July 4th, 1826 A.D. : Adams and Jefferson Depart This World
2nd US President John Adams on left/top, with 3rd US President Thomas Jefferson on the right/bottom. Friends, then 'frenemies', then rivals, then friends again. But both knew themselves to have participated in a monumental undertaking: the formation of an intended Christian nation!
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were the 2nd and 3rd Presidents of the United States. They were thought of by some 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 its passage, and his many previous speeches before the Continental Congress had a great deal to do with the development of its content.
Aside from George Washington there would have been only Ben Franklin to possibly rival them as the most widely known Americans in the Independence movement, in my opinion.
And against all odds 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, to be technically correct, the Declaration was made public on the 4th of July but had been completed on the 2nd of July as I understand it.
But is there any real chance of these things being an accident? 50 is Biblically 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 truer 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.
In a similar sort of light...the 50th star, so far as of 2018 it is the final star) on the American flag was added (purposefully, it must be admitted!) in 1960 on the 4th of July, to represent the state of Hawaii!
America is a nation formed for some God-intended purpose; 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 seeming to always make 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 definitively condemned. And that's barely the beginning. Are we all guilty of sin? Yes. Starting with me. But we essentially glorify some sins in America, to our shame. But we were indeed conceived by our founders 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. Before the American Civil War was a great movement of the Holy Spirit torched off in New York city through Justin Lamphier and reaching much of the world. Also in the US, 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 libeling 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 they needed to be the best Christian they could, and that we needed to be a Christian nation under God. 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, God blessed us. America was allowed for a time to prosper and to grow in strength, commercial success, and world 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 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, repent of their sins, and be baptized, going on then to strengthen their nation in its internal values, and join those who steer it away from the disaster which comes when God loses all patience with the people of a land.
Let's hope God will make us strong and wise to do these things.