George Washington in his first address as President to the nation showed he understood it was virtue that would make our nation great. Political freedom cannot exist where there is no religious foundation. It is only Christianity that can give to a group of people the potent force needed to sustain that freedom.
Freedom is not the right to do whatever you want. That is anarchy. Freedom is the privilege to do whatever society allows within its rules. True freedom is doing what God created you to do, therefore, freedom in this world is following rules established from God’s Word. The founders of our nation were men who saw the hope in this. They gave us a Constitution designed, not to limit the people but to limit the government’s power over the people. The founders understood that ultimately men are accountable to God not to government. Government is just a tool to maintain order, so the truth of the Gospel can be proclaimed. The idea of religious freedom in the Constitution is not freedom from religion but freedom to exercise religion.
That Constitution established capitalistic principles that declared every person was responsible for his own actions. Christianity readily accepted its role in this nation as the guardian of right and wrong. A person was free to make as much for himself as he could. However, he was expected to follow the rules in doing it. This became the engine that made our nation such a wonderful place to live. That has been proven, by the millions of people who have risked everything they had, including their lives, to reach our shores.
We have been a nation open to receiving people from across the world. Emma Lazarus in her poem on a plaque in the Statue of Liberty says it so well. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamb beside the golden door.” All we have asked of them in return is they accept the principles by which we have been allowed to offer them such hope. To stand fast on the principles of honor, trust and care for their neighbors. Leave the garbage that destroyed their hope of happiness in their former nations behind and embrace a new way of life.
What has made America great is her people and their commitment to following godly principles. Living righteous lives is a true American hallmark of greatness. The religious freedom our Constitution guards for us is a beacon shining across this world.
The great danger we face today is the failure that far to many don’t understand this. Our world is being turned upside down by those who have completely abandoned the very thing that has made us a great nation.
What can we do to regain that greatness? The greatness I’m talking about is the privilege of being the one who has the right to live your life as you see fit. Political correctness has destroyed that idea and continues to drag us into a dark abyss of confusion. Failure by churches to preach the truth of God’s Word and confront sin without apology has left us without virtue. We must turn back and take the admonition of George Washington to heart and seek out the virtue that can come to us only through faithful study of God’s Word. There, and there only, will we find the greatness we once showed to the world.
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