America at 250: The Story of Religious Liberty

[Webster]

Two hundred and fifty years ago, the Declaration of Independence established the United States on a foundation of civil and religious liberty. A defining principle of this nation is the "wall of separation between church and state," a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 that has been debated for decades. What does it mean exactly, and how does it line up with world history and Bible prophecy? Join Pastor James Rafferty as he explores the past, present, and future of religious liberty in America.

 

[Webster]

A second perspective on America's 250th birthday....

Could the events surrounding America's 250th anniversary have more prophetic significance than most people realize?

America's 250th anniversary is being celebrated this Independence Day weekend, but just weeks ago, we were on the ground in Washington, D.C., documenting one of the largest faith gatherings connected to this historic milestone. We attended Rededicate 250 on the National Mall, handed out thousands of Great Controversy Sharing Cards, interviewed attendees, and captured footage for this special documentary.

In this video, we compare what we witnessed firsthand with Bible prophecy, American history, and Scripture. Is the growing call for America to return to God the beginning of a genuine revival, or could it point to prophetic events the Bible warned about long ago? We explore what it could mean for the future of religious liberty, separation of church and state, and America's prophetic role in the last days.

If you were unable to be in Washington for Rededicate 250 or the America 250 celebration, we hope this documentary gives you an inside look at what happened and encourages you to study these issues for yourself.

Chapters for America's 250th Anniversary: What We Witnessed in Washington, D.C.:
00:00 Introduction
01:08 America's Religious Revival
04:55 Why We Went to Washington, D.C.
08:03 What Is Rededicate 250?
12:47 Testing Revival by Scripture
17:18 America's Prophetic Role
22:06 Church and State in Bible Prophecy
27:14 Is America Becoming a Christian Nation?
31:45 The National Mall Experience
36:10 Calls for Revival
41:15 "Today Is Re-Covenant Day"
43:22 Handing Out Great Controversy Cards
46:28 Why We Filmed a Documentary
50:14 The Separation of Church and State
53:28 Protesters Outside the Event
57:02 What We Learned in Washington
1:02:11 Why This Matters Now
1:05:35 Final Thoughts

 

[Lamb]

I was really disappointed that the 250th anniversary wasn't celebrated more than it has been. It should have been a year long event!

 

[Maranatha]

I don't know what reasons we have to celebrate.
I think, wherever we live, we should instead spend that time praying, repenting, spreading the Gospel.

This world system is at the brink of total collapse and chaos.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people (2 Timothy 3v1-5, ESV)

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:7, ESV)

 

[Lamb]

I don't know what reasons we have to celebrate.
I think, wherever we live, we should instead spend that time praying, repenting, spreading the Gospel.

This world system is at the brink of total collapse and chaos.

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people (2 Timothy 3v1-5, ESV)

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:7, ESV)

Well, that's a downer that you don't see reasons why God has blessed the USA.

 

[jswauto]

Well, that's a downer

Here's something to really hang your hat on, celebrate for a long time, and build upon:​

America's Christian Legacy 250-Year Chronicle​

A Chronicle of Evangelism, Missions, and the Global Spread of the Faith
This outline traces how God used the United States of America as a primary vessel for carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth — from the Puritan covenant of 1630 to the global missions movement of the 21st century. It is offered not to glorify a nation, but to honor the God who moves through willing, ordinary people to accomplish His extraordinary purposes. May it instruct, inspire, and call us to faithful action.​

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." — Matthew 28:19–20​

SECTION I | THE COVENANT FOUNDATION: AMERICA'S SPIRITUAL ORIGINS (1620–1740)​

A. The Puritan Vision — A Covenantal People​

1. The Mayflower Compact (1620) — civil self-governance rooted in Christian community; government as a sacred trust

2. John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity" (1630) — the "city upon a hill" vision; a people consecrated to God's purposes before they even landed

3. The theological framework: covenant theology — God and a people bound together for a holy purpose; blessing tied to faithfulness

4. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." (Matthew 5:14)

B. The Colonial Church Landscape​

1. Puritan Congregationalism in New England — rigorous theology, communal accountability, and a literate, Bible-saturated people

2. Anglican settlements in Virginia — faith and commerce intertwined; the tension between calling and culture begins early

3. Quaker Pennsylvania (William Penn, 1681) — religious liberty as a Christian principle; conscience protected by law

4. Catholic Maryland (Lord Baltimore, 1634) — pluralism taking root in the new world; a foretaste of a diverse nation

5. The diversity of colonial faith — preparation for a pluralistic mission nation; God building a vessel capable of engaging all peoples

