By: Dale Weckbacher
Joshua 24:15
And if it seems evil
to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the
River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and
my house, we will serve the LORD."
NKJV
When first commissioned by God to lead the nation of Israel
into the Promised Land, Joshua was told to be strong and courageous (Joshua1:7). With the definitive statement of
Joshua 24:15, he is telling us that the source of his courage is not his own
abilities but his decision to serve the Lord.
Often, however, our modern society today conditions people to depend on
big government and not God. The issue at
stake here is not just one of faith or religion but one of trust.
The U.S. Declaration of Independence states 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.—That to secure these rights,
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect
their Safety and Happiness. (1)
Many quickly gravitate to the right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness looking to government to provide these
rights. In fact, many even believe this
statement comes from the Constitution. However,
as with any statement contained in a document whose authors are no longer
alive, we must take the words in their context in order to understand the
intent of the authors. The context of
these words in the Declaration is,
1)
All men are created equal and that the rights to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come from the creator. Granted, the authors do not specifically say
God is the creator, they are saying, however, that men like themselves are not
the ones empowered grant citizens their rights.
2)
Governments are instituted among men and derive
their power from the consent of the governed and not the ambitions of power
hungry politicians. In other words, the
citizens elect representatives to govern them, not to grant them the right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but to serve the citizens by
protecting these rights.
3)
When government threatens to destroy the rights
of citizens, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish this destructive
government as a means of protecting the God given right to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.
Since the Revolutionary War, the citizens of the United
States have not had to resort to the extreme of abolishment of government and
have been able to stop threats to the rights of citizen by government through
alteration. Citizens have accomplished
this alteration process through the elections and the addition of amendments to
the Constitution. It is my deepest hope
that the threats to the rights of citizens by the current government can be
addressed through alteration back to the original intent of the founders of the
nation and abolishment will never become necessary.
To help insure abolishment does not become necessary, we as
citizens must.
1)
Vote – Even though at times it seems our vote is
meaningless because elected representatives take office and become corrupted by
power, forgetting why voters elected them, we must still vote and then demand
those we elect fulfill their campaign promises.
Those who fail to fulfil their campaign promises must be replaced as
voters vote again for their replacements in the next election.
2)
Support the Article 5 convention of States – Many
erroneously believe that the convention of States mentioned in article 5 of the
U.S. Constitution (2)
is a call for a constitutional convention to abolish the U.S.
Constitution. However, article 5 is not
an act of abolishment of the current constitution but another means of
alteration when it becomes evident the current government has become too big
and bloated to alter itself.
The preamble to the U.S. Constitution says the following,
We the
People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish
Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote
the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of
America.
Once again, we must take this in the context
of what these same individuals wrote in the Declaration of Independence, the
belief that government is answerable to the citizens and not to become some
all-powerful entity granting citizens their rights. This is why they stated their goal was to
form a more perfect union and not a perfect one, which could only be done by
God himself. This is why the government
formed out of the constitutional convention in Philadelphia was one with
limited divided power and a system of checks and balances to stop those
attempting to form a tyrannical state. (3)
However, through the years of U.S. history,
the lines of division in the branches of government and the system of checks
and balances in Washington DC have been eroded.
This is an example of why we should not place our trust in government to
solve our problems and must instead place our trust in God our creator as
Joshua did in Joshua 24:15.
This election we as voters once again have
the opportunity to alter the direction of our government. Let us support candidates who favor altering
the direction of the country back to what its founders envisioned, a limited
government with the role of protecting the basic rights to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness and away from an all-powerful tyrannical government
that threatens these basic rights of citizens.
Let us also support the article 5 convention of states as a means of
building firewalls to stop any future ventures towards tyranny.
1. ushistory.org. The Declaration of
Independence. www.ushistory.org. [Online] Ushistory.org. [Cited: July
19, 2015.] www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm.
2. Legal Information
Institute. U.S. Constitution. www.law.cornell.edu/constitution. [Online]
Cornell University Law School. [Cited: June 19 2012.] www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm.
3. National Center
for Constitutional Studies. Checks And Balances: The Constitutional
Structure For Limited and Balanced Government. www.nccs.net. [Online]
National Center for Constitutional Studies. [Cited: December 12, 2014.]
http://www.nccs.net/checks-balances-limited-and-balanced-government.php.
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