Dear Fellow Americans and International Friends,
Rededicate 250
This month we celebrate America’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026. A gathering in May of this year on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. happened 250 years after Congress declared May 17, 1776, “a day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” on behalf of the Revolutionary cause. This year’s events included a video appearance of President Trump reading from the book of Second Chronicles (7:14). The entire assembly was called “a Rededication of our Country as One Nation Under God”.
Critics of Rededication 250 say that fusing American and Christian identities threatens a constitutional separation of church and state. I checked a copy of the constitution. Amendment 1 states that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” So, clearly, Congress cannot declare Christianity or any other religion to be our “state or government-established religion.” However, there is no law preventing the continuation of the biblical legacy of our Founding Fathers. “In God We Trust” on our money is part of that legacy. Sadly, the motto has not prevented us from embracing the love of money instead of the love of God.
While we want to see all U.S. citizens, as well as all people, come to know Yeshua (Jesus) as Savior and Lord, we must be sensitive to the fact that we live in a pluralistic society. God has given men the gift of free will. Love is always a choice. Our Founding Fathers wanted us to be SALT and LIGHT (Matt. 5:13-14) so that our fellow Americans might be drawn to the God of the Bible and to His Messiah. America’s second President, John Adams, remarked in 1756: “Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only Law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited… What a paradise would this region be!”
It is a fact that the Bible and biblical principles were important in the framing of the Constitution. When constitutional scholars and political historians assembled 15,000 writings from the Founding Era (1760-1805), they counted 3,154 citations of which the majority came from the Bible (or from reprinted sermons based on the Bible).
I recently discovered that our three branches of government, as outlined in the Constitution—Legislative (Article I), Executive (Article II), and Judicial (Article III)—were actually based on a biblical understanding of man. This view of human nature recognizes both human dignity (we are created in God’s image) and human depravity (we are sinful individuals)—hence, the reality of both grace and sin operating in government and the need for a separation of powers and a system of checks and balances. “For the LORD is our Judge [Judicial branch], the LORD is our Lawgiver [Legislative branch], the LORD is our King [Executive branch]; He will save us” (Is. 33:22).
God Bless America
I love America and the song “God Bless America.” When my first-born son Jonathan was two years old, I taught him to sing this beloved patriotic song. (You can hear him on Righteous Rhymes via Spotify). During my own childhood, I was involved in the “C.A.R.” (Children of the American Revolution). I remember trips to George Washington’s headquarters in White Plains, N.Y. where I served tea to the D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Revolution) ladies. Patriotism was taught in my home.
I am concerned about America today. We are self-centered rather than God-centered. I agree with the following prayer that Billy Graham once prayed for our nation:
“Heavenly Father, we come before You today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ But that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed the unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today: cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!”
May God bless America with the gift of repentance—from pride, self-sufficiency, prejudice, violence, lying, and all sexual sin. As the Scripture promises, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance” (Ps. 33:12). It is a sobering thought that the U.S.A. is not mentioned in the Bible. Israel is. America is not eternal. Israel is. I heard a thought worth pondering:
America was founded because people loved God.
Israel was founded because God loved people.
Patriotism, Alive or Dead?
My grandchildren told me that they still recite, as they put it, “The Pledge Allegiance to the Flag” every morning at their public school. They know the words by heart, but when I asked Liam, age 9, in the 99th percentile of students nationwide, what the Pledge meant, he said, “I have no idea, Nana.” That crushed me! (Liam also did not know anything about the Revolutionary War).
I was taught to honor our flag. That is why I insisted that my youngest son, Jesse, enter the contest: “What the American Flag Means to Me.” This happened right before Jesse’s Bar Mitzvah in 2001. He won $10,000 for his video entry, tithed his money to Jewish Jewels, gave us some money for his Bar Mitzvah party, and invested the rest. The flag used in the video was from my childhood home.
In researching the American flag, I learned that the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a Baptist minister for a school program celebrating Columbus Day. In 1954 Congress passed a law, adding the words “under God” to “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Also concerning the American flag: a recent article titled “Founding Mothers” said, “Betsy Ross had the honor of sewing the first United States flag. A symbol of patriotism, Ross is often celebrated as the woman who helped George Washington finish the design.” Washington, along with two members of the Continental Congress, brought Betsy a rough sketch of a flag with thirteen red and white stripes and thirteen six-pointed stars. 
Ross suggested that the stars be changed to five-pointed stars since they were easier to make. The men agreed to change the design.
We still sing “The Star Spangled Banner,” our National Anthem, at sports events. The lyrics came from the “Defence of Fort M’Henry,” a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814. He was inspired by the American flag that flew triumphantly above the fort after the U.S. victory in battle.
An unfortunate truth about Key and other early American patriots is that they were slaveholders. Many of these men inherited slaves from their parents, including George Washington, who inherited ten enslaved people at age 11 after his father’s death in 1743. Washington, to his credit, was the Founding Father who freed his slaves (123 people) in his will.
This issue is a serious stumbling block among the younger generation concerning patriotism.
Some say that the founding of America was “racist” since “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” from the Declaration of Independence should apply to ALL people, and slaves did not have liberty. Although slavery was an evil institution that was eventually dealt with, the truth remains that it was part of our beginnings as a nation. My son, Jonathan, does not believe that we, as a nation, have ever really repented for the institution of slavery. That is why Juneteenth is especially meaningful to him and his peers. Known as Juneteenth National Independence Day, this Federal holiday is now celebrated every year on June 19th to commemorate the end of slavery in the U.S. (On June 19, 1865, the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation occurred in Texas at the end of the American Civil War.) Juneteenth is also known as “Black Independence Day.”
