Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17 (New International Version)

Greetings, everyone and a very Happy 248th American Independence Day. Sorry for our delusional and misguided leftists; this is the day America was founded…not that insidious cultural Marxism crap about 1619. Now that we have established that fact let us endeavor to understand the real foundational meaning of July 4, 1776.

America is unlike any other Nation that the world has ever known. It was established upon a very integral theory…Natural Rights. It was English political philosopher John Locke, the father of classical liberalism, not this post-modern leftism, who introduced this concept in his Two Treatises of Government, circa 1689. It was in the Second Treatise that Locke challenged the prevailing divine rights theory, that certain members of so-called royalty were granted divine sovereignty over the people, really subjects. Locke put forth that it was natural that all rights of the individual—life, liberty, and property—were granted by the Creator God, the God of the Judeo-Christian faith heritage. It was Thomas Jefferson who studied Locke and invoked at the very beginning of our Declaration of Independence the “Laws of nature and nature’s God.”

Jefferson enshrined into the founding—establishment of these United States of America—that the individual is sovereign because their unalienable rights are endowed to them by a sovereign God. It was not man—the government (with the little “g”)—that granted us our rights. Therefore it could not take them away. And that is why the aforementioned verse from Paul’s second letter to the people of Corinth is important. If we ever become a Nation where secular humanists reestablish their perceived divine right to rule over us, then we will have lost this incredible blessing, the birth of a new freedom.

In this system of self-governance, citizens are just that, citizens. They are not subjects who must seek a “bye of a leave” from someone of believed greater status. Today we call those people politicians. This thing called government does not have the enumerated right—power—to decide who gets life, it is an unalienable right granted from the Creator. They cannot decide what we have the liberty to do, say, and be. In other words, they can’t decide for us what to eat, drive, or have in our homes or usurp the liberty to raise our children. The government should not be taxing our property—that is not enumerated to them. Yes, render under Caesar what is Caesar’s, I have no problem paying taxes for the right and proper functions of government. That is what a French economist named Frederic Bastiat clearly presented in his essay, “The Law”. It is the government’s responsibility to protect my life, liberty, and property…not by way of misconceived benevolence and philanthropy create a system of legal plunder.

If you take the time, which I recommend, to read the entire Declaration of Independence, you will see Jefferson listing grievances against King George III, many of which we face today.

Of course, my dear atheist and agnostic friends are fuming, but understand, you have the right not to believe, and thank God the Founding Fathers read Locke. If this Nation falls to a secular humanist-based socialist economic and Marxist societal theory, all will suffer.

Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, said, “Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”

Today, we call that a “mike drop” moment.

De Tocqueville traveled this Nation and wrote about his findings in his book. He truly embraced the belief that it was our spiritual foundation that made America exceptional and good and, therefore, great. He commented on what he saw in our Churches. Sadly, today, we have too many charlatans, fakes, phonies, and frauds in our pulpits who are not preaching about that spiritual foundation in America…see 2 Timothy 4:2-5.

So this Independence Day, read, understand, and comprehend from whence your Nation was founded and what makes it unique and special. Share it with your children and grandchildren because they are not getting this education in our schools. Psalms 11:3 (NIV) says, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what shall the righteous do?”. I say we go back and study our first principles, the blocking and tackling of the creation of America. If we do not adhere to and understand our fundamentals, well, then some chucklehead will come along and disseminate lies and deceit about our Nation being founded in 1619.

I shall close this 248th American Independence Day message (stop saying Happy 4th of July, which is a date on a calendar) by sharing the wisdom of Scottish political philosopher Alexander Fraser Tytler:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

My closing question to you on this 248th American Independence Day is this: where are we in this cycle?

Steadfast and Loyal.