History is a powerful thing. It is His story and our stories. History does not lie but can be rewritten with new narratives; however the truth is still out there to be found for those who choose to search it out. Proverbs 25:2 says that “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.” This is a challenge to us to search for His truth in each matter before us.
Last month we celebrated Black history month and in all my research I was struck by the fact that American history is Black history and Black history is American history. Unfortunately, the truth of our history has been hidden from us in order to change who we really are as a people. In changing us from a people who value life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness or our dreams we have become a malleable, shallow people who are easily manipulated simply by pulling at our emotional heartstrings. It is my belief that God is challenging many today to seek Him and His truth and not just accept the rhetoric that comes at us on a daily basis.
Our founders were committed students of history who recognized the importance of knowing where they came from and understanding the economics under girding the nations of their time and those of the Roman and Greek empires. It was from this knowledge and their understanding of the laws of nature and nature’s God that they decided not to have a straight democracy but a Constitutional republic. Even that decision was made with trepidation as they knew this new governmental system was dependent on a religious and moral people.
They knew that if the people became complacent in public virtue, taking our freedoms for granted then the Republic would begin to slip away. The onus has always been on the people to maintain the republic. The truth is that historically most republics only lasted a maximum of 400 years before it fell into tyranny. If you don’t count the first 156 years before we broke away from Great Britain we are at the 238 year mark. But if you count the first 156 years we are at the 394 year mark and unfortunately headed toward tyranny. Some would say we are already there.
If we will decide to stand up and recapture our true identity through our history and heritage and then making sure that each generation is taught the truth we can begin to return to the self-governing people that we are supposed to be. When we stopped stressing personal responsibility, hard work, honesty and integrity as a nation we declined culturally. When we cease stressing these valuable traditional values we hurt our children and hinder their ability to be successful in life.
Consider that, as a nation, we started with an atmosphere of freedom, opportunity and a small federal government that allowed the people freedom to create a nation like no other in prosperity and innovation. Today we are living under a bloated federal government and administrative bureaucracy that is infringing on our freedoms and hindering our once great opportunity society. If we had a grasp of our history and the history of western civilization we would not have fallen prey to the misleading ideas that have been repeated over and over through media, leaders, professors and even textbooks.
Next Week: Whose Rights Count?
Question for Dinner Table Discussion: How can the study of western civilization and the spread of Christianity give us answers for the current issues facing our government today?