Has Independence Day Become Irrelevant?
New Year’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve Day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve Day.
These holidays are all known by their names not their dates but yet Independence Day is 99% of the time referred to as 4th of July. Why? Is it because we have forgotten the sacrifices, hardships and personal consequences our founding fathers faced? Many of them were wanted in England for treason. Many of these people actually fought in the Revolutionary War. 59 men put their lives in severe jeopardy by signing the Declaration of Independence. They believed in this document, they believed and relied on their countrymen and women. Colonists that believed in the freedom from England were tortured, murdered, kidnapped. Many risked their lives as spies to help the colonists.
Today Independence Day has for all intents and purposes has become a holiday for barbecues, family get togethers, fire works to name a few. These are not bad things. What is bad is we don’t remember the why for Independence Day.
Our culture today, eggs on by mainstream media, state that our country was not founded on Christian beliefs. Incorrect. The majority of the signers of the Declaration professed Christian beliefs. The first line of the Declaration states: 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.” The last line of the Declaration states: AND FOR THE SUPPORT OF THIS DECLARION, WITH A FIRM RELIANCE ON THE PROTECTION OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE, WE MUTUALLY PLEDGE TO EACH OTHER OUR LIVES, OUR FORTUNES AND OUR SACRED HONOR”.
For people who have read and follow the Bible, we realize that many of our basic laws are based on the 10 commandments, i.e. thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery (grounds for divorce in many states); thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Sound familiar?
There were 27 reasons our founding fathers stated in the Declaration. Among them are dissolved the colonies representative houses for being firmly against the king’s invasions on the rights of the colonists. Taxing the colonists without their consent. Depriving many of its citizens of the benefits of trial by jury. The king plundered the seas, ravaged the colonies coasts, burned their towns and destroyed the lives of all the people in the colonies.
Men and women, and even children, gave their lives so that we have the freedoms we enjoy today. We would be wise to remember those who fought to give us those freedoms. We would be wise to remember that God continues to bless us today with these freedoms.