Scripture and You

Does Your Thanksgiving Have the Proper Object?

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
The history of the Thanksgiving Day proclamations of United States presidents is revealing.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

November 2017 - The tenor and content of the annual Thanksgiving Day proclamations by United States presidents have changed over time, with decreasing references to God and the Bible. President Barack Hussein Obama's Thanksgiving proclamations marked the first time in history that the document was, at its core, a humanist statement. In 2017, President Donald Trump's proclamation at least restores many of the religious references that had been common in the past. All of these matters point to the most vital question at issue: Christian, does your Thanksgiving have the proper Object? A brief history of these proclamations is revealing. 

Disappearance of Warnings About Forgetting God

George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789, and the practice continued during the presidencies of John Adams and later James Madison. From 1816 to 1861, no proclamations were issued. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the first of what so far has been an unbroken chain of presidential Thanksgiving Day proclamations. It said in part,

I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, [offer] humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience...

In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt was the last to speak of the direct intervention of God against a nation when it forgets Him, "when the hand of the Lord [is] heavy upon it in drought or flood or pestilence, when in bodily distress and in anguish of soul it paid the penalty of folly and a froward [habitually disobedient] heart."

Although others had done so before him, Calvin Coolidge's 1924 proclamation was the last to encourage Americans to "supplicate the Throne of Grace" in their churches and "their family altars." Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1940 proclamation was the last one that took the form of a prayer, and it was also the last to mention the Law of God. The last one to call upon Americans to "bow before God in contrition for our sins" was Dwight Eisenhower's in 1953.

Disappearance of Biblical Quotations and Allusions

Although presidential Thanksgiving Day proclamations were once filled with Biblical quotations and allusions, the last one to quote or directly allude to Scripture was that of George H. W. Bush in 1991. (Roosevelt's 1941 proclamation included the entire 23rd Psalm.) The last to refer to God as the Creator were Ronald Reagan's in 1984 and George H. W. Bush's in 1989. The last to refer to God as the "Lord and Ruler of nations" were Reagan's in 1988 and Bush's in 1989. In 1995, Bill Clinton began the secularist practice, continued by George W. Bush and Barack Obama, of encouraging Americans to gather not only in their homes and places of worship, but also in their "community centers" to express "thanksgiving".

2009: Shift to Humanism

President Barack Hussein Obama's 2009 Thanksgiving proclamation marked the first time that the document was, at its core, a humanist statement. Unashamedly revising history, he calls the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth merely "a harvest celebration." Rather than calling upon Americans to give thanks to God by name, he called upon them "to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own." He used the same words in 2014.

2017: A Return to Lost Themes - But...

President Donald Trump's 2017 Thanksgiving Day proclamation represents a return to lost themes. Unlike Barack Obama's, it presents a historically correct account of the first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in Massachusetts. It also quotes Abraham Lincoln's first proclamation. Lincoln spoke of "bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come," and went on to recognize their true Source:

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.  They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

President Trump goes on to recount some of the recent tragedies America has experienced. But rather than viewing them as the manifestations of God's anger against the nation's sins, as Lincoln at least did, Mr. Trump states,

As we mourn these painful events, we are ever confident that the perseverance and optimism of the American people will prevail.

We can see, in the courageous Pilgrims who stood on Plymouth Rock in new land, the intrepidness that lies at the core of our American spirit.  Just as the Pilgrims did, today Americans stand strong, willing to fight for their families and their futures, to uphold our values, and to confront any challenge. 

This is once again, at its core, a humanist statement. If it recognizes the Divine source of the Pilgrims' "intrepidness" it does so only obliquely. It evinces no understanding of their commitment to Christ and His Word as their rock and foundation, and their desire to pursue holiness in a new land.

Would to God that the President would see the hand of the Lord's judgment upon the manifold, ever-deepening sins of this nation - the killing of the unborn by the millions, the nation's gross and rampant immorality, the abandonment of the Bible as the Divine standard governing all matters. Would to God that our President would come to true faith in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, the Lord of glory, and the coming Judge - bowing the knee in repentance toward God and faith in Him.

Instead, it seems that Mr. Trump is strongly influenced by "spiritual advisors" such as "pastor" Paula White - like himself an unapologetic serial adulterer, twice-divorced and thrice-married (the second time to another "pastor" who deserted his lawful wife to marry her), and a preacher of the name-it-and-claim-it, health-and-wealth false gospel that bears no resemblance to the one true Gospel that saves souls and changes lives - and even nations.[1]

Dear friends, we need to pray unceasingly for Mr. Trump. Pray that by a work of the Spirit of God he will understand the true Gospel and see the true Christ, and recognize the deadly falsehoods of those like Paula White who are advising him. Pray unceasingly for the genuine salvation of the President and his family. Pray that he would govern the affairs of state as a servant of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Nothing is too hard for God.

The Distinctive of Genuine Thankfulness

Thankfulness and faith share a common characteristic: They both have an object. Genuine saving faith has the Lord Jesus Christ as its object, while counterfeit faith has man, things or false gods as its object. In the same way, genuine thankfulness has the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe as its object, while counterfeit thankfulness directs its gratitude toward fallen man.

Genuine thankfulness distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever. The Apostle Paul tells us what is true of the heart of man apart from Christ: "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened" (Romans 1:21). Near the end of his life, Paul warned Timothy:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

The Proper Object of Thanksgiving

In contrast, the one who has Christ as the object of his faith also has Christ as the object of his thankfulness:

Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples! (Psalm 105:1)

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! (Psalm 107:8)

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God - through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:24-25)

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:12-14)

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:15-17)

The Great Day of Eternal Thanksgiving

Heaven will be a place of eternal thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus Christ:

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth." Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:15-19)

Does your thanksgiving have the proper Object? And as you bow before Him, is your thanksgiving coupled with repentance and cries for mercy upon our nation? May this be true of each of us in these perilous time, not only on the officially proclaimed day of Thanksgiving, but every day.

References

1. For press discussion of the influence of Paul White and others on Mr. Trump, see: "Just Another Sinner, Born Again: The claim that Donald Trump has come to Jesus follows a long pattern of redemption narratives among American evangelicals," The Atlantic, 6/29/2016 as viewed at https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/trump-born-again/489269/; "She led Trump to Christ: The rise of the televangelist who advises the White House," Washington Post, 11/15/2017 as viewed at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/she-led-trump-to-christ-the-rise-of-the-televangelist-who-advises-the-white-house/2017/11/13/1dc3a830-bb1a-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.0ca8df588dd9; "Donald Trump's God Whisperer," Politico, 7/11/2016 as viewed at https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/donald-trump-pastor-paula-white-225315.

 

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