Freedom-Fighters Forum
By William J. Dell – February 1995
As I write this column, I wonder how many of you feel that because of the conservative election win in November that the fight is won. I wonder how many of you feel that the Republican majority in Congress will enact their Contract and all will be well with us in our great land. If you would fall into this trap, I would remind you of the following stated by John Philpot Curran in 1790: “It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.” From this source we get the oft quoted maxim: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
For some years the Christian “right” has been gaining strength in the fight for freedom. While we were gaining steam, the liberals tried, and with some success, to brand us as extremists. With their loss, it is apparent that the Liberal “left” feels the threat as they never have before. They realize that they too had become complacent after control for 40 years. They never dreamed that they would lose their power. Now that they have we can expect them to intensify their attacks as they strive to regain that which they have lost.
The question to be pondered is why did they lose power? It is my testimony that God has heard the prayers of a nation in revival. A nation seeking to hold fast the personal liberties granted to us by our Father in Heaven and guaranteed to us by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. I truly believe it is by the prayers of the righteous that we are spared at this time.
I believe that we as a nation, over the past 40 years, have been like the children of Israel wandering in the “Wilderness of Sin” and have drifted away from God and His teachings. I also believe that the scriptures are true and if we are to be redeemed as a nation and people we must return to the principles taught in them and raise up a new generation. A generation that will serve the Lord.
We must believe the Scriptures that state in Psalms 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” And in Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.”
We as a people have been granted a reprieve by our Father in Heaven. I believe this is because many have begun to seek Him again since the ways espoused by the Liberal “left” have failed. Ways that have destroyed the family and the traditional values of our fore-fathers. Ways that attacked the very foundation of our great nation.
How well did the Prophet Ether see our time when he wrote: “For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is an everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land, that they are swept off. And this cometh unto you, O Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of God — that ye may repent and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done. Behold, this is a choice land and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which have been written.” (2:10-12)
During the Revolutionary War, only about one-third of the colonists were concerned about their liberties. The others were apathetic or looking to climb on the band wagon of the winning side. We need to be numbered with those who are anxiously engaged in increasing the Conservative “right” in both the House and Senate. We need to ensure that a Conservative is elected President. Much of what needs to be done will not happen over the next two years. It took 40 years of indolence to get us where we are and it will take more than two years to remove the chains of slavery that have encircled us.
Each of us needs, as Paul said to the Ephesians, to “put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” who would destroy the agency of freedom of man. Each of us with Moroni needs to raise the “Title of Liberty” and bow ourselves to the earth, and pray mightily unto God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon our nation, so long as there remains a band of Christians to possess the land.
The struggle is not over. It is just beginning. Each of us chose to be on the Lord’s side during the first struggle for freedom when a third of the host of heaven were expelled. Each of us must now choose again to be a freedom fighter or a fighter of freedom in the struggle to maintain our God given endowment to life, liberty and property. Unlike our Revolutionary War ancestors, we cannot sit by and be found guiltless. In restoring our nation to the great principles of our Founding Fathers, it is important that we remember the counsel of Thomas Jefferson, “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
Great leaders of the past, in nations who have lost their glory, sounded the certain trumpet. Their pleas went unheeded and their nations declined and passed into history. We as a nation need to learn from their experience. There was Demosthenes in 341 BC who said, “There must be some cause, some good reason, why the Greeks were so eager for liberty then, and now are eager for servitude.” And what of Cato who said of the Roman Empire in 63 BC, “Our liberties, our lives, are in danger.” And what of our present day concerning our great nation, Ezra Taft Benson had this to say in the 1960′s, “To the patriots I say this: Take that long eternal look. Stand up for freedom no matter what the cost. It can help save your soul – and maybe your country.”
We are engaged in a conflict for the hearts and minds of a nation. To maintain the American way of life and pass it intact to succeeding generations is the responsibility of every true American. Will we accept the responsibility to pass to our posterity the heritage of our Founding Fathers or will we sit by and leave them the decline of the Welfare State.
I plead with you to stay in the fight. Do whatever you can to ensure that good men, who are statesmen and concerned for our country, are elected to restore our nation to the principles upon which it was founded. I implore you to vote and more importantly to pray daily for our nation and our leaders that the cause of freedom might be preserved. May God bless you in your efforts and may God bless America.
