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Is there any good reason that we should study history? Do documents like The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution hold any significance for us today? They most certainly do! Number one, God tells us in the Bible to “Remember the days 
of old, consider the years of many generations…” (Deuteronomy 32:7) He wants us to understand that history is “His-Story”. What He taught a previous generation He wants us to bring into our generation. That with which satan enslaved a previous generation, God wants us to get free of. But if we don’t know history, how can we keep the good and remove the bad? Since all of us start life in this world with a sin-root in our thinking (Romans 5:12), we will tend to move toward satan’s enslavement in our society unless we know what God taught previous generations. This is why God taught the Jews that their education system must be the channel through which the parents teach their children His ways. This is what President Woodrow Wilson reminded us when he stated:
“A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do….”
History is for our instruction; let us not be so arrogant as to dismiss it as unimportant. Our Declaration of Independence listed 27 reasons the King of England had given us to declare our independence from his rule. Let us consider some more of those reasons so we can learn from our history how to avoid the political slavery from which our Founders were escaping.
The third reason they listed reads:
“He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.”
The King tried to force Canada and Massachusetts to let him appoint their legislators who would make their laws. Americans fiercely resisted this tyranny, asking for reasonable laws. The King would only agree to their suggested laws, if they would agree to give up their right of self-government through their own representatives. This would mean being enslaved to a dictatorial form of government. This one reason was enough to fight the King by establishing their own national government. This is what The Declaration of Independence would do.
The fourth act they listed by which the King had rebelled against God’s laws for government read:
“He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository or their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.”
After the “Boston Tea Party” (which was a very lawful resistance to the King’s order to buy tea only from one company), the King retaliated by cancelling the people’s established courts, and establishing martial law in Massachusetts.
These tyrannical actions would stir Americans to establish their own national government. This was not the action of rebels who wanted independence because they didn’t want to be controlled by law. Americans simply wanted to return to law based on the Bible: Law that protected the God-given rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Thus, they were working a revolution— not a rebellion!
Do we not need another revolution in America? One that starts in prayer and moves to the voting booth—so we won’t have to pick up arms as our Founder’s had to do?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.