What about July 4th? We must remember that the men who signed the Declaration of Independence granting us freedom from England were flawed human beings. Nevertheless, the tenants of the Republic for which they stood were, and are, moral and Bible-based. Worthy of celebrating and emulating.
Prager U has suggested that perhaps America needs a “July Fourth Seder” to help keep our national identity alive. July 4th should be celebrated as the day America was born, not just a day to take off from work and enjoy hot dogs and hamburgers with friends. In their words: “National memory dies without national ritual. And without national memory, a nation dies. That is the secret at the heart of the Jewish people’s survival that the American people must learn if they are to survive. How have the Jews accomplished this? By the ritual of the Passover Seder.” I, personally, am in favor of a “July 4th Seder” if it includes repentance, truth, gratitude, and prayer for America to return to our Judeo-Christian roots.
Haym Solomon: A Jewish “savior”
Many individuals played a crucial role in winning our independence. One such man, Haym Solomon, is not widely recognized but hugely responsible for the American victory in a war that lasted from April 19, 1775, to September 3, 1783.
On July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia, the Declaration of Independence officially announced that the thirteen colonies were severing their political ties with Great Britian to become independent sovereign states. This breaking free might not have been possible if not for the support of one Jewish man—Haym Solomon—the man who financed the American Revolution.
Solomon was born to a Jewish family in Leszno, Poland in 1740. In 1770, he was forced to leave Poland and eventually ended up in New York City where he joined the “Sons of Liberty,” was arrested by the British for spying, then pardoned because his fluency in six languages was helpful to their cause. Haym continued to spy for the Americans, escaping execution more than once. He fled from New York City to Philadelphia, the capital of the Revolution, where he started a business that proved lucrative. Records show that between 1781 and 1784, through both fundraising and personal loans, Haym Solomon was responsible for financing George Washington over $650,000 (today worth over 16 million dollars). Without Solomon’s strategic provision of $20,000, Washington’s successful campaign against General Cornwallis at Yorktown would have been impossible. Without the help of Haym Solomon, the Americans might not have won the war.
It is believed that the illustration on our one-dollar bill—a cluster of 13 stars above the eagle’s head, arranged in a 6-pointed hexagram like the Star of David—was designed to honor Haym Solomon. This design, since 1782, is still part of the great Seal of the United States of America.
Land of the Free, Home of the Brave
There is a set of books which includes character studies from the American War of Independence called “Profiles of Valor.” Written by Marilyn Boyer and Grace Tumas Ehrman, these true stories of ordinary men and women, who shaped the destiny of our country, are very inspirational. While the four-volume set is primarily meant for homeschoolers, I found the stories to be educational, informative, and enjoyable.
One patriot that stood out was Jordan Freeman. The verse of Scripture that accompanies his particular story is Psalm 31:24, “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” Freeman’s outstanding character trait was COURAGE.
Jordan was both “free” and “brave.” He is most remembered for his role in the Battle of Groton Heights, Connecticut on September 6, 1781. One hundred eighty-five Continental soldiers in homespun clothes, “barefoot free Black troops” faced seventeen hundred British raiders led by Benedict Arnold. Jordan Freeman, a forty-nine year old black soldier, was under the command of Colonel William Ledyard, who had once been Jordan’s slave master. One day Ledyard had come to him, looked him in the eye, and told him that he was free. During the years that followed, a beautiful friendship developed between the two men.
Jordan loved his new name, “freeman.” He and his commander both knew that the British forces hopelessly outnumbered them. Nevertheless, eighty men stubbornly resisted, united, until running out of ammunition, Colonel Ledyard ordered his men to stop fighting. He surrendered to the British officer and handed over his sword. “Instead of accepting it, the British major seized the sword, twisted it, and thrust it into Colonel Ledyard’s body, piercing his white linen shirt and waistcoat. The murdered American officer collapsed on the ground. Jordan Freeman, watching in horror, saw his beloved commander collapse. Without thinking, he raised his bayonet and drove it through the Major’s crimson uniform.”
You can imagine the rest of the story. Jordan Freeman died but not after receiving thirty-three bayonet wounds during the battle. “On that September day near the end of the war, eighty men, black and white, had joined hands against a superior enemy in a last courageous stand.”
Today, at Griswold Fort, where Jordan Freeman fell, there is a plaque depicting Jordan stretching his spear to kill the British Major, commemorating his courage and loyalty to his commander and friend.
The U.S.A. is free today because of men like Jordan Freeman and Colonel William Ledyard.
How, Then, Shall We Live?
Chazak, chazak. V’nitchazek. חזק חזק ונתחזק (khah-ZAHK khah-ZAHK veh-neet-khah-ZEHK): Be strong. Be strong. And be strengthened (from Joshua 1:9, “Chazak, Be strong”). While chazak alone literally means “strong,” it can refer to the past. V’nitchazak refers to the future. The exhortation three times to be strong is meaningful in Jewish law; doing something three times is considered an established pattern with legal strength. We must stand strong today as Americans and as believers in the Jewish Messiah Yeshua. “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong” (I Cor. 16:13). “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:10-11). (See also 2 Cor. 1:24; Gal. 5:1; Eph. 6:13-14; Phil. 1:27; Phil. 4:1; Col. 4:12; I Thes. 3:8; 2 Thes. 2:15.)
While we stand STRONG, we must be aware of God’s will concerning those who are weaker than ourselves: “We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Rom. 15:1). Be merciful to others since we need mercy ourselves. Our country needs mercy. As we repent of our personal and national sins and regain our moral compass, times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord. (Acts. 3:19)
Pray that the U.S. continues to stand strong by Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, and the nation destined to see the return of the King of kings who will rule one day from Jerusalem.
Praying for all of us to stand strong by the grace of God. Love,
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