The Patriot Post® · The Resurrection Road to Liberty
“The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. … The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may be abused by human depravity. … It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.” —George Washington
In the last two weeks, despite a late hard freeze and snowfall, spring has sprung here in the mountains of East Tennessee.
We live in an area of our great country where the seasons are well defined, and spring is my favorite. In March, we are treated to the miraculous emergence of life from the gray winter cold. Each year, I marvel at God’s expression of splendid colors, virgin greens sprouting from grounds and covering branches, followed by blooms of all sorts — the resurrection of life was awaiting its cue.
Spring is a fitting season to memorialize the resurrection of Jesus Christ after His crucifixion and His rising from the dead.
Easter occurs in the season in which the War for American Independence began in earnest, as we commemorate the anniversary of the first Patriots’ Day and the Battles of Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775. This was the launch of our nation’s quest for American Liberty, the opening salvos of which were immortalized by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as “The Shot Heard Round the World.”
The first paragraph of our Declaration of Independence speaks to our Christian heritage, referencing for all “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,” which informs the words “endowed by their Creator” in the second paragraph — the unalienable Rights of Man upon which the pursuit of Liberty was justified.
As George Washington noted regarding the right to Liberty, “Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!”
Most of our Founders were Christians or were steeped in a political philosophy rooted in the Christian view of human nature. They believed, as we still do, that each individual human is a morally responsible being created in the Image of God, and that the only government capable of enduring well is the one that honors this nature by ensuring Liberty; the one that is dedicated to principles rooted in the Christian view of human worth.
“The God who gave us life, gave us Liberty at the same time,” wrote the author of our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson. He noted, “The hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.” Of his own faith through his Age of Enlightenment lens, Jefferson wrote, “I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he [Jesus] wished anyone to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others… I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.”
Our Founders understood that Liberty is irrevocably linked to faith in God.
James Madison, the author of our Constitution, stated, “The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities impressed with it.”
John Adams averred, “It is the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the SUPREME BEING, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe. … Religion and Virtue are the only Foundations, not only of Republicanism and of all free Government, but of Social Felicity under all Governments and in all the Combinations of human Society.”
Samuel Adams asserted, “Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness.”
John Jay affirmed, “The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”
However, Justice Joseph Story cautioned us, “It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape.”
That caution would manifest in a series of mid-20th-century Supreme Court decisions based on the errant notion of Jefferson’s “Wall of Separation” between church and state.
Such temporal misinterpretations notwithstanding, the ultimate promise of Liberty rests at the end of our Salvation Road.
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was the fusion of perfect love and perfect justice, vanquishing evil, in this sense: Because we owe God complete obedience, we have no means to make restitution for our sins. Doing what we should in any instance merely zeroes our balance for that act; we have no way to repay the negative sum of our accumulated sins.
To skeptics, Ronald Reagan offered these words:
I still can’t help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all, which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a man, that he lived, and that he was put to death by crucifixion. Where … is the miracle I spoke of? Well, consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time — possibly to your own hometown. A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father’s shop. One day, he puts down his tools and walks out of his father’s shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even though he is not an ordained minister. He never gets farther than an area perhaps 100 miles wide at the most. He does this for three years. Then he is arrested, tried, and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing — the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place for him, so he is interred in a borrowed tomb. End of story? No, this uneducated, property-less young man has, for 2,000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers, kings, emperors, all the conquerors, generals, and admirals, all the scholars, scientists, and philosophers who have ever lived — all of them put together. How do we explain that — unless He really was what He said He was?
I invite you to visit our page devoted to Resurrection Day Meditations.
From your brothers and sisters at The Patriot Post, we wish you a blessed Resurrection Day in celebration of our Savior.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
P.S. Patriots, the most cost-effective investment you can make to ensure the future of Liberty is to
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