07/05/2021
I originally wrote this article for a local newspaper where we used to live. I have shared it before but I share it again because it is needed in this day.
INDEPENDENCE DAY
The Declaration of Independence reads in part, “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.” 1
On July 4th we celebrate the independence of the Colonies from England. Jon Adams said it was an independence that came at the expense of the peoples “toil and blood and treasure.” In a letter to his wife Abigail, Jon Adams made the following statement about the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.”2
The unalienable Rights, with which God endowed this country, cannot be fully acknowledged if the country does not acknowledge the God that gave them. The Colonies desired to be independent from a man that was a tyrant, and they put their hope in God. Today, God is considered to be a tyrant and individuals are putting their hope in man. Ben Franklin said, “We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that "except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it." The only hope for this country is to realize the only path of blessing for a man or a nation is found in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.
The foundation for true “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is grounded in Jesus’ statement about Himself in John 14:6. He said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” In this verse we see that apart from Him there is no Life because He is “the Life.” Apart from Him there is no Liberty because He is “the Truth” that sets people free. Apart from Him there is no direction for the pursuit of happiness because He alone is “the Way.”
Jon Adams stated the appropriate way to appreciate the “toil, blood and treasure” spent by our nation’s founders and also by the brave men and women of our armed forces, is to commemorate it, “as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty.” The act of devotion to God that will be most beneficial for the nation is one in which a person trusts Jesus as their Savior. This alone will result in a true day of deliverance.
1. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/ Wednesday, July 01, 2015 /
2. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 3 July 1776, "Had a Declaration..." [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to t...
