What was the point?

When the united States of America declared "That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown..." it was not a declaration of rebellion, because any study through the biographies of the men that signed the document we call "The Declaration of Independence" would reveal a surprising amount of petitioning and appeals much before any act of defensive war.


This is another point I do not wish to belabor but to remind us that rebellion is not the word for the war that won our independence from Great Britain; the British had already made acts of war on the citizens of the thirteen British colonies in the Americas. Our actions were those of self-defense not initiative warfare throwing insult and offense into the face of our political authority.


I often wonder how our friends in Great Britain feel about our celebrating over here and vilifying them as  a people. Remember this is the day we remember the signing of the Declaration of Independence! There was much work and danger after this day, 235 years ago! We are not celebrating the demise of British friends! It was painful to take-up arms against our fellow countrymen! Our document which declares us free and independent of the crown of Great Britain is clear, we relate to them as we do any other nation, "We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."


Our desire for freedom was not simply to live free from an oppressive government under King George, III. The colonists sought to be loyal to the British crown asking for the freedom to worship as directed by the written word of God and not the dictates of a state run church.


Many people today think that the only or primary reason for our independence was because we were being taxed and not represented. The grievance of taxation was seventeenth in a list of twenty-seven! Taxation ranked in the LAST half of the grievances, not first or even primary! 


What then would be the first freedoms which they would wish to protect?


Reading the Bill of Rights, we learn that their desire was to protect the free exercise of seeking God. No interference or opposition from government!


Let us remember these thing on this day: 

1. In this time of peace, we praise God for our friends the British (largely from whom we descend)! 
2. In this time of history we have the peace to seek the meaning of truth without pressure of conforming to one thing or another, but making our beliefs and faith our own!
3. We still have the freedom "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."