By: Dale Weckbacher
Psalms 33:12
Blessed is the nation
whose God is the LORD,
NKJV
After I moved to Arizona with my family in the 60’s, I remember one of the television stations in the area signed off at night with a
slide showing the American flag and this passage from Psalm 33:12. This is foreign to many today because
television stations do not go off the air at night but are on 24 hours 7 days a
week. In addition, for a secular station
to cite a biblical passage would most likely offend some atheist who would file
a lawsuit with some court through the ACLU and force the station to take down
the offensive Bible verse. This,
unfortunately, is another example of how our culture has turned away from Godly
principles. The reason I consider this
an unfortunate circumstance is because it is a slap in the face to the Godly
principles that founded the United States as stated in the Declaration of
Independence.
This coming Monday is the Fourth of July, the day when
people in the United States celebrate the founding of the nation in 1776. The Declaration of Independence, passed by
the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 was a clear message to the British
Crown expressing the long-standing complaints of the Colonists against the
Crown and a declaration of their intention to secede from British rule. I find it ironic that on the eve of the 240th
anniversary of the founding of the United States, the people of Great Britton
have in essence made their own declaration of independence by voting to exit
the European Union. Some see this as the
citizens of the Crown finally waking up and possibly the beginning of a global
move to unseat political elitists. (1)
Please join me this Fourth of July in reading the
Declaration of Independence and reflect on the reason for the founding of the
United States. Here is a link to the document in case you do not have a copy handy. I especially want to encourage my fellow Citizens
to reflect on the Godly and empowering principles expressed in this historic
document such as,
1)
Rights come from God, not government – This is
expressed at the beginning of the document with the often-quoted statement, “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.” (2) By beginning with this foundation, the subsequent
list of grievances that are a usurpation of these God given rights is in
essence a statement that the British Crown was guilty of going against God in
how it governed its subjects.
2)
Government’s role is the securing of these
rights – The elitist crown in Great Britton ruled the colonies with an iron
fist and viewed itself as the purveyor of rights as it saw fit. However, as the Declaration continues it
says, “that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men.” (2) This simple, but powerful statement in essence
stripped the crown of its tyrannical rule over the colonists as the purveyor of
rights and called for a government that served its citizens by securing and
protecting their rights.
3)
Government derives its power from the people –
In the British Monarchy, one can only rise to King or Queen by being part of
the royal family. In other words, power
comes through birth and is then exercised over the people by ruling them as
subjects of the Crown. The authors of
the Declaration of Independence by declaring that, “Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” (2) represented
a radical statement and a real treasonous threat to the power of the British
Crown.
The remainder of the Declaration of Independence points out
that there comes a time when government oversteps its role of securer of the
citizens God given rights and begins to view itself as an all-powerful purveyor
of rights, resulting in tyranny. It then
goes on to list specific grievances the colonists had against the Crown.
After reading this document, we begin to see that the
present course of government in the United States, and many other parts of the
world is a path similar to the path taken by the British Crown against the
Colonists. Fortunately, however, unlike
the Colonists who had to resort to revolution to bring about needed changes, we
have the electoral process.
By voting to exit the European Union, The UK has peacefully
separated itself from the oppressive tyranny of the European Union. Likewise, in November, the United States has
an important Presidential Election where it can begin the process of dismantling
the oppressive progressive and liberal policies of onerous regulation and
confiscatory taxes. My prayer is that
the voters will vote in accordance with the principles of the founding of the
nation and not fall prey to the emotional fear mongering of progressives and
liberals whose only interest is continuing their tyrannical rule over citizens.
In the relatively short period of 240 years, the United
States has gone from a statement on a document to a world super power due to
the freedom of its citizens to function freely under their God given rights to
Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Unfortunately, decades of liberal progressive rule has threatened these
God given rights, which will lead to the decline of the United States. Let us not be the generation witnessing this
decline and instead be like the generation of our founders, the generation
bringing about the return to greatness of the United States through the restoration
of the God given rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness the
authors of the Declaration of Independence envisioned.
1. Goodwin, Michael. Britain's Vote For Freedom
Proves Power is With the People. www.nypost.com. [Online] The New York
Post, June 24, 2016. [Cited: June 26, 2016.]
http://nypost.com/2016/06/24/brexit-strengthens-global-effort-to-unseat-unresponsive-elites/.
2. ushistory.org.
The Declaration of Independence. www.ushistory.org. [Online]
Ushistory.org. [Cited: July 19, 2015.]
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