Do you know what we will be celebrating the Bicentennial of on July 4, 1976? The start or finish of the American Revolution? The writing or ratification of the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights? The Boston Tea Party? The Battles of Bunker Hill, Concord, or Lexington?
The Bicentennjal commenorates none of these historic events, glorious and memorable as they are. The Bicentennial commemorates the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence That and that alone is the event whose 200th birthday we will celebrate on July 4, 1976.
Why is there such a persistent de-emphasis of the real meaning of the Bicentennial? Why is there such a concerted effort to divert Bicentennial activities, events, and advertising into every subject under the sun except the Declaration of Independence?
There is one and only one way to observe the Bicentennial to re-read and re-examine the Declaration of Independence, and to rededicate ourselves to its principles and its message. The Declaration of Independence is the most important document in American history and the most inspired writing in world history that ever flowed from the hand of man alone. Here is why:
- The Declaration of Independence is the official and unequivocal recognition by the American people of their belief and faith in God. It is a religious document from its first sentence to its last. It affirms God’s existence as a ”self-evident” truth which requires no further discussion or debate. The nation it creates is God’s country. The rights it defines are God-given. The actions of its signers are God-inspired. There are five references to God — God as Creator of all men, God as the supreme Lawmaker, God as the source of all rights, God as our patron and protector.
- The Declaration of Independence declares.that each of us is created equal. This means equal before God. It does not mean that all men are born equal, as some try to claim. Nor does it mean that all men can be made equal, as Communist dogma alleges. Obviously and realistically, and as your own individuating fingerprint proves, each of God’s creatures is unequal and different in every other way from every other person who has ever lived or ever will live on this earth.
- The Declaration of Independence proclaims that life and liberty are the unalienable gifts of God — natural rights — which no person or government can rightfully take away.
- The Declaration of Independence proclaims that the purpose of government is to secure these unalienable individual rights, and that government derives its powers from the consent of the governed. For the first time in history, government was reduced from master to servant.
The Declaration of Independence comes to us after 200 years in all its pristine purity. Whereas the U.S. Constitution has had to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous Supreme Court interpretation and judicial distortion, neither the meddling judges nor the bungling bureaucrats have confused or distorted the Declaration of Independence. As the Declaration was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be because it proclaims truth and facts which are not subject to change or amendment.
