Keeping Our Liberty
Written by Dale Ebel
The Scripture below is inscribed on the Liberty Bell…
[Leviticus 25:10 ESV] 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.
An important reminder:
Freedom is making choices determined and granted by another.
Liberty is the innate, God-given right and privilege to make choices. It cannot be taken away righteously.
My purpose for this article
I will be quoting or referencing from a most profound book titled If You Can Keep It, by Eric Metaxas. I have personally bought about thirty of these books and given them to people of influence with the goal of helping us maintain the liberties and freedoms that we have in this great Republic. My desire is that you do everything you can to distribute and communicate these profound truths. Please consider purchasing several copies and giving them to people of influence, and ask those who choose to read it for their feedback. Please do this with your children and grandchildren.
It behooves us to reach and influence the next generation!
Consider how Benjamin Franklin answered Mrs. Powell after the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention: “Well, Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin, who was rarely short of words and wit, shot back: A republic, madam—”If You Can Keep It!” Page 9.
I have quoted this dialogue to people over 30 times since I first read it.
Quotes and Concepts
The Golden Triangle
Os Guinness, in his book A Free People’s Suicide, describes The Golden Triangle of Freedom, which explains the essential ideas that are the basis of America. In its most basic form, here are the three essential concepts:
- FREEDOM REQUIRES VIRTUE
- VIRTUE REQUIRES FAITH
- FAITH REQUIRES FREEDOM
The three go round and round, supporting one another ad infinitum. If any one of the three legs of the triangle is removed, the whole structure ceases to exist. Page 54.
We Must Never Forget
If several generations of people have never heard or understood these concepts—what most previous generations understood, whether explicitly or implicitly—and if this thing really was the secret triangle at the center of our fragile and unprecedented form of government, how could America continue much longer? And it led me to my second terrifying question: If America was indeed a country created not because of ethnic or tribal boundaries but instead because a people had come to believe—and therefore embody—a set of ideas, how could America be said to exist if almost no one anymore knew what those ideas were? If these ideas had essentially evaporated from our national consciousness for forty or so years, were we unwittingly but unavoidably becoming Americans in name only—if we hadn’t already? Pages 51–52.
Our Calling and the Moral Law
If we turn away from our calling—whether intentionally or by merely forgetting what that calling is—we commit suicide. And if we turn away from the moral law, we forfeit the blessings of God.
Abraham Lincoln knew when he faced the crisis of the Civil War that what America was doing had everything to do with that moral law. Could we keep it and continue to be favored by God? That was the question he was trying to help Americans understand and answer. The Republic depended on it. Either we turned from the great sin of slavery forever, or we would perish. We were a country on a mission to the whole world, but first we had to get our own house in order. Page 217.
Government Cannot Do Everything
The role of government is not to solve all our problems through legislation. Some problems cannot be cured through legislation. But they must be attended to, nonetheless. And here is the problem: the less the culture tends to these things, the more the government will attend to them, and the less freedom there will be. The greater the role the government plays, the more it crowds out the culture’s role, the role of the people—and the true freedom of the people. Page 46.
Religion Is Indispensable
George Washington, often wrongly cited as a mere Deist more beholden to the ideas of the French Enlightenment than to the Christian faith, said in his farewell address at the end of his second term in 1796:
Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious principles. Page 65.
What Does It Mean to Love America?
Ronald Reagan once said, “If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are.” Ben Franklin enjoined us that knowing who we are means we must know both the positive things and the negative.
A major problem arose in our country in the 1960s. Today we have somehow split into two camps over this and fallen into a perpetual ideological battle. One side seemed only able to see the bad things America had done and became enamored with the negative narrative that cast us as the great villain on the world stage, while the other side seemed only to become enamored with the positive narrative that cast us as the great savior of the world. This perpetual ideological battle has become a dangerous thing for America and for the world both. To truly love America, one must somehow see both sides simultaneously. The inability to see both sides simultaneously—to love one and hate the other—has been dramatic. Pages 226–227.
