Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Wednesday, October 29, 2008 2:23:08 PM
What happened to the love of liberty that characterized the colonial Americans and the founding generations? If we understood the origin of their love for liberty, then perhaps we could answer that question.
The secularists do not like the religious nature of the Founders nor their references to Divine Providence and the Supreme Judge of the earth. Even less do they like the references to the Bible and Christianity.
The religious do not like the flavor of Christianity. They deny the influence of the Reformation and the Great Awakening and of Reformed Theology on the American Revolution and American Constitutionalism. They prefer the pagan philosophers of Greece and Rome over the great Reformers, who are the fathers of western thought and culture.
Denying our heritage has resulted in losing perspective of what motivated the early Americans. Their hope was in the sovereign God who had spoken in the person and work of Jesus Christ. They understood that in Christ there is grace greater than their sin and that liberty was to be found in adherence to the God of Law. What once had accused and condemned them without mercy had now become to them that which is holy, just and good. In Christ they were free of the Law’s condemnation; free to pursue the glory of God in all things including their family, worship, work and community.
We say that the love of liberty comes from the love of the Redeemer of men in an understanding of what great blessings He has secured for His people. Those who deny our heritage will certainly lose the blessings of liberty. Rather than a reliance on Divine Providence, their reliance is in the socialist state.