C. The Great Awakening (1730s–1740s) — The First National Revival​

1. Jonathan Edwards — "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (1741); a theology of divine sovereignty and human responsibility; revival rooted in sound doctrine

2. George Whitefield — the itinerant preacher whose voice reached an estimated 80% of colonial America; preached to crowds of 20,000+; no microphone, only the Spirit

3. Estimated 20,000–50,000 conversions in New England alone — unprecedented in the colonial era

4. Significance: forged a shared Protestant identity across the colonies before there was a nation — the spiritual precursor to national unity

5. "I will pour out my Spirit on all people; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions." (Acts 2:17)

▶ Ministry Application — What This Means for Us Today 1. The covenant model: our churches are communities of purpose, not just attendance — we are bound together for something larger than ourselves 2. Revival is not manufactured — it is granted by God; our role is faithfulness, holiness, and persistent prayer 3. America's spiritual DNA was missional from the very beginning — and we carry that inheritance

SECTION II | SENDING THE FIRST MESSENGERS: THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONS MOVEMENT (1790–1860)​

A. The Second Great Awakening (1790s–1840s) — The Engine of Missions​

1. Camp meeting revivals — Cane Ridge, Kentucky (1801); an estimated 20,000 gathered in the wilderness to seek God — extraordinary for a frontier population

2. Charles Finney — mass evangelism and the "anxious bench"; revival as an organized, repeatable method; democratizing the altar call

3. Lyman Beecher — organizing the church for social and moral transformation; faith that moves institutions

4. The multiplication of voluntary societies: missionary societies, Bible societies, tract societies, temperance and abolition societies — the church mobilizing as a social force

5. "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (Luke 10:2)

B. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM — founded 1810)​

1. America's first foreign mission agency — organized, funded, and staffed by local churches

2. Fields opened: India, Hawaii, the Middle East, West Africa, China, Japan, and the Ottoman Empire

3. The Sandwich Islands (Hawaii): missionaries arrive 1820; within 20 years, Hawaiian literacy rates exceed many U.S. states — the Bible as an engine of education

4. The Middle East: the American University of Beirut (1866) — one of the Arab world's great institutions, born entirely of missionary vision and sacrifice

C. Adoniram and Ann Judson — America's First Foreign Missionaries (1812)​

1. Sailed from Salem, Massachusetts, February 19, 1812 — young, untested, surrendered

2. Burma (Myanmar) — 37 years of unrelenting service on a difficult field

3. The cost: imprisonment, the deaths of Ann and two children, years of isolation, profound suffering

4. The fruit: complete Bible translated into Burmese; a comprehensive Burmese-English dictionary still in scholarly use today; a Burmese church now numbering over 3 million Christians

5. The lesson: the grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die (John 12:24) — fruitfulness is born in surrender

6. "Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Corinthians 4:17)

D. Missions to Africa and Asia​

1. Sub-Saharan Africa: American missionaries contribute to translating hundreds of African languages into written form for the first time in human history

2. Literacy follows the Bible — schools, hospitals, and community institutions built alongside every church planting effort

3. China missions: by 1900, hundreds of American missionaries on the ground; schools, hospitals, and universities founded; missionary press introduces modern printing technologies across Asia

▶ Ministry Application — What This Means for Us Today 1. The voluntary association is how God builds movements — not government programs, but committed communities of consecrated believers 2. Every great missions work begins with someone willing to go at profound personal cost — who among us is willing? 3. Are we, as Christianity Haven, functioning as a sending church or merely a gathering church? The two are not the same

​

 

[jswauto]

SECTION III | REVIVAL, EVANGELISM, AND THE TRANSATLANTIC FIRE (1860–1940)​

A. D.L. Moody — The 19th Century's Greatest Evangelist​

"The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to Him." — D.L. Moody

B. The Student Volunteer Movement (founded 1886)​

1. Born from a D.L. Moody conference at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts — revival producing mission

2. Watchword: "The evangelization of the world in this generation" — breathtaking in its ambition and faith

3. Result: over 20,000 American college students mobilized as foreign missionaries between 1886 and 1920 — one of the greatest voluntary missions surges in human history

4. The YMCA and YWCA — American-born institutions — spread globally as centers of faith, community, and service

5. "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'" (Isaiah 6:8)

C. Billy Sunday and Urban Evangelism (Early 20th Century)​

1. Former major league baseball player — cultural accessibility as evangelistic strategy; meeting people where they are

2. Mass urban revival campaigns — tens of millions attending across America; the nation stirred repeatedly

3. Strong social engagement: temperance, justice, community transformation — the gospel touching the whole of life

D. The Azusa Street Revival and the Birth of Global Pentecostalism (1906)​

1. Location: 312 Azusa Street, Los Angeles — a tumbledown former livery stable; God choosing the foolish things of the world (1 Corinthians 1:27)

