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Table of Contents
Volume 41, Number 4
July - August 2010

Off the Cuff!

Sermons

Sumner's Incidents and Illustrations

Book Reviews

Letters We Love

Email To A Friend

Dr. Robert Sumner passed away in December 2016. The Biblical Evangelist newspaper is no longer being published and the ministry of Biblical Evangelism has ceased operation.

The remaining inventory of his books and gospel tracts was transferred to The Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles and may be ordered here.

Famous Declarations of Independence!
Evangelist Robert L. Sumner

"Famous Declarations of

Independence!"

by Evangelist Robert L. Sumner

A few years ago, in Florida’s capital city, a reporter on the Tallahassee Democrat decided to honor the anniversary of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence by making twenty-seven blind stabs at the Tallahassee telephone book and calling twenty-seven numbers. When someone responded, he asked him or her if he knew the reason for celebrating the Fourth of July.

Eleven of the twenty-seven – almost one-half – did not know!

One had a vague idea that it was somehow related to freedom and made a wild guess that it was when Abe Lincoln freed the slaves!

Surely this is not representative coverage of American information about the Fourth of July, but it is nonetheless amazing that it could be true even in this single instance. It is indeed tragic that our American forefathers should pay such a high price in blood and possessions to provide a freedom apparently so completely unappreciated.

Thank God for the foresight, the determination and the courage of those founding fathers! Although this nation, under God has risen to a place and position and power second to no other nation on earth, we tremble to think what our plight might be today if this tremendous step had not been taken.

God has blessed America! We owe our prosperity and our greatness to Him. This country got started right on a right foundation. From John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress and first signer of the Declaration of Independence, down to the humblest, poorest tiller of American soil, every citizen of the newly formed government recognized that the only hope of success as a nation was in the providence of Almighty God. The last sentence of that historic document emphasized: "And 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."

What a grand, good beginning!

However, somewhere along the road America has lost touch with the Almighty! There is a question as to whether she longer deserves or merits the oft-used "Christian" title. According to Tom Rainer, head of SBC’s LifeWay Christian Resources whose organization checked it out with 1,200 youths aged 18-29 who claimed to be Christians, some 50% do not attend church even once a week; over two-thirds (68%) did not even mention faith, religion or spirituality when asked what was “really important” in their lives; over two-thirds (67%) never read the Bible; 60% do not think sharing the gospel is their responsibility and – get this – fifty percent are not sure Jesus is the only way to Heaven!

According to the Center of Disease Control, a record 40.6 percent of children born in 2008 (the latest year reported during this writing) were born outside marriage – a total of 1.72 million illegitimate babies. Other widely publicized and then quickly forgotten statistics indicate America harbors three criminals for every one college student of which she can boast; she produces more barmaids every year than she does college girls; and, as a nation, she spends more than double the amount for booze than she does for the education of her children and youth.

We had better face it: America is in a dangerous, perilous position as a nation at this hour. Remember what happened to mighty Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, France, Spain and other powerful nations who sold out to sin! Psalm 9:17 has this solemn warning: "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” And there is the stern reminder of Proverbs 14:34: "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”

Stop and think for a moment about twenty-first century conditions. Sunday is no longer a holy day or a day reserved for worshiping and honoring God. Drunkenness, divorce and remarriage, licentiousness, lewdness, nakedness, godlessness and immorality are running a rampage on America's spiritual toboggan slide downhill! It is even swiftly becoming considered a sign of being un-American in some quarters to let on that you believe in God.

Prayer, the Bible, and any favorable mention of God are being ruled out of our schools. Yet evolution, sneers at things sacred, encouragements in sensual pursuits, and other forms of anti-Christ, anti-God philosophies are welcomed in almost every public classroom. Nearly every decision handed down by the courts is on the side of the atheist and against the Bible believer.

However, the framers of the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution had no such ideas, nor did they ever dream such interpretations would be placed upon what they wrote. By way of example, Thomas Jefferson – who wrote the Declaration of Independence and who has sometimes been falsely called an atheist by those looking for prominent names to support their hopeless cause – said, "Religion is the alpha and omega of our moral law," and he called liberty the "gift of God."

John Adams, another signer and another founding father who has been erroneously called an atheist on occasion, in a letter to his wife after signing the Declaration, wrote: "You will see in a few days a declaration setting forth the causes that have impelled us to this mighty revolution, and the reasons which will JUSTIFY IT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. IT OUGHT TO BE COMMEMORATED AS THE DAY OF DELIVERANCE BY SOLEMN ACTS OF DEVOTION TO ALMIGHTY GOD. It ought to be solemnized by shows and games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of the continent to the other from this time forward for ever more."

William Whipple of New Hampshire said after signing: "May God unite our hearts in all things that tend to the well-being of the rising empire."

John Witherspoon, who was a major figure in the Independence deliberations, was an ordained Presbyterian minister and the president of Princeton University, a strong religious institution of that day and time.

