July 4th, 1826 A.D. :  Adams and Jefferson Depart This World

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the 2nd and 3rd President of the United States.  They were thought of as the two principal figures in the development, ratification, and publishing of the Declaration of Independence.  Jefferson wrote the most of it.  Adams probably argued the most strenuously and persistently for it's passage, and his many previous speeches before the Continental Congress had a great deal to do with the developement of it's content.

Behind George Washington there would have only Ben Franklin to possible rival them as the most widely known Americans in the Independence movement, in my opinion.

And they both died, many miles apart, on the 50th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, on the 4th of July (Independence Day) - the anniversary of perhaps the most important work that either took part in.  (That is arguable, since both men did much).  Also, the Declaration was made public on the 4th, but had been completed on the 2nd as I understand it.

But, is there any real chance of that being an accident?  50 is the number of completion, and of new beginnings.  It is the number of years of a Jubilee cycle in the Laws of Moses - every 50 years, a new Jubilee.  One day, 50 would be the number of states that belonged in the interesting new republic which they had done so much work to help create.

As if to emphasize this date - July 4th - the Lord had our 5th President - James Monroe - pass away exactly 5 years after Jefferson and Adams.  Monroe died on July 4th, 1831.  And exactly 40 years after Monroe died, Calvin Coolidge, a man destined to one day become a U.S. President, was born into this world.   July 4th:  3 out of 44 Presidents have died on that day.  And since 5 of our 44 Presidents remain alive (at the date of this writing) it is actually more true to say that 3 of the 39 dead American Presidents have passed away on the 4th of July.  That means 1 in every 13 Presidents have died on one specific day of the year....a day which is nationally significant.    

America is a nation formed for something, it seems.  We are not a Holy Nation in our conduct.  We are, in fact, the wickedest of nations on Earth in many important ways.  Our pornography laden cinema with so many movies making sure that the main characters curse in the Lord's praiseworthy name, our ruthless dedication to the slaughter of infants in the womb, profaning the definition of marriage to include things that the Lord has definatively condemned.  And that's barely the beginning.  But, we were, indeed, conceived to be a nation under God. 

In the Bible, some nations repented, and found God's favor and grace again.  Israel and Judah did it repeatedly.  The exiles returning from Babylon did it.  The prophet Jonah's words from God even got the Assyrians in Ninevah to repent.  That is what we truly have to do, or the consequences we face will be terrible.  They will make an economic crisis look like the smallest of potatoes.

America has rallied itself and moved in the direction of reform before.  The South saw a large religious re-awakening after the Civil War.  The depression and dust bowl era (the 1930's) saw national acknowledgements of God's power over us.  But, can we do this again?

We probably shouldn't romanticize our ancestors.  Reading about the early decades of American self government, people remark over and over about just what a vicious political process we had in the early two-party days.  And the press did not much fear libelling whoever they wished, and were avidly in favor of one party or another, as a rule.  We weren't necessarily founded by a race of moral giants.  But, some among them were pretty resolved that we needed to be a Christian nation under God.  And some among them strove mightily to be persons of great character, and citizens of great worth.  They believed in the ideas America claimed to stand for.  And whether for the sake of His great name alone, or otherwise, America was allowed, for a time, to prosper and to grow in strength and influence. 

But national integrity waxes and wanes with time - it has to be steadily and meaningfully implanted in every new child that is born, so that, as they become adults, they are equipped to be a citizens capable of living in a God-pleasing way.  Then, God might continue to feel able to bless us.  Otherwise, He may decide to crush us and sweep us aside as He has so often done to nations grown overly proud or morally corrupted.

We are extremely lucky in that anyone reading this can still commit their life to Jesus, and on this world can still work to strengthen their nation in it's internal values, and steer it away from the disaster which comes when God loses all patience.

Let's hope God will make us strong and wise to do these things.