Abraham Lincoln’s Words: Mystic Chords of Memory
In his first inaugural address, the onetime country lawyer Abraham Lincoln moved beyond the law. What he says in the passage is not merely legal. It is, indeed, poetic. In a day when politicians have speeches crafted for them by teams of Beltway speechwriters, it’s difficult to fathom that we once elected a self-taught leader who grew up reading Parson Weems and the King James Bible by firelight in a rural cabin with a dirt floor, and who was capable of writing lines as eternal as those written by the great poets.
Lincoln was more than a legislator and a politician; he was a poet and a prophet. His words were lapidary (worthy of engraving on stone) when they came from his pen and when he spoke them—and they became so literally when, years later, they were inscribed on stones for millions of Americans to read. Lincoln shows us in these and other words that “we the people” are more than a voting bloc. There is something far deeper, something revealed by these “Mystic Chords of Memory.” Page 223.
Friends, for a full treatment of Lincoln’s famous words, please read chapter 7, “Loving America,” pages 219–245. As I read these pages, my heart was strangely warmed!
The Importance of Self-Government
The example of Iraq without self-government
The governmental power of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny was so crushing and so brutal that whatever muscles once existed in the Iraqi people to think for themselves and govern themselves had, over the course of decades, atrophied to nothing.
A similar example is Russia, pages 47–49.
What does self-government mean? 1 Kings 4:25
1 Kings 4:25 was the foundational verse for our Founders’ enactment of self-government.
Below are only five of my thoughts rooted in the Scripture about self-government:
- A moral compass based on God’s Law is foundational (Deuteronomy 4:8)
- Individual responsibility to provide for one’s family with honest work (1 Timothy 5:8)
- Honest payment for one’s work (Deuteronomy 24:14–15 NIV)
- A well-armed militia for protection (Exodus 22:2)
- Godly people appointed to oversee the affairs of the community (Exodus 18:21)
Possible Applications
- Buy 5 to 10 copies of Metaxas’s book If You Can Keep It. Give them to people of influence and request that they provide feedback concerning some of the content. I would suggest that you read one to two chapters that resonate with you and then invite discussion about those chapters with the people you give them to. Many times, less is more.
- Read one article a month from the Founders’ Bible out loud to yourself, a family member, or others. The Founders’ Bible lists 210 articles to select from.
- Intentionally celebrate historic days spread throughout the year with your community group, Bible study, or family members.
- Read a short biography of one of the famous individuals from the founding era. The Founders’ Bible has a list of 68 biographies with a short paragraph describing each. Page XXVI.
Church Efforts in Weekend Services
As a congregation, pray for our country. Pray silently as a whole, and ask pre-selected, capable congregants to stand and pray out loud from where they are seated.
Suggested subjects:
Confession of our national sin (Daniel 9).
Praise God for the good America has done and is doing (Jeremiah 4:2).
Pray with contrition, and pray for wisdom for our leaders so that they will make biblical decisions (Exodus 18:19–21).
Pray that the satanic forces of evil will be held back (James 5:9).
The week of Veterans Day, honor veterans in the services by having those who served or are serving stand where they are in the congregation. Introduce each branch of the military and ask them to stand. People will applaud with enthusiasm! Inform the congregation the week before that it would be great if military personnel wore their uniforms!
Flag Day week, have a color guard present the American and Christian flags. Always have the American and Christian flags displayed on the stage. Recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing several patriotic songs. Select a soloist to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Provide biographies of founding-era influencers via presentations on the screens, written inserts, etc.
Teach the children to memorize the Gettysburg Address and say it before the congregation.
Teach and sing as a congregation patriotic songs like “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” “America the Beautiful,” “God Bless America,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the National Anthem, etc.
Ask your pastor to teach the Scriptures about loyalty to one’s country.
Ask your pastor if he would read the Founders’ Bible, edited by David Barton, and teach a couple of concepts from the articles.
Friends, as I read Metaxas’s book, I was deeply convicted and motivated to be a better citizen of this great Republic! My heart was strangely warmed as I read the exquisite words of this powerful man of God. When I heard him speak on Memorial Day weekend, I told him, “You are a prophetic voice for Yahweh God, speaking to the American church.” He responded by looking me in the eye and saying, “Thank you! Pray for me!”
I have and will continue to pray for him 💪
Will you become, as I am, a Biblically Based American Patriot?
In Christ,
Dale