perseverance and supplication for all saints." - Ephesians 6:18

"without prayer, no political or social action will amount to anything." - Rus Walton

One of the things that impressed me about our late brother Rus Walton was the fact that his intense desire beyond all things was for Jesus Christ to be known among all men. He saw this as the answer to all the social ills of our day.

His involvement with the Plymouth Rock Foundation through the years found him writing on many topics that applied the Word of God to the issues that confronted us daily. His books found their way into the high schools and colleges where they were used to further our understanding of how the Word could be applied today.

Beyond all of this, and though the application of the Word of God is quite profound, his desire was that we all focus ourselves in prayer. For as he said on the video promoting the Christian Committees of Correspondence, "without prayer no political or social action will amount to anything." It is to this subject that I write to you our members of PRF.

The Family in Trouble

All around us today and for many years there has been a growing crisis of sinful conditions in the American culture. The family has been breaking down now to the point that more children have single parents or blended families than whole ones. Family is being redefined as, "any group of persons living together." The idea of a male and female in a monogamous, lifetime commitment in marriage is no longer "viable" or "realistic."

Those families that remain intact are being broadsided with drug abuse, alcoholism, teenage rebellions, financial issues, inability or ignorance on how to be a family and to train the next generation. Thus, a generation of young people is now unable to cope with life’s pressures because they have no reference point, no absolutes to base their important life decisions upon.

Trained in relativism and naturalism in the monopolist government schools, young people are coming to believe that there is no meaning to life. They live to "eat, drink and be merry." Entertainment has become their god. Dr. James Dobson stated in his new book, Bringing Up Boys,

"Nations that are populated largely by immature, immoral, weak-willed, cowardly, and self-indulgent men cannot and will not long endure. These types of men include those who sire and abandon children; who cheat on their wives; who lie, steal, cheat and covet; who hate their countrymen; and who serve no god but money. That is the direction culture is taking today’s boys." (1)

These types of young people are now on the rise. With no Biblically based moral compass passed on to them from their parents, children have had to create their own standard based upon the fruit of an existentialist education. This fruit is clearly ripening in our culture.

The Church is no different. Recent scandals have rocked not just the Protestant Church but now the Roman Catholic Church casting a cloud of suspicion and aspersions upon all of us. The idea of a transcendent, holy God who requires us to "walk in a manner pleasing to Him" and warns us that if we do not that certain consequences will be reaped not only personally but corporately in front of the world (Gal. 6), is not a popular topic today in church circles.

Good, sound doctrinal preaching is being replaced by the existentialist, the relativist, the feel-good lecturer who massages our consciences to elevate our self-esteem by stating that we are in control of our own destiny. Thus, we violate the Second Command and approach God on our terms rather than His.

The fruit of the impotence of the Church is rapidly ripening as our culture is replacing its worldview, ethics, standards of behavior, legal and economic foundations based upon Christian doctrine and principles with neo-paganism, situational ethics, legal positivism, majority rule, and economic determinism.

Thus, for anyone to bring an exhortation from the Bible about getting rid of sin and living in righteousness through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is shouted down and called judgmental or as the new phrase goes, "The Christian Taliban."

In a May 6, 2002 article in U.S. News and World Report entitled "Faith in America" revealed that Americans have, "a deep desire for spiritual moorings - a hunger for God." Yet, at the same time, the article revealed that most Americans believe that there is truth in all religions. (3) The article praised pluralism (the idea that there is no one belief that is absolutely true and thus tolerance of all belief systems is an absolute necessity) and implied that Christians who evangelize other religious groups are intolerant and actually fighting against American religious freedom.(4)

The civil sphere is no different. The Bible says that "when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn" (Proverbs 29:2). These last few years have seen the people mourning over the loss of decency and moral rectitude in the executive branch.

We have mourned because legislatures have refused to protect life, liberty and property. We have mourned because the judicial branch has not done justice and equity but rather has perverted it making their court the "supra-legislative" body.

The existentialist legal ideology now is the basis for our law making and the Rule of Law is now a farce as the government creates law not in "pursuance" of the Constitution as they are required, but rather according to opinion polls as recent 9th Circuit Court opinion on the Pledge of Allegiance has shown.

