Observations©
By
Donald S. Conkey
Date: July 3, 2008 - # 8827 - Title: Independence Day Celebration (837)
What
better time than on the 232nd anniversary of America’s birth, tomorrow, than to evaluate the document that is as much a part of America, maybe more so than apple pie and ice cream – America’s Declaration of Independence? When was the last time you read it? Did you ponder its depth
of freedom and its spiritual foundation when you read it? If not perhaps you should read it again.
After you read it did you understand why it is the foundational document of the United
States of America?
There may be others more qualified to evaluate this document but no one can have a greater love of the
Declaration of Independence than do I. Thomas Jefferson connected the Declaration to our ‘Creator’ and to His
laws of freedom and liberty. For me this document was inspired by God, via personal inspiration to Jefferson, to restore freedom to a world engulfed by tyrants who had enslaved their
subjects no less than Pharaoh had enslaved the Israelites anciently.
Many years ago the spiritual leader of a growing world wide Christian church, David O. McKay, stated there was nothing
more important for Christians than to preserve the liberties the Lord had given America with two documents of freedom - by men He raised up for this very work.
So what does the Declaration of Independence contain that makes it just a littler lower than the heavens, and puts
it so high up on the ladder of freedom and liberty that it can be likened unto scripture?
In paragraph one, its preamble, it states clearly that if the new nation, the ‘united States of America (paragraph
four) was to succeed and prosper it was to be created upon the foundation of two laws, ‘the Laws of (1) Nature, and
(2) (the laws) of Nature’s God. And by reading and pondering the writings of the Founders we see that all 56 of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence had a full understanding of the reality of these eight words. And we also see that
their actions, especially those who gave their all, position, wealth, and lives in the upcoming struggle, show that they truly
believed they were restoring the freedoms God had given to the Israelites anciently, but, like we today, squandered liberty
by ignoring these two foundational laws.
Paragraph two, the paragraph that receives the most attention today because of six words, these six words being: “that
all men are created equal.” The secular segment of today’s society has used these six words to distort and reject
the intent of the Founders, and to turn a nation initially built upon those two foundational laws into a society where little
moral restraints remain, especially if this segment thinks they are associated with God or God’s laws. And the United States and its people are paying a heavy price by ignoring
these foundational laws.
This segment
likes to associate “We hold these truths to be self-evident” with the following six words while ignoring the next
seven words, “that they are endowed by their Creator …” The Founders felt what was “self-evident”
was not “that all men are created equal (which they are),” but what was “self-evident” was that their
liberty would be secured by adhering to the foundational laws named in the preamble.
The rest of paragraph two is also timeless in its wisdom. Seldom do people today associate Jefferson’s words, “That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive … it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government …”
to themselves. We see this principle in action today as our neighbors seek to be annexed by local city governments, or, as
in Fulton and DeKalb counties, new cities being formed because they don’t like the existing government they live under.
Then, as you read what
I call paragraph three, a grouping of 27 complaints the Colonists had listed against King George III and his English government,
see how many of those complaints you would identify with our current federal government. Perhaps its time ‘we the people’
take the initiative to initiate ‘a new Government’ at the federal level, via the ballot box, and in other cases,
at the local and state level.
I have always found it difficult to comprehend how the liberal segment of society can use the ‘equality’
words of the Declaration and totally ignore the source of America’s freedoms, God, that the Founders unashamedly named
in paragraph four of their Declaration - “the Supreme Judge of the World” and closing this
paragraph with these 30 words: “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.”
The Declaration of Independence is worth reading on this, America’s 232nd Anniversary, and of pondering
its words, and teaching your children and grandchildren that the source of America’s liberties is indeed, as Jefferson
said, ‘the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Enjoy your Fourth of July.