2. Leader: William J. Seymour — a Black Holiness preacher from Louisiana; overlooked by men, chosen by God

3. The revival: multi-racial, multi-ethnic from the very first meeting — radically counter-cultural in a deeply segregated America

4. The movement: speaking in tongues, healing, prophetic gifts — Acts 2 replicated in a Los Angeles alley

5. The explosion: from Azusa, Pentecostalism spread to over 50 countries within just 2 years — unprecedented gospel velocity

6. Today: over 600 million Pentecostals and charismatics worldwide — the fastest-growing movement in all of Christian history

7. "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place... All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:1–4); Joel 2:28

E. American Christian Radio — The New Frontier​

1. Charles Fuller's "Old Fashioned Revival Hour" (1937) — one of the first Christian radio broadcasts; heard by millions weekly across the nation

2. Trans World Radio and Far East Broadcasting Company — shortwave signals penetrating the Soviet Union, China, and closed nations where no missionary could legally go

3. The principle: when doors close to human feet, God opens doors to gospel sound; technology in service of the unchanging message

▶ Ministry Application — What This Means for Us Today 1. God uses unexpected people in unexpected places — Moody had no degree; Seymour preached from a humble storefront; our qualifications are not the deciding factor 2. The Pentecostal movement is a perpetual reminder: the Holy Spirit is no respecter of race, class, or social standing — the ground at the foot of the cross is level 3. Technology is a tool of mission — from radio to internet to social media; steward it with intentionality and boldness

SECTION IV | BILLY GRAHAM AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF GLOBAL EVANGELISM (1945–2000)​

A. Billy Graham — The Most Widely Heard Evangelist in Human History​

1. Born: Charlotte, North Carolina, 1918; committed his life to Christ as a teenager at a tent revival meeting

2. Preached live to an estimated 215 million people in 185 countries and territories — no evangelist before or since has matched this reach

3. 1949 Los Angeles Crusade — the moment that launched his global ministry; God's time, not man's planning

4. 1957 New York Crusade: 16 weeks at Madison Square Garden; over 100,000 attend the final night — the city that never sleeps, listening to the gospel

5. Televised crusades reaching hundreds of millions worldwide; the medium used for the message

6. Counselor to every U.S. President from Harry Truman to Barack Obama — a prophetic voice in the halls of power

7. His consistency: no financial scandal, no moral failure, no deviation from the simple gospel across 60+ years of public ministry — integrity as the foundation of influence

8. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes." (Romans 1:16)

B. Post-WWII Missions Explosion​

1. The GI generation returns from war with a renewed sense of purpose and sacrifice — thousands redirect military discipline toward gospel advance

2. Missions agencies multiply: Wycliffe Bible Translators, Youth With A Mission (YWAM), Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru), Operation Mobilization — a strategic ecosystem of gospel sending

3. The International Mission Board (Southern Baptist Convention) becomes one of the world's largest Protestant missions agencies — thousands of career missionaries serving on every continent

C. Wycliffe Bible Translators (founded 1942, William Cameron Townsend)​

1. Townsend's inciting moment: an indigenous Guatemalan man challenging him — "If your God is so smart, why doesn't He speak our language?" — a question that launched a movement

2. The vision: a Bible translation for every language on earth; not a project but a calling

3. The progress: by 2026, Bible translation completed or actively underway in over 2,000 languages

4. The significance: hundreds of languages written down for the first time in history because of Wycliffe — literacy follows Scripture, everywhere

5. "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne." (Revelation 7:9)

D. The Jesus Film Project (1979)​

1. A Campus Crusade for Christ production — a faithful cinematic rendering of the Gospel of Luke

2. Most-watched and most-translated film in human history — no other film is close

3. Translated into 1,900+ languages; viewed over 9 billion times since 1979

4. Deployed in some of the most remote and unreached communities on earth — a portable gospel for the ends of the earth

5. Hundreds of millions of recorded decisions for Christ globally — numbers only heaven can verify fully

 

[jswauto]

▶ Ministry Application — What This Means for Us Today 1. Billy Graham's life proves the equation: faithfulness + simplicity + longevity = world-transforming impact; there are no shortcuts 2. Bible translation is one of the highest-return missionary investments in history — consider directing church giving toward this strategic work 3. Technology used for the gospel — film, television, radio — is not a compromise of the sacred; it is faithful stewardship of available tools

