By: Dale Weckbacher
1 Corinthians 8:6
yet for us there is
one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
NKJV
1 Corinthians 8:6 sums up the creed of Christianity. The word creed comes from the Latin word
credo and means I believe. This passage
sums up the Christian belief in one God, the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ,
Gods only Son. All things are from God and
through His Son Jesus Christ we have eternal life.
This week we will be celebrating Independence Day in the
United States. It is the day when the
founders of the United States declared their independence from the British
crown. The creed of their declaration is
found in the Declaration of Independence.
Let us take a moment to see what the creed of our nation is for when we
do, we will see how far our nation has strayed from the initial creed of its
founders.
The second paragraph of the Declaration summarizes the creed
of the nation much as the above verse summarizes the creed of Christianity and
says the following:
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)
The first statement of the creed states that all men are
created equal. In spite of what some
liberals might believe today, the founders of our nation did believe in
equality. However, their equality was equality
at creation. Their belief was that in
the eyes of the creator every human being was equal at creation. However, they were not stating a belief in
equal outcomes as liberals today do. The
founders belief is biblically based for Jesus himself said,
Matthew 26:11-12
11 For you have the
poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. 12 For in pouring this fragrant oil on My
body, she did it for My burial.
NKJV
With this statement, Jesus was declaring that Income
inequality is a fact. This does not mean
we are not to help the poor but does tell us that no matter what we do to try to
bring about equality of income, there will always be income inequality.
Perhaps one of the reasons for the fact of income inequality
is found in the Parable of the Talents found in Matthew 25:14-29. In this parable, we see that some individuals
use their talents and they expand and grow whereas some hide their talents and
end up losing them. God grants us all
talents when He creates us but inequality occurs because of how people either
use, or fail to use their God given talents.
The founders of the United States understood this and is why
in the Declaration stated their belief that all men are created equal. Their idea of equality for the nation was
that it be a place where people could develop their God given talents and
succeed. The founders would have also
rejected the idea of classes in the country such as the middle class. In their eyes, there was but one class of
people in the nation and where someone ended up economically was dependent upon
how they used the opportunities offered them through our free society.
The creed in the Declaration then goes on to tell us that
the founders believed rights were from the creator and unalienable. However, if one does not believe in a
creator, they must seek another source for the granting of their rights. Faced with this dilemma, many today turn to government
as the purveyor of their rights.
However, leadership in government is subject to change each
election so if one believes government grants them their rights they end up
riding the political rollercoaster from leadership more than happy to grant
them what they feel they are entitled to into leadership unsympathetic to their
sense of entitlement. Is it any wonder
many atheist liberals despise elections for each election means they may lose
their rights and with them some of their entitlements. This also explains their disdain for
conservatives for they view them as the ones against a government big enough to
grant them the entitlements they believe they have a right to. However, when we believe our rights are from
God who never changes, we can have stability in our lives.
Finally, the creed of the Declaration mentions what these
inalienable rights are, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. Those placing their trust in
a government that changes each election constantly live under the threat that
the next change in leadership threatens their basic rights. Is it any wonder there is so much
unhappiness, misery, and anger in our world?
The founders envisioned a new country where individuals
could live their lives enjoying the God given right to life liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. This is why they
formed a representative republic government with limited powers distributed
among three co-equal branches of government.
Unfortunately, many in government today, especially President Obama have
overstepped their Constitutional bounds.
However, there is still hope for our republic as evidenced by the unanimous
Supreme Court decision this week that threw out Obama’s recess
appointments (2)
As we celebrate Independence Day this week, let us take a
moment to read the Declaration of Independence and reflect on what it
says. Let us reflect on the fact that it
is God and not some government run by imperfect humans that grants us our
rights. Let us reflect on the fact that
the government is not the purveyor of our rights but the protector of our God
given rights. When we place government
in its proper perspective and seek our life, liberty, and happiness from God,
we will find it and be able to live lives filled with the liberty that can only
come from a relationship with God. For
as it says in 2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
(NKJV) Happy Independence Day
everyone.
1. Hillsdale College. The Declaration of
Independance. The U.S. Constitution: A reader. Hillsdale Michigan :
Hillsdale College Press, 2012.
2. Wolf, Richard.
High court rules against Obama on recess appointments. www.usatoday.com. [Online]
USA Today, June 26, 2014. [Cited: July 1, 2014.] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/26/supreme-court-obama-senate-appointments/8528059/.
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