DEPENDING ON GOD ON INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Growing up in America, today was always a big celebration with friends and family as we looked with great expectation to nightfall so we could light fireworks in front of our home. It is Independence Day as we Americans celebrate our freedom as a nation. However, we must acknowledge that the great majority of our founding fathers were passionate followers of Jesus Christ who believed the Bible and depended on God. Did you know that 52 of the 55 signers of The Declaration of Independence were orthodox, deeply committed, Christians? The other three all believed in the Bible as the divine truth, the God of scripture, and His personal intervention. It is the same Congress that formed the American Bible Society that immediately after creating the Declaration of Independence that voted to purchase and import 20,000 copies of Scripture for the people of this nation. Patrick Henry, who is called the firebrand of the American Revolution, is still remembered for his words, "Give me liberty or give me death", but in current textbooks, the context of these words is omitted. Here is what he actually said: "An appeal to arms and the God of hosts is all that is left us. But we shall not fight our battle alone. There is a just God that presides over the destinies of nations. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death." These sentences have been erased from our textbooks. Was Patrick Henry a Christian? The following year, 1776, he wrote this: "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 that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here." And consider these words that Thomas Jefferson wrote in the front of his well-worn Bible: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator." He was also the chairman of the American Bible Society, which he considered his highest and most important role. Today, as a missionary in Berlin, I continually talk to people who consider themselves atheists and do not believe in God. So after telling them about Jesus, I encourage them to ask God if He is real and who is this Jesus. True freedom, something we all want and enjoy only comes through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus, who says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me."