American historian Richard D. Morris of Columbia University said: "All of the revolutionary leaders had a deep, thoughtful belief in God. They took their religion seriously. It was much more closely a part of the times … All of them were religious in the profound sense. Their concept of God, and His natural law, was part of the completion of the period ... To break allegiance to the king the appeal was to a higher law than the king, that of God. They counted on this higher law to justify revolution …"

American historian Henry Graff, also of Columbia University, after calling the Declaration "a political document," went on to add: "It was an out-growth of the liberalism and the age of enlightenment of the times. But Judeo-Christian thought was a basic part of the complex of ideas. All of the signers were religious men in the broadest sense of the word."

Of the fifty-six signers, thirty-four were Anglicans (Episcopalians), thirteen were Congregationalists, six were Presbyterians, one was a Quaker, one was a Roman Catholic, and one was a Baptist.

Let us again, at this time of the year, on America's freedom anniversary, thank God fervently and sincerely for the Declaration of Independence by the colonists in 1776. However, there are several other famous declarations of independence, some of which it might be profitable to consider. For one thing, there is

I. THE DEVIL'S DECLARATION

OF INDEPENDENCE

That sad story is given in Isaiah 14:12-15, where we read: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

Satan has not always been Satan as we know him. People sometimes say, "Why did God create the Devil?"

He didn't!

Satan, then known as Lucifer, was created completely apart from sin. He was one of the highest – if not the highest – of all the servants of the Lord God, apparently the director of worship to Jehovah. The description in Ezekiel 28:12-15 goes beyond the earthly king of Tyrus and outlines the original position and privileges of Satan. In that passage we read: "Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”

Like all God's creation, he was perfect, he was beautiful, and he was good. However, the day came when Satan decided he could get along without God. Such a conclusion is always fatal folly. He endeavored to take over God's dominion; God's throne, and God's power. Ezekiel 28:17 describes it, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee."

Recall the recital of that rebellion in Isaiah. Note the "I wills" in that passage, where Satan declared: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high."

Satan's declaration of independence from God met with bitter failure. He was kicked out of Heaven; he lost his lofty position and splendorous beauty. He was placed under a divine curse and, eventually, he will be cast into eternal Hell because of his rebellion.

God's judgment upon him is described in the Ezekiel passage as follows: “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more” (28:16-19).

The words of our Savior in Matthew 25:41 add further light to his ultimate eternal destination. There we read, "Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

Satan's story stands as solemn warning to souls today. Learn well the lesson from his foolish and fatal attempt at rebellion.

Another famous declaration, which fared no better, was

II. MAN'S DECLARATION OF

INDEPENDENCE FROM GOD!

Man, like Satan, was originally created perfect. Genesis 1:26, 27, tells us: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." Then verse 31 adds, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

God placed this perfect pair in the midst of an earthly paradise, gave them rule over the Garden of Eden, and permitted them to enjoy the fruits thereof. There was just one exception! Genesis 2:16, 17 says: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

Into that blissful and peaceful paradise Satan came with his subtle suggestion that God might be cheating them through His prohibition. Jehovah's great archenemy followed this typical approach with a typical lie, contradicting God's warning with the words, "Ye shall not surely die" (Genesis 3:4).

His argument impressed Eve and verse six of that chapter tells us, "The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise."

This temptation from Satan was followed by a declaration of independence from God on the part of both Adam and Eve. We might call your attention to the fact that this happened only because Eve had been hanging around the forbidden tree. If she had not been in the vicinity, there would have been no occasion for the temptation.

This principle is highly applicable for men and women in the twenty-first century. Don't hang around sin! Wise Solomon, many centuries ago, advised his son: "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away" (Proverbs 4:14, 15).

How pitiful is the description of Father Adam and Mother Eve in their declaration of independence from God. Genesis 3:6 reports it: "She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat!” What tragedy! What folly! What madness! Turning from the grace and love of God to the insanity and idiocy of Satan!

Perhaps Adam and Eve did not mean that act as a declaration of independence, but it was nonetheless. Mankind still follows those foolish footsteps of rebellion. Isaiah 53:6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way ...,” and Ecclesiastes 7:20 sums it up, "For there is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not."

Man's declaration, like Satan's, met with bitter failure, of course. It, too, resulted in the condemning curse of God! There was the pain and sorrow in childbirth for the woman, the laboring for bread on the part of man, and the loss of the earthly paradise for them both. Principally, however, the result of their sin was death!

God had originally told them – at the time He had forbidden them to eat of the tree – that if they disobeyed, "… in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Spiritual death came the very moment they partook of the fruit.

It is still the same today! Rebellion against God always meets with bitter failure. Romans 6:23 warns us, "For the wages of sin is death." And John 8:24 records the words of Christ, "I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins; for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."

In your own case, your declaration of independence from God through sin has resulted in the sentence of spiritual death upon you. The curse of God must be your eternal portion unless that sentence is reversed. Repent, turn to Christ, and end your rebellion before it is too late. The hymn writer expressed it:

Get right with God, why will ye die?

Oh, weary one, for mercy cry,

No longer walk the downward road,