Happy 4th of July!  Listen to or read this week’s radio program:

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“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Note America’s Founders spoke without a stutter as to why they had the right to establish a new government among themselves.  The Declaration of Independence stated:

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

(emphasis added)

Why did they believe they had the right to “institute new government”?  Because they believed what the Bible taught about civil government.  The Bible identifies the Source of government when it says in Romans 13,

“Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God.”

(Romans 13:1)

Men like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington had grown up hearing that all government power rooted in Jesus Christ.  After diligent study on their own, they had come to believe that.  Therefore, government servants who were rulers owed it to God to rule the people who elected them in obedience to the Bible commands for civil government.  If a government ruler steps out of the order of God for government, and refuses to change after the people make numerous appeals to him to come back to God’s order, it is the right of the people to remove that government and establish new government.  This was clearly laid out in the Declaration of Independence.  It stated:

“…it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

So when government doesn’t live within the law of God, it is the right of the people to change it by appealing to government servants to come back to God’s order for civil government.  If they refuse, it is the right of the people to change that government through voting.  And if votes are counted dishonestly or if voting is abolished altogether, then the people have the right to change that government by a principle called interposition.  This means another government of that oppressed people must step in between the people and their disordered government in order to protect their God-given rights of “life, liberty, and property.”  This is the principle of interposition.

This is exactly what the men who signed the Declaration of Independence did.  The King of England had abolished their Colonial Legislatures, which had been stepping in between his disordered government and the people.  This left our Founders without government.  That is why they wrote our Declaration of Independence and created a new national government.  They were returning to God’s order for government.  This is why what they did was not a rebellion, though it is often called that today by liberal educators and media people.

Patrick Henry was stating the principle of interposition when he stated:

“….An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!…..Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature has placed in our power…millions of people, armed in the Holy cause of Liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.  Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battle alone.  There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations…”

(William Wirt Henry, ed. Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry (Philadelphia: Claxton, 1818) pp. 137-142.  P. Marshall and D. Manual, The Light and The Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell Co., 1977), p. 269.)

Are we Americans in need of this today?

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.