A monumental birthday party is coming!

Imagine a birthday cake so large that it has 250 candles on it. Such could be the case on July 4th next year, when America will celebrate two and a half centuries of our national independence. Just last week President Trump issued Executive Order 14180 to plan for that birthday.

The order calls for a “grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion.” And it adds, “It is also the purpose of this order to take other actions to honor the history of our great Nation.”

I’m so glad Trump sees the value of this. The president writes, “Task Force 250 shall coordinate with the executive departments and agencies to plan, organize, and execute an extraordinary celebration of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence.”

Another point he makes in his executive order is to reinstate the protection of “America’s Monuments from Vandalism.” Back in 2020, there were many American historical statutes that were toppled or defaced by leftist revolutionaries. It began with Confederate memorials, but it desecrated the memory of many other past leaders in our history. Even George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were not exempt.

The Biden administration undid Trump’s executive order to protect America’s monuments. But now Trump has reinstated the prohibition from defacing these historical markers.

It is right and just for America to make a big deal about our 250th birthday. On July 4, 1776, by the unanimous voice vote, 56 men in Philadelphia, representing about 3 million souls in the 13 colonies of British North America, adopted the final wording of the Declaration of Independence.

It was a risky move. If America had lost the war, these men could have ended up being executed for treason.

The essence of the Declaration of Independence is “the consent of the governed” under God. In fact, the Declaration mentions God four times:

• “… the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God …”
• “all men are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights …”
• “… appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions …”
• “… with a firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence …”

In the Declaration of Independence, the founders declared independence from Great Britain. But at the same time, they declared dependence upon Almighty God. Without His help, they didn’t think their bold action would succeed.

Today’s secularists gnash their teeth at the idea of God having anything do with America’s founding. But He does. Furthermore, history is replete with examples of societies that removed God and consequently unleashed mass killings.

Atheism has a bloody track record. Stalin has slain his millions. Mao his tens of millions.

Thomas Jefferson, the key author of the Declaration of Independence, asked this question elsewhere. These words are chiseled in stone at the Jefferson Memorial: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?”

Why do we have an immigration crisis right now? Why do people vote with their feet to try to get into this country? What makes the U.S. so special? The answer has to do with one simple fact: We have an excellent foundation – one that recognizes that our rights come from God. Period.

Even when America doesn’t live up to its creed – that our Creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights – it’s still a good creed.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed in his classic speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963: “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.'” King, of course, was quoting the Declaration of Independence.

I believe that what is best about America gets back to our Judeo-Christian heritage. I don’t think there would be an America without the unique role the Bible played in the founding of our nation. Because America began as a Christian nation, people of all faiths or no faith are welcome here.

It is no small thing that America was founded as one nation under God, because when rights come from God, not the state, they are non-negotiable.

President John F. Kennedy noted in his Inaugural Address, “I am proud of the revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought … the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but the hands of God.”

So, we anticipate quite a birthday party next year and a whole lot of cake and candles.