A Declaration of Dependence

The United States of America just celebrated its 233rd birthday. Imagine what kind of world we would live in today if there had never been a USA. There would have been no one to turn back the Nazis and their allies in World War II. There would have been no one to stand up against the tyranny of communism over the years. There would have been no one to stand up for the small nations that are unable to help themselves, not to mention the billions of dollars that has been sent out in foreign aid.

From our nation's foundation, we have learned what right and wrong are. We have been raised, at least in our very origins as a country, to believe there is a God who guides the affairs of man, and there is a responsibility that comes with the bounty given to us. We are a country that was clearly founded on the teachings of one book, and that book is the Bible.

Of course, some would say that I am wrong, that we are a pluralistic society and these origins are not as I have explained them. But all revisionism aside, if you honestly look at history, you will see that our founding fathers had a firm belief in the words of the Bible.

Thomas Jefferson said, "The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty ... ." George Washington concluded, "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." And Andrew Jackson said the Bible is "the rock on which our republic rests."

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As my friend Chuck Smith has pointed out, sometimes we forget that the Declaration of Independence — independence from foreign tyranny — also declared our dependence on an eternal God. These words close out the Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of divine providence: "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." Yes, it is a Declaration of Independence, but it is also a declaration of dependence on God.

We rightly sing, "America! America! God shed His grace on thee." He certainly has blessed us.

Inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty are these words: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of the teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

There is no other country on Earth that people flock to like the United States of America. They have come from all around the world. There are no walls that force its people to stay in. They are free to leave if they want to. It is the American Dream, and it is alive and well. Every day it is proven that people can come from other cultures and other countries and live this dream through hard work and diligence. It is an amazing thing.

Our Declaration of Independence states, among other things, that we have the right to pursue happiness. But are we a happy people? Where do you think Americans are today in terms of personal happiness?

A news reporter asked someone on the street, "Do you know what the two greatest problems in America are?"

The person responded, "I don't know, and I don't care."

The reporter said, "Then you have both of them." That is the problem: many of us don't know, and many of us don't care.

On the Jefferson Memorial are these words from Thomas Jefferson: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever."

Whenever there is an outbreak of violence somewhere in our nation, people scratch their heads and wonder why. The media interview the so-called experts who offer their opinions. Meanwhile, the Bible offers its own assessment of the problems of man. It doesn't say we are all victims, as some would assert. It doesn't say we all have diseases, as others would tell us. It doesn't say that we are merely dysfunctional. It says that the heart is desperately wicked (see Jeremiah 17:9). We have sin inside of us. That is why we do the things that we do.

Because of this, we need to realize that no politician is going to save us. No act of Congress will turn America around again. The answer to our nation's problems is not political; it is spiritual. We need to turn back to God, because although we have forgotten him, he has not forgotten us.

A study was done of the world's great civilizations. It looked at various nations that have come into prominence and then disappeared into obscurity. It noted that every nation has an average cycle of 200 years, and each one of the nations went through the following sequence: from spiritual faith to great courage, from great courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, and from dependency back to bondage.

We need to get back to God. We need to get back to the God who sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sin. We need to get back to the true and living God who can save America.