuned to the biblical worldview. The US and England are both historically conservative Protestant and Bible believing in their faith. The US and England have sent out out more Christian missionaries over the last century than all other nations on earth put together.
The Anglo-American backbone can be attributed to our adherence to the biblical view of man. Even Americans who are neither conservative nor Protestant tend to implicitly view the world and mankind through a biblical lens. The Bible’s view of humanity is that human beings are sinful creatures in rebellion against the just laws of a holy God. Human nature is inherently corrupt and cannot be trusted with unlimited power. (The Bible also reveals that God is merciful and offers glorious salvation and forgiveness for those who turn to Him in repentance. He gave His Son to die for our sins.)
America’s founding fathers held no naive views about human nature. The founders cut up governmental power into three branches. The American president has relatively limited power as head of the government. England reduced her monarchs to figurehead status and gave the real power to Parliament and the courts.
France by contrast brutally repressed Bible-believing Protestantism during and after the Reformation. The French philosophers of the 18th century “Enlightenment” glorified human nature in its fallen condition. The French entrusted all power to Napoleon, who led the nation on a disastrous attempt at world domination.
In more recent years liberals in America and England rejected the biblical view of man and believed that brutal dictators are reasonable deep down inside. England’s liberals attempted to appease Hitler with a treaty in 1938. In that infamous treaty Hitler made some very important concessions. The naivete of those who trusted Hitler is still a joke two generations later.
America tried to restrain the chemical and biological weapons of the Soviet Union with a treaty in 1972. America did destroy its chemical and biological weapons but it is now known from recently released Soviet archives that the Soviets accelerated their chemical and biological weapons program after the treaty was signed.
Treaties do have great value when properly used in international relations but they must always be backed by resolve. Treaties are no substitute for peace through strength.
It is strength and resolve exhibited by people who maintain a biblical worldview that restrains the world from descending into total chaos. Jesus said “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). The Bible, which was brought to the masses of the people during the Protestant Reformation, took us out of the medieval dark ages and now prevents a new dark age.