Pray for Independence on Independence Day

We don’t celebrate the 4th of July on July 4th. We celebrate Independence Day. Our Founding Fathers, having grown weary of their subjected status, tossed the shackles of tyranny and declared independence from the British crown. Ultimately they established a government wherein people are largely independent of both their fellow man and their government.

This presents a quandary for the human spirit. While mankind naturally desires freedom, we are a somewhat dependent creature. Therefore, independence from man and government demands a substitute, a dependence on a higher authority. That authority is our preeminent Creator, as recognized in our glorious founding document, the Declaration of Independence.

Only when our reliance rests on God can we be fully free of mankind’s oppression and government tyranny.

The Founding Fathers certainly didn’t intend to create a Christian theocracy. That idea doesn’t even make sense. Christianity is a personal commitment to faith, a relationship with Christ. Therefore authentic Christianity cannot be spread through force, coercion, or other manipulative method. In fact, any faith or religious practice that can spread in these ways is, at best, weak and meaningless.

There is a difference between America being a Christian theocracy and being a Christian nation. There is no law through which Americans are compelled to become Christian, neither today nor in our infancy. There’s also no law through which Americans are prevented from being Christians, at least not yet.

However, it is true that our nation was founded upon Christian morality by men who received guidance predominantly from the Christian faith. It is, therefore, not only legitimate for Christians to influence our society, it is imperative.

Whenever people, individually or collectively, abandon their dependence on their Heavenly Father they will naturally substitute for that dependency. Government or humanism (man-made morality) is more than ready to fill that void. The liberty we once enjoyed quickly succumbs to the tyranny of man, which usually manifests in larger and more oppressive government.

That doesn’t mean that all government is a substitute for God or that government is altogether unnecessary. Certainly a government of just laws enacted for the purpose of protecting liberty is based on sound doctrine. Rules that expose and restrain the invader and plunderer are essential to liberty. Such rules, ironically, are found throughout the Pentateuch.

Just as human liberties are self-evident, as our Founders knew so well, independence is also self-evident. Somehow we’ve lost sight of that conviction. We’ve shunned our dependence on our Heavenly Father in favor of dependence on man-made institutions, such as government programs in various forms.

We’re unquestionably witnessing the result of our dependence in the decline of the family unit, increased government bureaucracies that usurp the natural role of the charitable church and sundry welfare programs--both personal and corporate. We cannot remain a free people under these circumstances. We can only retain the delusion of freedom, wherein liberty exists in our mind but not in reality.

Isn’t it time we recaptured our Founding Fathers’ visionary spirit? Let’s embrace liberty once more. And let us forever acknowledge the source of our freedom. Liberty is the inalienable desire of the human spirit, engraved eternally on our hearts by the hand of the Heavenly Creator.

Without regard to contemporary historical revisionism, our Founding Fathers recognized God’s hand in freedom’s establishment. They discussed and debated the concept in their parlors, town halls, taverns and yes, even their churches. The voice of liberty should again ring in those churches.

Let liberty be rekindled in dependence on the Sovereign and Almighty God. And on Independence Day let’s fill our churches with a prayerful spirit. Let’s show America that God’s people are serious about reclaiming our dwindling birthright.