Without question, Americans are never more dialed into the
subject of freedom than on the Fourth of July. We talk about it, sing about it, consume mass quantities of food to
commemorate it, and, as a nation, hit the collective pause button to celebrate
one of our greatest attributes. We are free…and we want the whole world
to know it. Accompanied with fireworks,
parades, big concert events, and as much noise as we can generate, we pound our
national chest, so to speak, and declare to the global community that we are
different.
Most of us can tick off rather quickly a laundry list of
freedoms we enjoy, including speech, religion, assembly, the right to keep and
bear arms, a free press, etc. Not a bad
starter kit for any nation. Ours is the land of opportunity, we say. And once again we affirm our right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
But what is it that makes us
free, and more importantly, what will keep
us free? Many would argue that the
foundational tenets that helped construct such a nation are no longer commonly
shared. They would contend that the gap grows greater between the original
vision of our forefathers and what we have become: an emerging society of
individualists with an ever—increasing demand for personal rights. We the people has become Me the person.
Many of the statesmen who were “in on the ground floor”
believed freedom to be God-given and that an acknowledgement of this fact was
critical to our nation’s survival. Those “voices” are now being drowned out by
cries for personal liberty at any cost, devoid of any absolute moorings.
Listen to just a few of those early patriots:
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great
nation was founded
not by
religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
For that
reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship
here.
Patrick Henry
________________________________________
God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation
be thought secure when we have removed
their only firm basis,
a conviction in the minds of the people that these
liberties are of the Gift of God?
That
they are not to be violated but with His wrath?
Indeed, I tremble for my
country when I reflect that God is just;
that His justice
cannot sleep forever.
Thomas Jefferson
________________________________________
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization,
not upon the
power of government, far
from it.
We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our
capacity…
to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
James Madison
__________________________________________
God governs in the affairs of man.
And if a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without his notice,
is it probable that an empire
can rise without His aid?
We have been assured in the Sacred Writings
that except the Lord build the
house, they labor in vain that build it.
I firmly believe this. I also believe
that, without His concurring aid,
we shall succeed in this political building no better than
the builders of Babel.
Benjamin Franklin
__________________________________________
The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that
disregards
the eternal rules of order and
right which Heaven itself has ordained.
George Washington
________________________________________
We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be
obedient.
He
reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom
come.
Samuel Adams (at the signing of the
Declaration of Independence)
________________________________________
We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!
John Adams and John Hancock, Founding Fathers
________________________________________
The laws of nature are the laws of God,
whose authority can be superseded
by no power on earth.
George Mason
________________________________________
The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion,
never
invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world
than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at
schools.
Benjamin Rush,
Signer of the Declaration of Independence
For all their careful engineering of a lasting union, it is
clear that these architects, at
least, could not conceive of such liberty apart from that nation being under God.
For anyone wishing to challenge this, merely consider the
inscriptions on many public buildings and government institutions dating back
to the country’s beginnings. References
to the Bible—Old and New Testament—abound.
And yet some examples of such scripture usage are taken clearly out of
context. It reminds me of a church in
the Midwest which had scriptures over the entrances to its many
departments. Strangely enough, over the
doors of the nursery, they had chosen 1 Corinthians 15:51—“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
Years ago while attending college in Austin, Texas, I
noticed a Bible quote from the gospel of John on the main building and clock
tower of the University of Texas. It
said simply, “YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.” My initial reaction was, “cool, a Bible
passage on a state university building.”
But it only took me a moment to realize that it had been lifted significantly out of context to imply
that knowledge, learning, education—that
kind of truth—was the key to freedom. In
fact, the verse that was quoted was from John 8:32.
The passage actually begins with the word then.
Then ye shall know the
truth… Dropping the word then was not a small detail. Usually, a phrase beginning with the word then is preceded by a condition, starting with a word like if or when. And in this case the if is a biggie. Verse 31 of John reads: “If you continue in my Word (or hold to my teaching), you are my
disciples indeed. It is followed by the
famous [then] “you will know the
truth and the truth will make you free.”
Four verses later, Jesus makes another audacious statement.
“If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” Free indeed?
This would suggest a type of freedom
which isn’t real freedom. How can He
make such a statement? The answer is
simple. He is not just a truth-talker. He is
truth. Later in John’s gospel, Jesus
made this claim: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the
Father except through me.” What is He
saying? Jesus=Truth=True Freedom. We have two choices:
Receive Him. Trust Him.
Follow Him. Know freedom.
Reject Him. Trust yourself. Follow anyone else. No
freedom.
Those responsible for inscribing a verse from John’s gospel
over the entrance of a public university chose to omit other key verses which
would make its meaning clear. Maybe they
had a limited budget and could only afford so many letters. Maybe there wasn’t enough space for more
verses. Or maybe they chose to take
advantage of a respected holy book to add weight to their own ideology, and
purposefully left out what the one being quoted really meant to say? Think about it. What is more audacious than to selectively choose what part of a
particular quote we will use simply to perpetuate our own philosophy? If we are to be a free people, free to think
and free to choose, shouldn’t we at least start with the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth?
This fourth of July, let us gratefully acknowledge once
again the rare privileges and freedoms we enjoy as Americans. Let us resolve to leave this great country a
better place upon our departing. But let us resist any movement to rewrite our
history to make it more closely resemble our current definition of freedom. The Truth, indeed, will make us free.” Nothing but the Truth. And you know His name.
tad
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