Observations©
By Donald S. Conkey
On Monday, July 4th, America will celebrate the 235th anniversary of the signing of America’s Declaration of Independence, a document that literally changed the world. It broke the shackles of tyranny that then governed the world.
On July 4, 1776 America’s Founding Fathers planted America’s ‘Tree of Liberty,’ a tree that soon took root in the fertile hearts of the patriots of that day. That tree nearly died in its infancy but it survived because it was nurtured and watched over by the Founder’s “Creator” and “Supreme Judge of the world,” and it was watered with the prayers and blood of Patriots who believed then, as they do today, that there is something more precious than life itself, personal freedom. Freedom is something mankind has fought for since before the foundation of the world where evil, personified as Satan, lost that war in heaven and was cast down to earth. (Rev 12) And wars and rumors of wars have been ongoing ever since, and will continue until He returns and chains down Satan.
Life without personal freedom is slavery and today that war for freedom continues. There is still a shooting war going on in the Middle East, and in other parts of the world, but here in America there is a war over ideologies going on. This war is a war between those, often the elite, who would give government total control over the lives of ‘their subjects’ and; “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people” where government encourages individual initiative with limited government controls.
As America’s ‘Tree of Liberty’ began to grow it sent up branches that would soon become strong, branches that were needed to sustain a fast growing ‘Tree of Liberty.’ The first branch to form was a unique Constitution that placed the powers of governing in the hands of ‘We the people’ and separated the powers of government among three branches of equal authority, the legislative, the executive and the judicial. A second branch soon took form, a branch where the personal freedoms of ‘the people’ were protected from the government. This branch on America’s ‘Tree of Liberty’ became known as America’s Bill of Rights. As this tree, with its two formative branches continued to grow the blossoms of freedom began to send their sweet aroma into the atmosphere. Soon this aroma of freedom began to drift across the deep waters dividing America from its mother lands and there the people began to smell this sweet aroma of liberty and began desired it for themselves.
But Satan, who had been cast out of heaven “to the earth,” began to note his kingdom on earth was being ‘transformed’ to a land of freedom and strove to find ways to destroy America’s fruitful ‘Tree of Liberty.’ As in that war in heaven where Satan’s followers made up a third of the hosts of heaven so too on earth Satan has many followers and he began to stir them up. To destroy this growing ‘Tree of Liberty,’ which was founded on the doctrines of liberty the Founders found in the Bible, he had to find ways to discredit the Bible and to destroy the principles of “peoples law” established by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Satan, subtle in his efforts, finds and uses individuals, often well educated, who love self, self glory and power more than they love freedom and uses them to discredit the biblical doctrines of liberty by having them teach the philosophies of man, usually liberally sprinkled with the compassionate teachings of the scriptures or by using those scriptures believers are not united on to create a divide among them. In his final assault on the Bible he uses the Constitution itself to create the division among the people. To destroy the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, he used mankind’s greed and pride to divide the people. The principle used most effectively by his followers is today called social justice, especially as established by man’s philosophies.
As America struggles with its inner war to preserve its freedoms it needs to be reminded that when the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt anciently it was prayer that caused Jehovah to send Moses to their rescue – and it will be prayer today, by freedom loving Americans, that will cause Him to send help in America’s day of need.
Enjoy the 4th – then offer a prayer of gratitude for God’s help in planting America’s ‘Tree of Liberty’ on July 4, 1776.
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