Our culture is changing; there is no doubt about that. Government controlled education has churned out students committed to a statist philosophy and this over the past 50 years has only begun to bear fruit in our culture. The polls taken by U.S. News clearly show this trend. This is what we as American Christians are challenged with today.

Root Causes of Cultural Decline

The crisis that our culture is immersed in has several root causes. I mention a few here. First, is the lack of true Bible based preaching in our church pulpits as I mentioned above. True discipleship leads us to greater understanding of and obedience to the commands of Christ (Mt.28:20) through the power of the Holy Spirit within us. Thus, Christians have been inept at showing truth and love in the midst of a crooked and dying world.

Second, is the replacement of a Biblical worldview and methodology with a false worldview and methodology (Col.2:8) leading some Christians to have a Christian heart but a pagan mind.

Nehemiah Institute has clearly shown through its PEERS test that many Christians simply cannot reason from Biblical truth to its application in the basic areas of life. (5) They simply follow the worldly philosophies of the day.

Again, this leaves the Church woefully inept to expose the fallacies of American paganism. It leaves the Church inept at providing a sound, reasonable solution to the issues of our day based upon the principles and doctrine of the Word of God.

Men like Dr. Greg Bahnsen have and Ravi Zacharias are, working hard to counter this sad trend of our inability to speak truth in love to our culture.(6)  Thus evil prevails because we are like the sons of Ephraim who turned back in the day of battle (Psalm 78:9-10. See also 1st Chronicles 12:32)

Third, an ignorance or denial of the work of Satan and his kingdom in our communities today. Most Christians have been schooled in the government schools and have a naturalistic view of life believing only the present material world is real and the unseen spiritual world is not real or, at best, not relevant in everyday life.

Thus, this skews their understanding concerning the forces of evil arrayed against the Church. This lack of understanding that God is at war with Satan and that this war has its effects in human history leaves us ignorant to the schemes of the devil (Eph.6:12). The devil then has a free hand (under God’s Sovereignty) to influence people and culture while we pluck the bad fruit off the bad tree thinking that we are getting at the root of the problem.

This leads to the fourth reason and the focus of the rest of this article, a lack of prayer against this kingdom of darkness; against the cultural status quo of ignorance of and/or defiance against God and for the advancement of the Kingdom of God in all areas.

Plymouth Rock Foundation is hard at work doing what we can to counter these trends outlined above. We are holding educational and statesmanship seminars on the true cause of liberty in the Western World; publishing ground breaking books and tapes that teach young and old the doctrines, principles and applications of the Word of God into every area of life; and thus we are helping to strengthen Christian schools around the world with a multi-generational vision for their nation.

Strategic Prayer

All of these external works are vital and necessary to bring about the blessings of the Kingdom of God to our generation. Yet, Scripture and history both bear witness that without sustained, energetic, strategic prayer these works will not be as effective as they can and need to be. This is a lesson that has often been neglected by today’s believer.

David Wells of Gordon-Conwell Seminary states:

"To pray declares that God and his world are at cross-purposes... Why, then, do we pray so little for our local church? ...Why, then, don’t we pray as persistently as we talk? The answer, quite simply, is that we don’t believe that it will make any difference. We accept, however despairingly, that the situation is unchangeable, that it will always be... We find it easy to come to terms with the unjust and fallen world around us -- even when it intrudes into Christian institutions"(7) (Emphasis mine).

He concludes that

"...we have lost our anger, both at the level of social witness and before God in prayer ...the wrath of God is his opposition to what is wrong, the means by which truth is put forever on the throne and error forever on the scaffold. Without God’s wrath, there would be no reason to live morally in the world and every reason not to. So the wrath of God, in this sense, is intimately connected with petitionary prayer that also seeks the ascendancy of truth in all instances and corresponding banishment of evil"(8).

Thus, in order to address these problems outlined above, we must first and foremost recognize the crown rights of King Jesus. He alone is sovereign in the affairs of men and nations and, thus, we must bend our knees in prayer that His "will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6).

