Well, at least my fireworks picture turned out colorful. My family went to the K-Mart parking lot in Dalton this year to watch the fireworks. It's something we do. We sometimes break into song, singing, God Bless America, or some other patriotic favorite. This year we had foot-long hotdogs, milkshakes, etc., from Sonic, which was in walking distance from where we parked.While we celebrate this Fourth of July, I thank God for the Freedom we have known, but find my mind wondering about what kind of America will we leave for our grandchildren?
As far back as 1787, when we were adopting our constitution, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, named Alexander Tyler, was writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic. He wrote:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
When you think about the current LOOSE FISCAL POLICY, the astronomical national debt, and the current administration's brilliant idea that somehow we can spend our way out of debt, you realize that the stage is certainly set for the demise of democracy.
Tyler comments further that the greatest civilizations in history progressed through a certain sequence, lasting only about 200 years.
The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage
Charlie Crumley of Sandy Springs, Georgia has written about this "Freedom Cycle," and his work parallels some of our Scottish professor's insights. The diagram below is his cycle of Freedom, and he believes that we are somewhere about level seven above on the professor's list, or somewhere in the area of CHAOS on his diagram below.
I don't believe we have ever lived in a more chaotic time in American history, and my concern is that if "We the people" don't wake up, America as we have known it will be no more! Perhaps you think I listen too much to folks like Glenn Beck, but I have to admit, he makes a lot of sense.
Personally I believe our hope for America is found in the promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14,
If my people which are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and heal their land.
This is first Fourth of July in many years that has fallen on a Sunday, so this year I am praying that God will renew the strength of America, as we humble ourselves before God, in prayer. Faith in God was vibrant in the hearts of our Founding Fathers, and the only hope for America's recovery in our day. This Fourth of July, let us reclaim Freedom, as we cry out to God to save America.
In our morning worship service we sang the Star-Spangled Banner, and I was stirred as we sang the fourth verse together, and I want to share those words with you here as I close these Thoughts on Freedom.
Oh thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
and this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Hope you have a blessed Fourth of July Weekend.
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