Remarkable: America and the Cross — From the Beginning Until Today

When the Pilgrims finally ended their tortuous journey across the seas and landed at Plymouth Rock, the first thing they erected on these shores was a wooden cross.

The cross symbolized their faith. It reminded them of their past. And it gave them a proper road map to their future.

Throughout our nation’s history, the cross has become synonymous with America.
America is a Christian nation.

We used to know that. Our school used to teach it. Our presidents used to acknowledge it.

Unfortunately, way too many of us have forgotten it.

The cross.

We wear it around our necks as jewelry. We tattoo it on our skin. Perhaps the world’s greatest source of aid and charity during times of disaster is known as the Red Cross.

When our soldiers returned from the war, often in flag-draped caskets, we erected crosses to honor their lives and passing.

When they died on our battlefields, we placed their remains in graveyards marked with simple white crosses, lined up in long, solemn rows, much the way they stood while in formation.

In my area of the country many years ago, crosses were erected all over the countryside, to remind us of the One who gave everything for us.

When the Twin Towers were destroyed, when the heat, flames, explosions, and destruction brought these mighty buildings down, what emerged from the wreckage was a perfect steel I-beam, which formed the shape of a cross.

It gave the rescuers hope; it bolstered their spirits, and it reminded us all that, even in the midst of terror, tragedy, and disaster, God is still in control.

And despite the best efforts of those who are seeking to have it removed, that cross still stands in New York City.

And now we learn a couple of more things:

Using the Hubble telescope and looking off into the distant reaches of spaces, scientists have discovered something that appears to resemble a cross. In addition, we have recently learned that scientists have discovered something that resembles a cross in our DNA, an object that holds our cells together.

However, these two most recent scientific discoveries have added nothing to my knowledge that I didn’t already know by faith.

The cross is still our hope. And our Savior still reigns supreme.

But today, we have a host of hateful and disgruntled God haters, people trying to remove the cross from our cemeteries and landscapes. They are seeking to pull them down and completely remove these crosses from the public square.

In many cases they claim to be atheists, but if they truly don’t believe in God, then why are they so fearful of His symbol? If they are correct, if God doesn’t truly exist, then these things can do us no lasting harm.

In reality, these people actually believe in God. They know He lives. And for whatever reason, they hate God. They fear God. Moreover, they don’t want to be reminded of the Lord, because the knowledge of His presence makes them increasingly uncomfortable in their own actions and behaviors.

This past weekend, somewhere between the Cadbury bunny and Reese’s peanut butter eggs, millions of Americans stopped to remember the time when the One who died for our sins, the One who suffered on the cross—three days later—that same Savior triumphantly conquered death and walked out of that borrowed tomb.

Christ is alive.

And America IS a Christian nation!

You can deny it. You may claim it isn’t so. You can try to rewrite the pages of our nation’s history. But you cannot accurately dismiss the truth.

I’ve penned an entire book on the subject.

America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.

The cross is a part of us. It makes us who we are. It has traditionally guided us as Americans.

And the cross can still point the direction to how we can right our path as a nation.

Image: Curtesy of: http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2012/09/looking-for-god-in-wrong-places-on-9-11.html