“...they are endowed ...”
Here is where our nation began.
Our cultural and spiritual heritage dates back to this phrase in our Declaration of Independence, which is what we ought to be honoring this weekend and Monday.
Would our Founders have understood our modern Independence Day celebration?
Sure.
They might not have condoned the extent to which we over do as a culture today.
They might not have grasped why we would put ourselves in debt to have fun, either at this time of year or any other.
But as far as appreciating a celebration, it would be a injustice of our ancestors to convince ourselves that they were not capable of celebrating, of enjoying the time they got to spend with friends and family.
That has always been part of what we were protecting in this culture, the opportunity for the common man and woman to enjoy the fruits of their labor and to be secure in their position within the culture.
At the same time, we would be expected to recognize the Source of our freedom, of our culture, of our very lives.
“... they are endowed ...”
It stands to reason that if we are, in fact, endowed as our Founders believed we are, then there is an Endower, and it would be worthwhile for America to stop for a moment and consider that at this celebration, too.
Did the Endower actually have a hand in establishing this nation?
It certainly appears that our Founders believed that so strongly that they included this wording in a document that could certainly have cost them everything. Their property. Their position. Their very lives.
And, as history shows us, in several instances, it did cost them that.
It is presumptuous to suggest that these men signed a document that would brand them as traitors to the crown if America lost the Revolution, and that they did so just because of a political position is too much to believe, even with this distance of time.
It is far more likely to believe that these men actually recognized their place in the heritage of the nation they were establishing and that they were following through with the plans of their Endower as they took this stand.
That phrase continues, “... they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ...”
The Endower and the Creator are one and the same, and He is the one who ordained this nation.
Our Founders knew this and they took it seriously, too, as they also made clear in this ageless document. As it is concluding, the Declaration states: “... for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”
That sounds like a stand that deserves our celebration, our honor and our recollection today, Monday and the rest of the year as well.
May God continue to bless America.
— Chuck Smith