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<\/source><\/picture>In scanning the headlines, it\u2019s amazing how many of them chronicle the fall of those who have given themselves over into one temptation after another.<\/p>\n
We are all sinners. We all need the salvation Christ has provided for sinners through His atoning death. But when He enters a life and forgives the sinner who believes, Jesus puts His Holy Spirit in that person and gives them the power not realized before to resist temptation.<\/p>\n
Throughout the centuries, the bells of Christendom have pealed a tune<\/a> that actually reminds the knowledgeable hearer of our need for God\u2019s help to overcome temptation that very hour.<\/p>\n This tune I refer to is called \u201cthe Westminster chimes,\u201d as in Westminster Abbey. This tune is heard in churches and college campuses across America \u2014 and if you own a grandfather clock, or any kind of chiming clock, you too are very familiar with this 16-note melody that plays at the beginning of every hour.<\/p>\n The words<\/a> to the hourly tune go like this: \u201cLord, in this hour, be thou our guide, that by thy power \/ no foot shall slide.\u201d A foot sliding was an old-fashioned way of referring to falling into sin.<\/p>\n We can learn about dealing with temptation through the biblical account<\/a> of Cain and Abel, especially in the dialogue between God and Cain. By way of review, Cain and Abel were the first born sons of Adam and Eve after our first parents were expelled from paradise because of their sin.<\/p>\n Cain was a farmer. Abel was a shepherd. They both made offerings of their harvest to God, but the Lord accepted Abel\u2019s and not Cain\u2019s. This made Cain sullen and angry at his brother. He kills Abel, and when God confronts him about it, he replies \u2014 as if he could hide from God \u2014 \u201cAm I my brother\u2019s keeper?\u201d<\/p>\n But before Cain does his evil act, God reaches out to him to offer him a way of escape from himself: \u201cSo the Lord said to Cain, \u2018Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it\u201d (Genesis 4:6-7).<\/p>\n In John Steinbeck\u2019s book, East of Eden<\/em><\/a>, there are four elderly Chinese men who study the first 16 verses of Genesis 4 over a period of two years. Initially, they think that God\u2019s command to Cain was that he shalt or that he must master sin. But they learn from the original Hebrew that it could be better translated as \u201cthou mayest\u201d (implying choice).<\/p>\n Steinbeck goes on to say that it is this choice that makes a man a man (rather than a beast). He is pointing out that God has given man the possibility of triumphing over sin. We are not puppets who are predetermined to do evil.<\/p>\n The founders of America gave us limited government, which requires people to act in self-controlled manners, not giving in constantly to temptation.<\/p>\n After the founding fathers wrote the Constitution in Philadelphia, a woman asked Ben Franklin what kind of government they had given to us. He famously replied<\/a>, \u201cA republic, madam, if you can keep it.\u201d One of the ways we keep it is through greater self-control.<\/p>\n Dr. Os Guinness was a guest in our Providence Forum series of films<\/a> on America\u2019s Judeo-Christian heritage. It\u2019s called \u201cThe Foundation of American Liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n In the episode on the Declaration of Independence, \u201cEndowed by Their Creator,\u201d Guinness, the eminent Christian writer and thinker, tells<\/a> our audience: \u201cThe key question for the founders [was]: how do you sustain faith? Faith of any sort requires freedom. Now, rather like the recycling triangle, it goes round and round ad infinitum. Freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith, faith requires freedom, which requires virtue, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n Guinness added, \u201cNow, the trouble is, the word virtue today has become sort of goody-goody. But for the framers, virtue, obviously, [comes] from the classic understanding, that all ethics has to be rooted in courage … [V]irtue included honesty, loyalty, patriotism, and above all, character, who you are when no one sees.\u201d<\/p>\n The late Dr. Walter Williams told<\/a> our viewers, \u201cOur Constitution and our government was made for a moral people, people who love liberty. And the reason why is that initially we had very, very few laws, because people\u2019s behavior was governed by customs and tradition and religious values. Today, we\u2019re moving away from that \u2026 we\u2019re seeing more and more laws being written to control human behavior, as opposed to personal values.\u201d<\/p>\n Self-rule under God is the essence of the American experiment. To succeed, it requires that citizens must, of course, with God\u2019s help, rule themselves first.<\/p>\n Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., is the executive director of the Providence Forum, an outreach of D. James Kennedy Ministries, where Jerry also serves as senior producer and an on-air host. He has written\/co-written 33 books, including\u00a0George Washington\u2019s Sacred Fire<\/em>\u00a0(with Providence Forum founder Peter Lillback, Ph.D.) and\u00a0What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?<\/em>\u00a0(with D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.). www.djkm.org?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 @newcombejerry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0www.jerrynewcombe.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n