SECTION V | THE MODERN MISSIONS MOVEMENT: AMERICA'S ONGOING CALL (2000–PRESENT)​

A. The Unreached Peoples Movement​

1. The "10/40 Window" — the belt of nations between 10° and 40° North latitude with the least access to the gospel; home to the greatest concentration of unreached peoples

2. Over 3 billion people still classified as "unreached" — no indigenous church capable of evangelizing its own community without outside assistance

3. American missions agencies continue to lead the strategic push into these communities — the work is not finished

B. Short-Term Missions and the Mobilization of the American Church​

1. The explosion of short-term mission trips from American churches — millions of participants annually; the church moving beyond its own walls

2. The honest debate: building genuine relationships and sustained partnerships vs. the risk of "voluntourism" that serves the volunteer more than the field

3. Best practices: going in service of local churches, not instead of them; skills-based missions; maintaining long-term follow-through and accountability

C. PEPFAR and Humanitarian Missions​

1. The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), launched 2003 under President George W. Bush — one of the largest humanitarian programs in history

2. Backed strongly by American evangelical and Catholic communities — the church advocating for the vulnerable at the highest levels of government

3. Credited with saving over 25 million lives in sub-Saharan Africa — a demonstration that Christian compassion, applied strategically, can move policy and transform nations

D. Digital Evangelism — The New Frontier​

1. The internet, smartphones, and social media as mission fields: over 5 billion people connected globally — the largest open-access mission field in history
2. The gospel available in audio, video, and text in hundreds of languages at zero cost to the recipient — unprecedented in the history of missions
3. YouVersion Bible App (American origin): over 600 million downloads in 190 countries; 1,600+ Bible versions; 50,000+ devotional plans — Scripture in every pocket
4. AI-powered Bible translation tools accelerating the completion of the Great Commission task — every technology harnessed for the one mission
5. "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?" (Romans 10:14–15)

E. The Shift of Global Christianity​

1. The center of global Christianity has shifted southward and eastward — the church in the Global South now significantly outnumbers the Western church in size and growth rate
2. America's missions legacy: not a permanent sending monopoly, but a glorious passing of the torch — faithfulness, not ownership, was always the goal
3. Today: Brazilian, Korean, Nigerian, and Indian missionaries are among the most prolific in the world — many trained by American missionaries or institutions founded by American churches
4. The boomerang: Global South Christians are now sending missionaries back to post-Christian Europe and secular America — the harvest sending workers back to the sower's field

▶ Ministry Application — What This Means for Us Today 1. The Great Commission is not finished — over 3 billion people remain unreached; the urgency has not diminished 2. Christianity Haven's role: praying, giving, sending, and going — in active partnership with the global church, not in isolation from it 3. The goal is not American Christianity but the Kingdom of God, expressed in the worship of every tribe, tongue, and nation before the throne of the Lamb

SECTION VI | KEY THEMES AND THEOLOGICAL THREADS​

A. The Great Commission as America's Spiritual DNA — the mandate was not incidental; it was woven into the nation's founding vision (Matthew 28:18–20)
B. The Role of Covenant in Mission — bound to God's purposes, not our own comfort; covenant people sacrifice willingly
C. The Means God Uses: the ordinary (lay missionaries, students, farmers, baseball players, shoe salesmen) far more than the elite — God's pattern is consistent (1 Corinthians 1:26–29)
D. The Cost of Mission: suffering, sacrifice, and perseverance as the recurring pattern of faithful gospel witness — not the exception, but the norm (2 Timothy 2:3)
E. The Power of Prayer in Every Movement: every great revival and every missions surge in this outline was bathed in intercession — prayer is not preparation for the work; it is the work
F. Scripture's Role as Foundation: where the Bible goes, literacy, human dignity, and lasting transformation reliably follow — the Word changes everything it touches
G. Unity Across Denominations: the greatest missions efforts have consistently crossed denominational lines — a living foretaste of the worshipping multitude of Revelation 7:9

 

[jswauto]

SECTION VII | A CALL TO ACTION: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR CHRISTIANS EVERYWHERE?​

A. Celebrate and Remember — honor the sacrificial heritage that brought the gospel to us; tell these stories from the pulpit, in classrooms, and around tables
B. Teach It — this history belongs in our pulpits, Sunday school classes, youth programs, and small groups; a church that forgets its heritage loses its vision
C. Give Generously — the missions enterprise runs on the faithful, sacrificial generosity of local congregations; review our missions giving and raise it
D. Send Faithfully — identify, equip, and commission missionaries from within our own congregation; every church should be producing senders and goers
E. Pray Persistently — adopt an unreached people group; pray for missionaries by name; pray for revival in our own city and nation; do not stop
F. Go Willingly — short-term and long-term; every member a missionary in their own context; the mission field begins outside our front door
G. Partner Strategically — align with proven, accountable missions organizations: IMB, Wycliffe Bible Translators, Cru, YWAM, local church plants; do not work in isolation
H. Live the Mission Locally — the nations of the world are in our neighborhoods; Texarkana is a mission field; our city is our Jerusalem (Acts 1:8)

