America’s Fundamental Misunderstanding About Mother Europe

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed a frightening misconception about America’s founding and its relationship with Europe at the Munich Security Conference last weekend. He said America was “a child of Europe,” that the Christian faith was “a sacred inheritance” from Europe, and that America and Europe are “connected spiritually.”

The reality of America’s founding is anything but romantic. If Americans of old could be seen as a child of Europe, it was a child who ran away from oppression.

Rubio stated:

The man who settled and built the nation of my birth arrived on our shores carrying the memories and the traditions and the Christian faith of their ancestors as a sacred inheritance, an unbreakable link between the old world and the new. …

It was here in Europe where the ideas that planted the seeds of liberty that changed the world were born. It was here in Europe where the world—which gave the world the rule of law, the universities and the scientific revolution.

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He added that the “Sistine Chapel and the towering spires of the great cathedral in Cologne … testify not just to the greatness of our past or to a faith in God that inspired these marvels, they foreshadow the wonders that await us in our future. But only if we are unapologetic in our heritage and proud of this common inheritance can we together begin the work of envisioning and shaping our economic and our political future.”

In Rubio’s mind, these two Catholic monuments show the historic bond between the U.S. and Europe. Based on this supposed common heritage, he believes Europe needs to work together. He said:

This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization, and who, together with us, are willing and able to defend it.

The history of Europe is filled with horrific crimes ranging from Charlemagne’s brutal slaughter of pagans to the Crusades and routine slaughter of Jews to the forced conversion of heretics in the Inquisition and the horrific murder of 6 million Jews.

Yet Rubio doesn’t want Europe to be “shackled by guilt and shame” but “proud of their culture and of their heritage.”

Certainly, Europe has a lot to be proud of, but if this pride leads to thoughts of religious superiority, it ends in death for all those who do not adhere to it.

This is why many early pilgrims fled to the New World!

The U.S. Library of Congress explains in “America as a Religious Refuge: The 17th Century, Part 1”:

Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the 17th century by men and women, who in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe.

What a stark contrast between this historic reality and what Rubio romantically described.

While some did come to America for “secular motives … the great majority left Europe to worship God in the way they believed to be correct. They enthusiastically supported the efforts of their leaders to create ‘a city on a hill’ or a ‘holy experiment,’ whose success would prove that God’s plan for His churches could be successfully realized in the American wilderness” (ibid).

“Rhode Island was the first place in the world to guarantee freedom of religion as a basic tenet of its Constitution,” the late Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages.

The Library of Congress explains that even colonies like Virginia, which were founded by entrepreneurs, considered themselves “militant Protestants.”

What prevented them from practicing their religious beliefs in Europe? It explains:

The religious persecution that drove settlers from Europe to the British North American colonies sprang from the conviction, held by Protestants and Catholics alike, that uniformity of religion must exist in any given society.

They allied with “the civil authorities to impose it, forcibly if necessary, in the interest of saving the souls of all citizens” (ibid). Notice this shocking historical fact:

Nonconformists could expect no mercy and might be executed as heretics. … In some areas, Catholics persecuted Protestants; in others, Protestants persecuted Catholics; and in still others, Catholics and Protestants persecuted wayward coreligionists.

That’s the diametric opposite of America’s belief in religious freedom!

Both Catholics and Protestants allied with the state at times to enforce their religious beliefs—but the Catholic Church did this first and foremost (request a free copy of our book on The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy).

The Library of Congress concludes:

Although England renounced religious persecution in 1689, it persisted on the European continent. Religious persecution, as observers in every century have commented, is often bloody and implacable and is remembered and resented for generations.

But is this religious persecution still “remembered and resented” today?

Certainly, the Catholic Church has done a remarkable job of hiding this history. Even its recent collaboration with the Nazi regime is little discussed today.

Rubio grew up with a Catholic background and may well be sincere in his belief in these common values. But such a speech would certainly never have left the mouth of one of America’s founders, who were victims of religious persecution.

Rubio wants “to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history,” he said. He seeks “[a]n alliance ready to defend our people, to safeguard our interests, and to preserve the freedom of action that allows us to shape our own destiny—not one that exists to operate a global welfare state and atone for the purported sins of past generations.”

He concluded by saying:

So in a time of headlines heralding the end of the trans-Atlantic era, let it be known and clear to all that this is neither our goal nor our wish—because for us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.

Rubio may be absolutely sincere in his belief, but how does God view such statements?

God saw the horrible persecution, the invention of torturous instruments, the maiming of innocent believers, and the attempt to blot out dissenting religious beliefs. Many believe God saw these oppressions but did not act. But God did provide a safe haven for the persecuted in the New World—but this history has been forgotten.

As Mr. Armstrong explained in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, there is a reason for America’s uniqueness, and it has everything to do with God’s plan for mankind.

When Adam and Eve rejected God’s way of life, God closed off access to the tree of life. However, He worked with individuals like Abraham and promised that nations (plural) would descend from him. The tribes of Israel grew into a united nation that later separated into northern and southern kingdoms. The northern kingdom went into captivity and lost its identity.

However, as Mr. Armstrong explained, the punishment wasn’t permanent. God kept His promise to Abraham and gave his descendants a second chance. This led to the founding of the United States by the descendants of biblical Manasseh. Just as Manasseh was the 13th tribe of Israel, so America started with 13 states. But just as Manasseh of old eventually forgot its history with God, so has America forgotten the principles it was founded on.

God is extremely wrathful when people forget and reject the miracles He wrought for them.

To learn more, read our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy.