Complimentary Story
Summer 2025America celebrates Independence Day on the Fourth of July. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.
But July 4, 1776 wasn’t the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence. That happened July 2, 1776.
Nor was it the day we started the American Revolution. That occurred in 1775.
Nor was it the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. That was in June 1776.
Nor was it the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain. That didn’t happen until later in 1776.
Nor was it the date the Declaration was signed. That was August 2, 1776.
So, what did happen on July 4, 1776?
It was on July 4th that the Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence. They’d been working on it for a couple of days after the hard-worked draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed July 4th on all of the edits and changes.
July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy now on display was signed in August. So, when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.
In 1776, those living in the colonies were outraged at the control that England held over them. This Declaration laid out carefully their grievances and reasons for breaking away from Great Britain.
In all, there were fifty-six signers who were representatives from the thirteen colonies. Their ages ranged from 26 (Edward Rutledge) to 70 (Benjamin Franklin), but the majority were in their thirties and forties. Together they mutually pledged their Lives, their Fortunes and their Sacred Honor. They were mostly well-off men who had much to lose if the war was lost. Nearly all of them were poorer at the end of the war than at the beginning.
A Constitution and Bill of Rights were later drafted providing us the framework for the freedoms we treasure today.
America, at its birth, acknowledged and reverenced God. Leaders were not ashamed to honor God in political bodies, in the nation’s schools, in textbooks, in print media, in churches, and in their homes. Allegiance to God was naturally assumed. With all of this blessing it should shame us that we have gotten far off course in the relatively short time that we’ve been a nation.
Psalm 33:12, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”
Our nation is blessed. We are a land of plenty, rich in minerals and natural resources, farmland and produce. We have advanced technology, comfortable living and a system of government than none can rival. We are blessed with freedoms that others in the world can only dream.
Our nation was less than 100 years old when the Civil War ensued. On March 30, 1863 Abraham Lincoln included Psalm 33:12 in a Proclamation appointing a “National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer.” In it he warned,
“But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
“It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
It was 121 years later, on August 23, 1984, when President Ronald Reagan spoke at a Dallas Prayer Breakfast. He said, “Without God, there is no virtue, because there is no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we’re mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what our senses can perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under!”
Today we once again display the marks of a nation that has forgotten God. Our national leaders are at hostile odds with each another, at odds with morality, at odds with our Constitutional Republic and at odds with the rule of law. Before we point fingers, let us remember that it is “we the people” who have placed them into office.
As a nation, we have drifted from God’s Word. We have killed nearly 67 million babies in the name of “choice.” Our country has distorted the biblical definition of marriage, male and female. Sin, lawlessness and rebellion are on full display. Many churches struggle to stay together. Sadly Romans 1:18-32 describes our nation today.
Not only is there a downward slide in morals and values, but also our society has a growing hate and intolerance toward Christianity, morality, decency and respect.
It is the direction of the people that determine the course of the nation. It is up to believers to humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways. National forgiveness can only come by national repentance.
Our nation has turned its back on God, and must turn to Him. But rather than indict others, we must look internally. Are we living our lives in such a way that brings honor to the Lord or do we bring shame to His name? It is necessary for us as individuals, as families, as churches, and as a nation to return to God!
Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”
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