What are you doing?

The Life and Liberty Report

August 25 2010

By Tom Hoefling

"Eloquence has been defined to be the art of persuasion. If it included persuasion by convincing, Mr. Madison was the most eloquent man I ever heard." --Patrick Henry, on James Madison, 1790

In the New Testament book of Acts, we read about how the disciples of Jesus Christ, men of very modest means and origins, began to fulfill the great commission that He had laid upon them before He ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father. These men, without fear, without favor, preached the Truth with power throughout the known world of their day. They did so by the inspiration and power of the Holy Spirit, but they employed every human gift of reason and persuasive communication at their disposal as they testified as to what they had seen and heard with their own eyes and ears. They shared the Good News and took every opportunity to convince and persuade all who would listen, wherever God made the opportunity for them to do so.

They did so ultimately to their own martyrdom, but they, by the grace of God, first transformed the world of their day, leaving a deep imprint of true liberty in Christ that has marked every succeeding generation of mankind since.

The weighty nature of their life’s work was still showing its mighty effects many centuries later when the devoutly Christian founders of the American republic, virtually all of whom were exceedingly well-versed in scriptural truth, laid claim to that sure knowledge as the political cornerstone premise of the great enterprise of building and securing what became the greatest nation on earth.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

They too risked all for the truth they held so dear. Some lost their lives in the winning of a free and independent America. Some lost their families. Almost all of them ultimately exchanged earthly riches for economic poverty. But, together, they were willing to pay the price of liberty.

“And 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 total united dedication was the sole impetus that allowed those men to persevere through years of intense physical and spiritual trial as they fought to win this country’s freedom from the strong shackles of the British crown’s tyranny. They ultimately prevailed, leaving a blessing to every succeeding generation of Americans, including our own. Through them, all of mankind, all of the nations, have been blessed to one degree or another.

But, having won independence, they soon realized that freedom alone was not enough. They had to take action to secure that liberty. James Madison, who had been quite young during the war years, along with many others, realized how fragile and insufficient the Articles of Confederation were, and began to push hard for a new Constitution. His life was spent strenuously advocating for the new system of government that great document created, to the extent that late in his life he endured the prospect of personal poverty for himself and those he was soon to leave behind.

Madison earned the title of “the Father of the Constitution,” and, though he originally for very good reasons opposed it, also eventually became known as “the Father of the Bill of Rights.” When he became convinced that those protections for the unalienable rights of the people were needed, he "hounded his colleagues relentlessly" to accept the proposed amendments.

His constant nemesis during many of those formative years of our constitutional republic was his fellow Virginian, the great orator and patriot Patrick Henry.  That bit of history is one of the things that makes the Henry quote that heads up this article so remarkable.

Many generations have now passed since Madison and Henry. Over the centuries many have devoted their lives to the same cause, some to the death. Others, especially in our time, have completely departed from the self-evident truths that were recognized by this country’s founders. And our nation is being destroyed because of it.

Do you understand clearly that our rights come from our Creator, not from any man, and that those rights are therefore unalienable?

Do you see that the purpose of government, all government, is to protect and secure the God-given rights of every individual person to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Will you shortsightedly pursue your own interests while thousands of defenseless little children continue to be slaughtered every day in the abortuaries in this country?

Will you continue to support the compromisers that are making this genocide, which has already claimed more than fifty million innocent lives, possible?

Will you stand by while the Constitution of the United States, which imperatively demands that “no person” shall be deprived of life without a fair trial on a capital offense, is completely ignored by this generation of political and legal elites?

Will you shut off the idiot box that is filling your head with nonsense long enough to do your citizen duty to God and your country?

What are you risking on behalf of the Truth?

What price are you willing to pay to secure the Blessings of Liberty to our Posterity?

Because, without your real commitment and active sacrifice, America is going to die. Everything it stands for will be ground into the dust by the jackboot of tyranny. This is a certainty. Liberty cannot exist if its moral foundations have been jackhammered away from under it.

If you do nothing, instead of blessing our memory, as we do to those who came before us, our posterity will curse us.