Blog: Max Dawson
July 4, 2016
Guy Hatcher recently posted on his blog at Crosswalk that there are six freedoms we should celebrate on Independence Day.
I don’t know if I ever thought about counting our freedoms. And I don’t know how he came up with six. The Declaration of Independence has a short statement about our freedom to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Those words say a lot about things we should celebrate. The Bill of Rights also gives us cause to celebrate.
It seems to me that all of our freedoms go together. That is, they come like a package. If you take one away, the others are either removed or weakened.
Someone might say, “I am glad we have in America the freedom of religion. I don’t care so much about those other things like freedom of speech, freedom of press or of assembly. I only care that we are free to worship God.”
That kind of thinking is rather shortsighted and fails to understand the nature of freedom. That’s why I said our freedoms come as a package.
If we do not have freedom of press, then we do not have freedom of religion.
If we do not have freedom of speech, then we do not have freedom of religion.
If we do not have freedom of assembly, then we do not have freedom of religion.
If I cannot print the truth about God and the Bible, if I cannot freely speak that truth, and if I cannot assemble with others to worship God according to truth, then I do not have freedom of religion.
Never surrender your freedoms to any government–no matter what is promised.
THE FINAL WORD
Guy Hatcher (mentioned above) listed six freedoms. They are listed here. I have attached a question with each one. Please ponder the questions.
1. Freedom to believe. (Do you believe in God or government to take care of you?)
2. Freedom to live out our faith. (Do you have faith in God in our chaotic world?)
3. Freedom to worship. (Do you gather to worship the way God directs in His word?)
4. Freedom of prayer. (Do you rely on God, or on your own ways, trusting in self?)
5. Freedom to vote. (Are you allowing the godless to chip away at our freedoms?)
6. Freedom of happiness. (Happiness is nice, but is that what your life is about?)
I am not looking for controversy in these questions. They are things we should ponder.
Blessings to you my dear friends,
–Max
BTW, Ben asked a question in his email last week about the “famous brother” in (NASB). He asked, “Who is it?” He said he would leave me to answer today. The fact is, I don’t know who that brother is. Neither does Ben!