Every July 4th patriotic Americans celebrate far more than the birthday of our nation. We also celebrate two revolutionary ideas embodied in the Declaration of Independence:
First, THE PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT: Our founding fathers believed that government has no right to exist except for the benefit of the subjects of that government. It was designed to be a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” not a “people of the government, by the government, and for the government.”
The second revolutionary idea, THE POWERS OF GOVERNMENT: Government has no powers except the powers given to it by the people. This idea is not supported and practiced in every country in our world.
The events that took place in Philadelphia on July 4th, 1776 were precipitated by a foolish king, an insensitive and greedy Parliament, and an arrogant aristocracy in our mother country which was heavily taxing the people in the American colonies to help finance a war in which they were not participating and in which they had no interest.
Benjamin Franklin proposed that a Continental Congress be convened to discuss the oppressive measures being imposed on the colonists. In 1774 this Congress was convened and a committee was appointed to study the matter. A second Congress was called for May, 1775. The members of this Congress were not rebels. They loved their mother country. Finally, on July 4th, 1776 the document was signed.
Who were these men who helped constitute our nation? They were definitely not scalawags and leftovers from the European continent. They were men of integrity and principle who risked everything they had, even their very lives, by signing this document. They said, “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor.” If the cause had failed, these fifty-seven men would have lost their property and possessions and their very lives as well. Their average age was 44. The youngest was 29. The oldest, Benjamin Franklin, was 70.
President Calvin Coolidge would say many years later: “The real origins and great outlines of our democracy were the result of the religious teachings of the previous period. The intellectual life of our forefathers centered on the meeting house or the church. They were a people who were under the influence of a great spiritual development and acquired a great moral power. No other theory is adequate to explain the Declaration of Independence. It is the product of the spiritual insight which the people had gained from the Bible.”
Independence, however, must be both declared and earned. There were wars to be fought and battles to be won: at Lexington, at Concord, at Bunker Hill, at Valley Forge, and at Yorktown. Blood, sweat, and tears were invested in their cause. Freedom can never be given as a gift and declared by lip service only; it must be earned! And it must be earned anew in every generation. After the Declaration of Independence was signed, someone asked Benjamin Franklin, “What kind of government do we have?” He replied, “We have a republic, if we can keep it.”
William Gladstone, the English historian, said, “The U.S.Constitution is the most remarkable word known in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect at a single stroke.” God has had His hand upon our nation. May it ever be “One Nation under God!” But the freedoms we enjoy are currently in jeopardy. New challenges face us. God is being deliberately and systematically pushed to the periphery in public life. Dark clouds are on the world’s horizon. Apathy and cynicism must be kept out of the driver’s seat. A renewed commitment to the principles that have made America great is needed. This begins with a renewed commitment to God.
Psalm 33:12 – “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
The Paper Pulpit 
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