Posted on 07/02/2008 7:39:31 AM PDT by LikeLight
What does it mean to be an American? What does our nation really stand for? Why, even though some people around the world claim to hate us, are we still the place where so many from so many other places dream of living?
There’s no doubt that God has blessed the United States of America in an awesome way, and that he continues to do so. But with so much anti-Christian spin dominating our secular media and educational institutions, many Americans today might not realize that the U.S.A. was founded by men who unashamedly relied on God for his wisdom and protection.
So during this season when we celebrate our national Independence Day, let’s stop and re-examine our nation’s foundation, and let’s remember to thank God for allowing us to rise up and stand for freedom for more than two centuries.
As a lawyer, when I do research, I like to go back to the original sources whenever I can. In that spirit, let’s take a look at a few key phrases from the document that started it all, our American Declaration of Independence. These phrases might help explain why God has seen fit to bless our country for so many years!
This one is familiar to most of us: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Isn’t it interesting that, from the very beginning, our founding fathers humbly recognized God as the source of our rights?
Now, here’s a less well-known passage from the Declaration: “We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in general congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” Isn’t that an amazing plea? Our founders were prayerfully begging God to keep us on the right path, to keep our intentions for this nation pure!
And here’s one more, the final words of the Declaration: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” So from the very beginning, we intentionally entrusted this nation into God’s hands, relying by faith in his protection and guidance!
And that faithful spirit embodied in the Declaration of Independence was carried by the founders into our national Constitution as well, where our religious freedom was specifically and carefully singled out for special protection. The First Amendment to the Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Many times we take our American rights to religious freedom for granted. But our rights to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ are something we should never take lightly. These rights to freely exercise our religion, these rights to freely speak about our religion on the public airwaves, these rights to freely publish our religious thoughts in a column like this, these are precious rights which thousands of heroic Americans have literally given their lives to protect for us. These rights to religious freedom are truly a sacred trust.
But in this “post-Christian era” in America, we find these rights (and the very spirit in which they were declared) under attack. And I wonder if we realize how fragile these freedoms are. In Canada, courts have already ruled parts of the Bible as illegal “hate speech” and, considering the trends in our society, I can realistically envision the day when the same thing happens here in the U.S.A. as well. The Bible contains truth and our secular mainstream culture often doesn’t want to be reminded of truth.
So perhaps, as we celebrate Independence Day this year, the prayer on our lips could echo the faithful spirit of our founding fathers: “With a firm reliance on your protection God, we pray for the U.S.A.”
Thanks for the links!
4th of July thread bump...
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