Today, liberty seems to be an endangered species in America. 

In the past 50 years, under the facade of “liberty,” over 50 million helpless infants in America have been murdered in the womb. 

Under the banner of “liberty,” activists have removed God from the public square. And in the name of freedom, gender confusion and moral permissiveness have replaced America’s once-strong moral fiber.  

Liberty Attacked Today

This attack on liberty has only accelerated in recent months. Consider a few examples. 

• In a decision called by some, “The Roe v. Wade of Religious Liberty,” the Supreme Court recently decreed that Christian businesses and ministries cannot fire employees based on perceived “gender identity.” 
• Additionally, the Supreme Court ruled that states can place restrictions on believers meeting in churches. 
• According to Yelp, 41% of businesses shut down during the pandemic are closed for good. 

Further, many proposed policy solutions to today’s crises only promote greater control for the government and less liberty for the individual. These restrictive solutions include mandatory vaccinations, a digital currency, a labyrinthian tracking system, and widespread wealth redistribution, to name a few. 

Meanwhile, radicals and revisionists are attacking America’s precious heritage. They are denigrating monumental, albeit imperfect, Founding Fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson! 

As President Trump observed last evening at Mt. Rushmore, “Against every law of society and nature, our children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that they were villains.”

Taking Stock of Liberty

This Independence Day, we should take honest stock of our liberty. 

• What is liberty? 
• How did we lose it? 
• What is at stake in today’s battle for freedom?
• How can we reclaim liberty in America?

1. What is liberty?

In the words of Peter Marshall, liberty is not “the right to do as we please, but… the opportunity to do what is right.”

As 2 Corinthians says, “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians). In short, meaningful liberty cannot exist without God and morality. 

Many of America’s Founding Fathers understood this truth. One of them, Thomas Jefferson, put it this way, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?”

Decades later, Speaker of the House Robert Charles Winthrop concurred with Jefferson. Winthrop stated, “All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they rely on private moral restraint.”

“Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without [outside] them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or the bayonet.”

Nearly half (24) of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence held what today would be considered as seminary or Bible school degrees. In America’s early days, families read the Bible together, and school children studied the New England Primer, which taught them reading, writing, and morality. 

While early America certainly had its flaws, it was the most Christian nation that has ever existed. 

Read More: The Message of Independence Day

2. How was liberty lost?

History shows that people lose freedom through complacency. To quote Thomas Jefferson, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”  

When a nation becomes solely focused on enjoying the benefits of freedom, they are prone to soon lose freedom itself. 

As noted above, God is the foundation of liberty. Therefore, we can trace our loss of freedom to America’s rejection of God. 

Though America’s loss of liberty occurred gradually, consider a few key moments:

• In the 1800s, liberal theology infiltrated the American mainline denominations. 
• The 1925 Scopes Trial convinced many Americans that the Bible must be interpreted through science (in this case, Darwinism), not the other way around. 
• In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Walter Rauschenbach’s “Social Gospel” distracted Christians from the Great Commission. 
• In the 1900s, the Marxists began to subvert America’s foundational institutions, including education, media, Hollywood, the government, the church, and the family.
• The sexual revolution of the 1960s launched a full-scale assault on American morality.
• The secular/sacred dichotomy persuaded many Christians that the Bible only applies to “spirituality” rather than to all areas of life. 

According to Pew, well over half of Americans today (65%) claim to be Christians. But does that accurately reflect today’s state of affairs? How many of those know Jesus? Are we the salt and light we should be?

Conservatives like to blame America’s woes on the left. But what were we doing while evil was rising the past 150 years? What are we doing today to stem the tide? 

3. What is at stake in today’s battle for liberty? 

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn rightly believed that millions were slaughtered in the Soviet Union because Russia forgot God. In his own words, over a half-century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” 

For over 70 years, Solzhenitsyn’s homeland, the Soviet Union, chafed under the gulag, the KGB, and Communism. All because they forgot God. 

As Erwin Lutzer describes, “When God is separated from government, judgment follows.”

“Not us. Not here. Not now.” These are the myths with which we delude ourselves. Yet we must face reality. Divine consequences inevitably follow any nation that turns its back on God. 

Ronald Reagan put it best, “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

4. How do we regain liberty?

To begin, we must pray. Pray that God would send revival to our land (Psalm 85:6). Pray that God would make us bold ambassadors to speak His truth (Ephesians 6:19-20).

Pray that God would give us wisdom and grace for the difficult days ahead. 

Next, we must act. The days of criticizing from the sidelines are over. Yes, it’s easy to point out everything that’s wrong with America (this post has done a bit of that). 

But what are we doing about it? As Teddy Roosevelt said, “It’s not the critic who counts.”

With God’s blessing, individual actions can make a difference. Bonhoeffer and Niemoller in Nazi Germany, Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand in the Soviet Union, and the martyrs of the early church left their marks on corrupt societies. 

Levels of Engagement

In Nehemiah’s time, though Jerusalem’s wall lay in ruins, it was rebuilt in only 52 days! God’s people accomplished this feat when each family built the section of the wall by their house. 

Here’s where we can begin today. 

• The Individual. Are we self-governed and submitted to God? 
• The Family. Are we building healthy families according to scripture?
• The Local Church. Are we building vibrant bodies of believers that make an impact in their communities?
• The Community. Are we speaking the truth and reaching out to those around us?
• The State. Are we informed and engaged with what’s going on in the political arena?

Read More: Humility: The Forgotten Key to Revival

Prayer and Action

What would happen if every Christian in America began rebuilding, right where they were? 

Could God bring revival to our land? Though we don’t deserve God’s hand of restoration, we are confident that He still could revive America. 

But God expects us to do our part. As John Quincy Adams stated, “Duty is ours; results are God’s.” 

This Independence Day, may we remember the prayers our Founding Fathers prayed in the birth of America. Like them, may we do more than pray—may we act.

Rekindling liberty begins in our hearts. II Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Question: What can we do to restore liberty in America?