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." — Acts 1:8

America's Christian legacy did not happen by accident. It happened because ordinary men and women — seized by an extraordinary gospel — chose to go, to give, to pray, and to sacrifice, trusting that the God who called them would be faithful to complete what He had begun. The same call stands before Christianity Haven today. The mission is not finished. The Spirit has not been withdrawn. The harvest is still plentiful. Go.​

America's Christian Legacy: A Chronicle of Evangelism, Missions, and the Global Spread of the Faith

Prepared for American Christians Everywhere | Ministry Teaching Outline | July 2026

"He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it." — 1 Thessalonians 5:24​

A Prayer for Covenant Renewal​

Lord God Almighty, Covenant Keeper and Father of all who trust in You — we pause before this history and we worship. We thank You for men and women who crossed a vast and indifferent ocean not in search of comfort, but in pursuit of a land where Your Word could be freely proclaimed and Your name freely honored. They carried no great army and no royal treasury; they carried Scripture as their compass, prayer as their anchor, and faith in You as their only surety. We honor them before You today, grateful that their obedience has made our inheritance possible.

We thank You for the Mayflower Compact — for that remarkable moment when ordinary people chose sacred accountability to one another and, above all, to You. And we thank You for the vision You placed in John Winthrop's heart: that a people wholly consecrated to You might become a city upon a hill — a witness to the nations of what it looks like to order a society under Your lordship. Lord, we confess that we too easily take this heritage for granted. Forgive us for the smallness of our gratitude and the shallowness of our reverence. Rekindle in us a holy awe for what You have done.

Renew in American Christianity a truly covenantal heart — a people genuinely bound to You and to one another, not merely in name but in practice. As You sent the fires of the Great Awakening through the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, raising up a generation of people who wept under conviction and rose in transformation, so send that fire again. Raise up voices in our generation who will preach with that same holy urgency and that same Spirit-saturated power. Let the fire fall upon us, Lord. Let it begin here.

Amen.

A Prayer for Unashamed Gospel Boldness​

Father, we pause to honor the life and legacy of Billy Graham — and in doing so, we pause to worship You, for he was only ever a vessel. For more than sixty years, through crusades and conversations, through stadiums and living rooms and television screens, this man preached the same simple gospel, without addition and without subtraction. He did not chase the trends of theology or trim his message to fit the preferences of the age. He stood on the authority of Your Word, again and again, saying: "The Bible says." And through him, You drew more than two hundred fifteen million people into a single encounter with the grace of Jesus Christ. We thank You for him. We pray that his faithfulness would be a constant rebuke to our own timidity, and a steady inspiration to our own proclamation.

We thank You for the Wycliffe Bible Translators and for the staggering reality that Your Word now exists in more than two thousand languages — that speakers of languages once considered too obscure or too remote to merit the effort can now read of Your love in the tongue their mother sang them to sleep in. We pray for the languages still waiting — the ones still without a single verse of Scripture — and we ask You to raise up the translators, the funding, and the commitment needed to complete that work in our generation.

We thank You for the Jesus Film — seen by more than nine billion human beings, more than any other motion picture in history — shown in remote villages by generator-powered projectors, streamed on smartphones in urban slums, watched by farmers and students and soldiers and children who had never before heard the name of Jesus. For every single viewing, for every person whose heart was stirred by what they saw, we give You praise. We pray that the seeds planted through that film — some of them decades ago — would even now be bearing fruit in ways we will not see until eternity.

Lord, give us the same unashamed boldness in our own lives — not in crusade settings but at our kitchen tables, in our workplaces, in the carpool line, in the conversations we have been quietly avoiding. We pray for the integrity of Christian leaders and ministries in our day — that those who carry the gospel publicly would do so with clean hands and a pure heart, that there would be no contradiction between the message and the messenger. Raise up from within Christianity Haven the next generation of evangelists — men and women on fire with the gospel, who will not be silenced.

And Lord, we pray for those who heard the gospel through these great ministries and have not yet responded — every person who sat in a Billy Graham crusade and did not walk forward, who watched the Jesus Film and did not yet surrender. The seed was planted. We ask You Lord: to send the harvest.

Amen.