Let Freedom Ring!

Leviticus 25:10 NKJV

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.

America: Freedom’s Great Experiment

Today we celebrate the 245 Year Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1963, Abraham Lincoln regarded it as the origin of the United States, referring to it with the opening words, “Four score and seven years ago…”

Our Founding Fathers believed that true freedom was a gift from God to be upheld and protected. As a result, they established a system of government that established the greatest freedoms experienced by any nation in history.

The Declaration of Independence

June 7, 1776 Richard Henry Lee calls for a resolution by the Third Continental Congress stating that: “These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”

June 7-10, 1776 A debate over the resolution took place

June 11, 1776 A Declaration Committee was chosen.

Thomas Jefferson asked to write “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America.”

June 28, 1776 The document was received by Congress and a debate occurred over its wording.

July 2, 1776 Lee’s Resolution for Independence was adopted.

July 4, 1776 Copies of Jefferson’s edited declaration was presented to approximately 50 delegates in attendance.

Discussion took place behind closed doors.

68 changes were made

480 words were deleted from Jefferson’s edition.

Finally, delegates voted and it was unanimously adopted and the thirteen united Colonies were declared free and independent states.

1,000 copies were ordered for distribution for the next morning.

Before the meeting could be adjourned, George Washington sent a letter reporting the arrival of British troops in New York Harbor. Shocked, Congress hastily ordered supplies and reinforcements for the Continental Army. Plans were made to garrison key cities.

John Hancock adjourned the meeting.

Delegates hovered around copies of the edited Declaration to read and re-read the document they had created which would launch a nation already plunged into war by the British Crown.

The Declaration was signed that day only by John Hancock, the President of the Congress, and with his name only it was sent forth to the world. Later on August 2nd it was signed by all but one of the fifty-six signers, Matthew Thornton, who on taking his seat in November, asked and obtained the privilege of signing it. Several of those who signed it on the second of August were not present when it was adopted on July 4th, but approving of it, they signed it.

July 19, 1776 the Congress ordered the document to be engrossed as “The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America.” It was accordingly put on parchment, probably by Timothy Matlock of Philadelphia.

The Declaration of Independence (Read in its entirety)

The Colonists appealed to a higher Authority for their freedom: “The laws of nature and of nature’s God.”

Introduction: “When 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 Natures’ God entitles them, a descent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which compel them to the separation.”

The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God were discovered in two ways:

The physical laws of creation

The revealed laws in Scripture

Sir William Blackstone (English teacher of Common Law; 1732-1780): “Upon these two foundations, the law of Nature and the law of Revelation, depend all human law; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict them.”

Thomas Jefferson: “Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath?”

John Witherspoon [Signer of the Declaration of Independence]: “He is the best friend of American liberty who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion and who sets Himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind...God grant that in America true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable and that the unjust attempts to destroy the one, may in the issue tend to the support and establishment of both.” [Spoken in a sermon on May 17, 1776 before the Declaration was signed]

John Quincy Adams (Signer of the Declaration of Independence, 2nd President, called “The Father of the American Revolution) “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. From the day of the Declaration...they were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the Gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.”

Samuel Adams [Signer of the Declaration of Independence and American Revolutionist]: “I conceive we cannot better express ourselves than by humbly supplicating the Supreme Ruler of the world…that the confusions that are and have been among the nations may be overruled by the promoting and speedily bringing in the holy and happy period when the kingdoms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may be everywhere established.”

Foundational beliefs for obtaining and maintaining human freedom,

The Declaration of Independence begins with: “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” (Inalienable rights are those rights that are “incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred”[1]).

“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”(by virtue of the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God)

That ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL…”

All men: There are no exceptions among human beings.

Created: Supposes a Creator and His creation. This inferred the Biblical concept of man’s origin, design, function, and purpose as intended by God as Creator.

Created Equal: God created all human beings equal in value.

“That they are ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Man has certain unalienable rights that come from God which no man or government has the right to take away.

These rights include:

Life: The right to life. This is the fundamental right that only God who gives life has the right to take away.

Abortion: People who will take your life will take your liberties and properties too.

Liberty: The right to do what is right, i.e., freedom with responsibility.

Today’s concept of liberty is presented as the right to do whatever I want, where I want, whenever I want.

Pursuit of happiness: Personal ownership of land and property.

Confiscating property through legislation.

Stealing through excessive taxation without representation.

Enslaving through debt.

“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America…appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States…Absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown.”

The Framers appealed to the Supreme Judge for the injustices committed against them and for their stand for independence and liberty.

Liberty comes from God and not government

When the God of the Bible is removed, the liberties given by the God of the Bible will be lost.

Patrick Henry [original member of the Continental Congress]: “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 this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”

John Jay [Founding Father and first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court] “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. It is to be regretted, but so I believe the fact to be, that except the Bible there is not a true history in the world.”

Benjamin Franklin: “Have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. 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, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ‘except the Lord build the House they labor in vain that builds it.’ I firmly believe this: and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel. I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business…”

America (My Country, ‘Tis of Thee): Written in 1831 by Samuel Francis Smith. The melody used was that of the national anthem of the United Kingdom, “God Save the Queen”. It served as the de facto national anthem of the United States before the official adoption of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1931. (First and last verses)

My country, 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing; Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride, From ev'ry mountainside Let freedom ring! Our fathers' God to Thee, Author of liberty, To Thee we sing. Long may our land be bright, With freedom's holy light, Protect us by Thy might, Great God our King!

It is time to return to the Lord who has given us liberty

Galatians 5:1 NKJV

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

[1]Merriam-Webster, I. (2003). Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary. (Eleventh ed.). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc.