Modern Christendom appears to have squandered the rich inheritance established by the American Founders in the early 17th and 18th centuries. The biblically based foundation they laid down has been replaced by a secular, hardboiled concoction of desecration, disruption and depravity, analogous to exchanging one's birthright for a pottage of lentils, the catchpenny crop of ancient Israel.

What's happening in America is spiritual: a summoning of the church to the restorative ekklesia model called for by Jesus in Matthew 16:18. By using a secular term, Christ positioned His ekklesia in the center of the public square. Insertion of the "leaven of heaven" into the nerve center of the community would of necessity affect the culture and disciple nations. The center of the public square is where the competition for ideological supremacy, marriage laws, sex-ed curriculums and so on will be at its fiercest. It is this central place of which Jesus said, "the gates of hades shall not prevail against it."

Jesus' intentional use of the New Testament word ekklesia is of vital importance. "[To] Greek readers, it would bring with it the associations of Greek politics," according to Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers. "The Ecclesia was the assembly of free citizens, to which belonged judicial and legislative power, and from which aliens and slaves were alike excluded. The mere use of the term was accordingly a momentous step in the education of the disciples. They had been looking for a kingdom with the King, as its visible Head, sitting on an earthly throne. They were told that it was to be realised in a society, an assembly, like those which in earthly polities we call popular or democratic. read more