Two hundred
and thirty-six years ago, our nation
declared her independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Although there has been some dispute on the
actual date of separation, July 4th has been the date that has been
celebrated from the outset.
From that outset the American ‘Ideal’ has been to
preserve a nation of distinct states whose citizens are free from the tyranny
of government control. In fact, the
American Dream was to create a nation whose government protected the rights of
its citizens, rights endowed by the Creator, rights stated as life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
What is fascinating and informative about that famous
statement by our founding fathers is the clear acknowledgment of the Creator; not
simply the clear acknowledgment, but the explicit assertion that it is the
Creator God who has endowed, or graciously granted, these rights.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are all,
admittedly, relatively abstract ideas, concepts that can be subject to interpretation. However, when we consider that those who
wrote the statement attributed the endowment as coming from the Creator, it
seems logical, even essential, to defer to this same Creator for the correct
understanding of each stated idea.
Life
belongs to God. The Creator, who says,
“It is I who put to death and give life” is the Giver of life. He has given man, as His image bearer,
dominion over the created world. Even
as man exercises his divine commission to multiply, it is still God who opens
the womb, so that children are a gift of the Lord (Ps. 127). Government derives
from the Giver of life, therefore, the authority to protect the lives of her citizens
(Romans 13:1-7), from murder and evil against them.
One important application of government’s stewardship
of life is with respect to the unborn. It
is essential that our government allow God to define the starting point of a
life falling under its vested protection.
The Bible teaches that God fashions the unborn life in the mother’s womb
upon conception(Psalm 139:13), yet the fashioning of each human life is
according to a master plan that predates all time (Ephesians 2:10; Jeremiah 1:5).
Liberty
as the founders referenced, wasn’t the freedom of individual rights as our
society fancies it today, a selfish freedom in which ever man does what is
right in his own eyes. The founders
seemed most concerned about each individual citizen’s freedom from the tyranny
of a ruling class that enslaved, or harnessed the necks of the many to plow for
the benefit of the few holding the reigns of power.
It has often been noted as an oddity that the New
Testament writers did not focus their efforts on the abolition of the
institution of slavery. It is certainly
because they recognized that slavery was an outworking of man’s own slavery to sin,
and the sinful desire to selfishly use others for one’s own personal benefit
and enrichment. What the New Testament
community of believers did focus on, therefore, was liberating sinners from the
slavery to sin.
The liberty that the Creator is most concerned with is
liberty from the bondage of sin and condemnation. And God calls His people to live in such a tranquil
way that would foster a winsome attraction to the liberating Gospel of Jesus
Christ. Our Creator, who took on flesh,
came that men might know the truth and truly be set free. Liberty from the cruel master of sin, freedom
from the grievous weight of spiritual death and death eternal, is the liberty
that God has offered to all, and desires that His established human governments
would protect access unto.
Of these three proposed endowments in our nation’s
declaration, pursuit of happiness seems most subject to interpretation. Without the Creator’s voice, sinful
preferences will war for authenticity in being determinative. For instance, today happiness is … marrying
someone of the same gender, … dishonoring human covenants and contracts for personal
fulfillment or gain regardless of the cost to others, … the few pursuing
material goals and wealth at the expense of the many, having basic needs and
services supplied by virtue of citizenship rather than effort.
Here the voice of the Creator speaks clearly that the
path marking the pursuit of happiness is one paved by selflessness. What nation, foolishly intent on protecting
the ability of the individual to pursue selfish interests that are possibly,
even often, set in opposition to the personal benefit of others and the whole,
could ever hope to remain a unified whole?
God has blessed us with the best ideals that a nation
could be founded upon in a fallen world.
Yet it is incumbent upon our nation to allow God’s wisdom to also supply
the best answers for determining the interpretation of those ideals. Our country's declaration of independence
must represent a dependence upon God.
Thanks, Art. I like your comments on liberty.
ReplyDeleteHere's an editorial from the NY Times that discusses the downside of our current understanding of liberty: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/opinion/the-downside-of-liberty.html?_r=3&ref=opinion
I don't agree with (1) his worldview, (2) that the problems began in the 60's, or (3) all of his illustrations of greed.
But I think he's right (1)that we have misunderstood what liberty was truly meant to be and (2) that the secular voices on the right and the left are not as separate as we might assume.