July 2, 1776—The Continental Congress declares the independence of the United States of America.
July 4, 1776—The final wording of the Declaration of Independence is agreed upon by the Congress.
July 8, 1776—The newly printed Declaration of Independence is read publicly in cities and towns across the new nation.
It took another seven years of toil and agony to realize that Declaration’s premise: the United States, with inalienable rights given by God, took its place among the other nations of the world without British disagreement.
Some of our first steps were stumbling—the Articles of Confederation, making the new government work under the Constitution, setting precedents for the future—yet we managed to establish that government and even make the first transition to the predominance of a different political party in 1800 without bloodshed. We were on our way.
I’ve always been an apologist for America in what I hope is the right and proper way, not ignoring the blemishes and sins, yet seeing the overall picture as positive. I attribute most of that success to a basic Biblical worldview that continued to hold sway even until the onset of the twentieth century. After that, we began to suffer from some serious theological/philosophical drift, and we’ve paid the penalty for doing so. Yet, despite that drift, there remains a Biblical thread running through our culture. Some would like to erase it; others have taken up the gauntlet to protect and advance it. Our future hangs in the balance.
Unfortunately, our once sturdy sense of independence (from government, not God) has reversed itself to an alarming degree:
Let’s take this day to contemplate what the Founders sought to achieve and dedicate ourselves to the re-establishment of the right and proper kind of independence that depends on God alone.
