Independence Day
Independence Day has always been a special occasion for me. More than just memories of fireworks and BBQs as a kid—and even an extended childhood with some “creative” pyrotechnics as an adult—it is also a time to be a little patriotic in commemoration of my country’s beginnings, and its formation out of a struggle against tyranny. Being “created equal” and “endowed with unalienable Rights,” such as “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” are cherished among Americans, whether understood or misunderstood. Yet, are these ideas really “self evident.” Maybe for the founders of this nation, but what seems to be the most self-evident truth is inequality.
Distinctions between one ethnicity and another, slave and free, men and women is the perennial struggles of all history. Eastern Religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism rightly accepted the reality these inequalities, albeit they stumbled in concluding people are fatalistically consigned to their lot in life based upon karmic law working itself out in transmigration of things in an endless cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation. Even in philosophical naturalism with its Darwinian Evolutionary cosmogony we do not find people being “created equal,” since there really is no “Creator” to create and endow people with unalienable rights. What we do find is the survival of the fittest and the cold extinction of less “fit” species and races and the propagation of more “fit” species and races.
The radical concepts of liberty, equality, and freedom—at least in the American sense of things—are actually rooted in Scripture. Even those who reject the Bible, living as agnostics, atheist, nones, or something else, still manage to adapt these things out of a Christian tradition. Central to New Testament teaching is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; yet, God saves sinners by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and the saved produce the good works God intended for them to perform in the first place (Eph. 2:8-10). It is this salvation by grace that liberates people from the bondage of sin that ultimately produces life destroying tyranny and corruption.
When we abandon the Scriptures we also abandon our liberties. During the sixteenth century, Martin Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses in critique of an abusive system of Papal Indulgences, which exasperated the problems of those in poverty with the unbiblical teaching of paying money for forgiveness of to get their loved one’s out of purgatorial fires. The Roman Catholic teaching sprang from several doctrinal traditions—the idea that Christians who die still must endure some cleansing in purgatory to attain the holiness for enjoying heaven, a treasury of merit produced by an excess of grace from Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints, and the indulgence as the means of withdrawing from the treasury for taking care of sin—none of which are based upon the teaching of Scripture. Luther understood the Roman Catholic teaching on papal indulgences went against the biblical doctrine of justification by faith. As Paul wrote, “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law, since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal. 2:16).
It is uniquely through the Bible that radical ideas like racial equality, emancipation of slaves, and sexual equality have their basis. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” writes Paul (Gal. 3:27). It must be noted that ancient Rome, which had adopted its ideas about life from Hellenism, still played favorites with her citizens, kept their slaves, and left women without a voice. In spite of resting upon the minds of great Greek philosophers, Rome still could not offer liberty and equality for the common good as we know it. It may even be argued that the same can be said about China or other great ancient civilizations. What we understand as liberty and equality is ultimately rooted in a biblical worldview.
Distinctions between one ethnicity and another, slave and free, men and women is the perennial struggles of all history. Eastern Religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism rightly accepted the reality these inequalities, albeit they stumbled in concluding people are fatalistically consigned to their lot in life based upon karmic law working itself out in transmigration of things in an endless cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation. Even in philosophical naturalism with its Darwinian Evolutionary cosmogony we do not find people being “created equal,” since there really is no “Creator” to create and endow people with unalienable rights. What we do find is the survival of the fittest and the cold extinction of less “fit” species and races and the propagation of more “fit” species and races.
The radical concepts of liberty, equality, and freedom—at least in the American sense of things—are actually rooted in Scripture. Even those who reject the Bible, living as agnostics, atheist, nones, or something else, still manage to adapt these things out of a Christian tradition. Central to New Testament teaching is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; yet, God saves sinners by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and the saved produce the good works God intended for them to perform in the first place (Eph. 2:8-10). It is this salvation by grace that liberates people from the bondage of sin that ultimately produces life destroying tyranny and corruption.
When we abandon the Scriptures we also abandon our liberties. During the sixteenth century, Martin Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses in critique of an abusive system of Papal Indulgences, which exasperated the problems of those in poverty with the unbiblical teaching of paying money for forgiveness of to get their loved one’s out of purgatorial fires. The Roman Catholic teaching sprang from several doctrinal traditions—the idea that Christians who die still must endure some cleansing in purgatory to attain the holiness for enjoying heaven, a treasury of merit produced by an excess of grace from Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and saints, and the indulgence as the means of withdrawing from the treasury for taking care of sin—none of which are based upon the teaching of Scripture. Luther understood the Roman Catholic teaching on papal indulgences went against the biblical doctrine of justification by faith. As Paul wrote, “a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law, since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Gal. 2:16).
It is uniquely through the Bible that radical ideas like racial equality, emancipation of slaves, and sexual equality have their basis. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” writes Paul (Gal. 3:27). It must be noted that ancient Rome, which had adopted its ideas about life from Hellenism, still played favorites with her citizens, kept their slaves, and left women without a voice. In spite of resting upon the minds of great Greek philosophers, Rome still could not offer liberty and equality for the common good as we know it. It may even be argued that the same can be said about China or other great ancient civilizations. What we understand as liberty and equality is ultimately rooted in a biblical worldview.
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