Prayer is the vital link between our words and our action in this world. It is in prayer that God gives us inspiration, guidance and strength to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom and to do the good works He has called us to do. Thus, in true Biblical prayer, we avoid praying only with no action or, on the other hand, doing social action only with no prayer and reliance upon God and His Word.

"Prayer is the decisive weapon in this struggle --and is often aggressive and violent. The structures and forces of injustice, oppression and war are so overwhelming that all our efforts to help will fail unless we first invite God into the fray. Until we have achieved victory in prayer, it is hopeless to engage the outer world in combat ...Prayer is the most powerful form of social action because God responds directly to prayer... Even in the most hopeless of situations, He breaks through the false dominion of the enemy, bringing spiritual light and breathing life for lasting social transformation" (9)

Thus, Rus Walton emphasized that when any of us meet together to study FACS (Fundamentals for American Christians, the ground laying classic course written by Rus Walton that instructs believers in the Biblical principles of civil government) or our history, we must

In fact, this is our first duty.

We must make sure that everyone in our local area is lifted up in prayer. Prayer changes us, and by praying for all those in authority we receive the love of God for these people and can effectively serve them (Jude 20-21).

We have plenty of good books that analyze the current spiritual condition of our culture. Many of us are currently involved in some form of community service as well.

However, unless we heed the call to prayer, strategic, intercessory prayer, our nation is headed towards judgment. It is the plain fruit of the law of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6).

Sustained Prayer

Our prayers must not be humanistic, i.e., what is in it for me? They must be God centered, i.e., what is in it for God and His Kingdom?

Our prayers ought to be counter cultural.

We must refuse to resign ourselves to the way things are. We have to persist as the widow persisted in front of the judge (Lk.18:1-8) or the Syrophoenician woman before Jesus (Mt.15:21-28).

Intercessory prayer is

"in essence, rebellion --rebellion against the world in its fallenness, the absolute and undying refusal to accept as normal what is pervasively abnormal. It is, in this its negative aspect, the refusal of every agenda, every scheme, every interpretation that is at odds with the norm as originally established by God. As such, it is ...the declaration that Evil is not a variation on Good but its antithesis ...petitionary prayer only flourishes where there is a twofold belief: first, that God’s name is hallowed too irregularly, his kingdom has come to little, and his will is done too infrequently; second, that God himself can change this situation... It is therefore impossible to seek to live in God’s world on his terms, doing his work in a way that is consistent with who he is, without engaging in regular prayer" (10) (Emphasis mine).

God is at work in our culture. We must join Him in accomplishing His purposes using His strength garnered in prayer, using His weapons that are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses so that all the nations may worship the one true God.

If you are new to this type of ministry, may I suggest that you read some of the best authors on this topic?(11)

- Cindy Jacobs, Possessing the Gates of the Enemy;

- C. Peter Wagner's The Prayer Shield;

- Dutch Sheets’, Praying for America and Destiny of a Nation

- E.M. Bounds, The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer

- Click here for other books on prayer.

Above all get started! Rus Walton urged all of us to join together with like minded people in our homes, our Churches, and our place of business during the break or lunch hour to begin a wave of intercession for our culture.

Let us expect, like the widow woman, that another Great Awakening is beginning to occur!

NOTES:

(1) Dr. James Dobson, Bringing Up Boys, (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2001), p.54.

(2) Done by Pastor Wayne Mitchell of Morning Star International Ministries at Harvard, MIT and other Boston area universities. Taken from their promotional video. See www.morningstarboston.org

(3) Jeffery L. Sheler, "Faith in America," U.S. News and World Report, Vol.132, No. 15 (May 6, 2002), p. 42.

(4) Ibid., p. 43.

(5) See their web sites at www.nehemiahinstitute.com  and www.chalcedon.edu/report/2001sep/smithwick.shtml

(6) See www.cmfnow.com and www.wordmp3.com for Bahnsen sources and www.rzim.com for Zacharias sources.

(7) David Wells, Prayer: Rebelling Against the Status Quo, in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, Edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1999), p.144.