What Really Happened on July 4th?

Independence Day. Why do we call it that? Is that the day we became independent?

Not really. On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence from Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson had drafted the Declaration of Independence in the preceding days. Congress re-worked it and finally approved it on July 4. Most of the delegates didn’t actually sign it until August 2 of that year. But Great Britain still didn’t agree, and the American Revolution went on until 1781. It wasn’t until September 3, 1783, that the Treaty of Paris was signed, and Britain recognized that the 13 colonies were free and independent.

An interesting tidbit -- there were two signers of the Declaration of Independence who later became president: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They both died on the same day: July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. President James Monroe died exactly five years later, on July 4, 1831.

So what are we celebrating? Our independence from Great Britain, though it didn’t actually happen that day. We celebrate our founding fathers, who had a vision to build a country where people could worship God as they pleased and who were willing to fight for what they believed. They used the Bible as a guideline and sought God’s guidance in writing the Constitution, the law to govern this great land.

May we never forget what our founding fathers fought and died for. May we thank God for the freedom we have and fight for it ourselves, if necessary. May our country’s leaders always seek God’s principles in governing us, and its citizens gladly follow them. I believe these things are what made our country great, and are the reason God has blessed us. I pray that it will always be so.