The Stewart Report

Ask yourself this question: "Would our founding fathers and those over the centuries who have fought for our America, would they be proud of where our America is today?” In some ways “yes”, but in so many ways, sadly “no”.

You see, long ago, over 230 years ago, people, people just like you and me, strived for their own nation, a better nation, a free nation. And they believed in their own cause for freedom so much, so deeply, that they were willing to literally pledge their allegiance to this nation.

Now you say, “We pledge allegiance today; we stand up and pledge our allegiance to our flag”. But has that pledge become mostly just shallow words we recite but we really don't mean? Are we willing to put our pledge, our words, into action? Our founding fathers did and they meant it. How do we know they meant it? Because they put their words into actions. Take a moment and imagine with me what it must have been like in 1776 and why what those 56 signers to our Declaration of Independence, why what they did was so amazing.

You see, in 1776 the American colonies were possessed and controlled by England, which at that time was clearly the most powerful nation in the world, and the colonists were not happy with the pressure being placed on them by the king of England, King George III. They were burdened by heavy taxes yet they had no say in government affairs; that's where the term, “taxation without representation”, came from. So for a number of years before 1776 the discontent of the colonists had been simmering and steaming in a pot of frustration that was sure to begin to boil over - but what could the colonists do?

Well, a number of colonial leaders like Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and other influential men in their day, they spoke on behalf of the colonists to the king; but to no avail - the king would not listen. Now one thing you must understand was that England had a mighty war machine that had proven victorious in every war they had fought to possess America, and King George had made it clear - defy his word, defy his authority, defy his power, and whoever tried would be crushed! In fact, the king had said any signer would be considered a traitor to England and that the British would answer with the death penalty for each signer.

But did the king's threats stop them? No! They were willing to give their all; they were willing to pledge their allegiance. And their declaration for their independence says it all. Look at the declaration itself. Read it, study it, but take an especially close look at the last sentence in that declaration and notice what it says: “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”.

Now that all sounds good but what does it really mean? Simply and powerfully this - they believed in the cause of freedom so deeply that they were willing to give up everything - their money, their honor, their very lives. Now think about that - sometimes we talk about being willing to die for our own beliefs and causes, but are we willing to also live for those causes? Many of these men were wealthy men, in fact at that time John Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in all of the colonies. This fact made his signing of the Declaration even more amazing - not only did he sign first, not only did he sign so big, he signed knowing that he could very well live and lose everything. I truly wonder how many of us in America today are willing to give up all of our money, all of our possessions, all of our fortunes just for our America today and for our beliefs in America.

And what about this word “honor”? Webster's dictionary defines honor as "Having integrity and honesty and a good reputation". Back in the 1700’s a man's good name and reputation meant just about everything. Their word was their bond and their honor was at the very foundation of who they were. But, all of that being said, these men were willing to give away their very honor for the chance to be a free America. Seeing it all that way really makes what they did, their actions, and their sacrifice so much more. And rightly so, because truly freedom is not free.

But, how did our founding fathers believe that they can win a war against the most powerful military force in the world? They had no standing army, only a few volunteers; most of all, they had no money to build their army. How in the world did they believe that they could win? Take a moment and look again at that last sentence from the Declaration - it tells us right there where they knew that their strength was - they said it was all based on “Their firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence”.

These words may be hard for us to understand in today's language, but back then everyone knew exactly what these words meant. The 56 signers were saying that they believed the only way their new nation could prevail, the only way they could be successful and victorious was if Almighty God himself helped them. They knew that if God was not with them, they would surely fail. On this one powerful fact they placed everything - and they won!

Doesn't it seem both strange and sad that our founding fathers knew the importance of God in their cause for freedom, in their very lives, and here we are over 200 years later pushing God out of our nation, pushing him out of our schools and out of our government buildings? I believe with all my heart the very reason our nation is struggling so today, the reason we are having so much hardship and difficulty in America, is because we have taken the true Father of our nation and we have removed Him as our true leader.

Let us pray today for the courage to truly pledge our allegiance to America and the godly ideals and principles our great was founded upon, and then, to act!  

Jerry Stewart