On Saturday, July 4,  our nation will once again celebrate the adoption of one of the greatest documents in human history, the Declaration of Independence.  We've all read it and studied it, but the words seem so foreign to our modern thinking and acting.

Our founders wrote these immortal words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, - That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Notice the precepts our Founders believed that motivated them to create a new nation, which they called the United States of America:

1. Men (the human race) are created by God.
2. Human rights are God's gifts.
3. Government does not give rights; it exists to recognize and preserve God-given rights.
4. The People have the right and the duty to alter or abolish a government which does not protect and promote its God-given rights.

We also need to remember the closing words of the Declaration:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. - 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 could be called the first official act of the United States of America.  This document pulsates with faith in God and His Sovereign Providence.  Not only did the Founders believe that human rights come from God, they offered the Declaration as a prayer to God ("appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world") Whom they trusted  for the success of the Revolution ("firm reliance on Divine Providence").

We need to REMEMBER what our Founders believed and wrote.  We need to RESOLVE to uphold the principles of the Declaration.  On this July 4th, we need to RECOMMIT ourselves to the principles of the First American Revolution and we need to pray for a Second American Revolution (a revolution of prayer, political involvement, and re-education) that will return us to a form of government and a kind of nation which our Founders envisioned.

God bless America!   

Pastor Alan Day