Passing the Torch of Liberty to a New Generation

I was driving north on I-75 toward Knoxville when I received a call from my office.

"Gary, a man just called. He said that he was dying and that he had to talk with you."

I knew it was Chris Hoops. I got his number and immediately called him. Chris was a godly man who understood the Christian heritage of our nation and how it had been forgotten.

He told me that he had a 200-year-old book in his possession that he wanted American Vision to reprint. He entrusted me with the only copy of this remarkable book, and I assured Chris that we would reprint it.

After some research, I learned that the book in my possession was the only copy in existence. You won't find it anywhere, not even in the Library of Congress.

This 500-page book consists of 20 sermons delivered to the nation from 1799 to 1802. While the individual chapters exist in pamphlet form in private collections and libraries, it would take you years and a small fortune to find them all.

Now republished for the 21st century, the book takes on a new name: Passing the Torch of Liberty to a New Generation.

The men who witnessed the birth of our nation understood that even politicians are obligated to place themselves under the sovereign hand of God.  That's what these sermons are about.

But a lot of ministers would be afraid to preach these sermons today as so many churches try to remain politically neutral in an increasingly godless sphere.

You've heard ministers tell their congregations to stay out of politics with some of the following half-truths:

• Politics is dirty.
• Jesus didn't get mixed up in politics.
• There's a separation between church and state.
• Our citizenship is in heaven.
• We're not supposed to judge.
• You can't impose your morality on other people.

These excuses are foreign to the men who penned these pamphlets. They would recoil in disbelief if they heard these excuses coming from ministers of the gospel.

Joseph Strong stated in 1802 that our fathers adhered to the principles that only those whose opinions and behavior were strictly Christian should be elected to public office, and that righteousness exalts a nation. When is the last time you heard anything like that?

These are principles that many Christians have forgotten. We're not in a mess today because of unbelievers. We're in a mess because we've lost our memory of this nation's Christian beginnings.

Help honor a dying man's prayer by getting a copy of Passing the Torch of Liberty to a New Generation, and hear the words of some of this nation's first ministers, and what they had to say about America's founding and Christian responsibility to God.

This is a facsimile of the historic Sermons and is in the original 18th century English.

Author: Various