Liberty Is Impossible                                        Sunday

         Without Faith in God 

     Are we worshiping God today? He is the "King of Kings" and there is no earthly leader to compare. What makes America special? Eric Metaxas asks, "Would it surprise you that virtue and faith are at the heart of it all?"

     He wrote If You Can Keep It and is a member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission. Views will offer Metaxas and others as we approach our 250th year of liberty. He wrote another book after his research told him "it is simply inescapable. Faith in God really is the secret at the heart of American liberty." 

     He quotes John Adams: "Public virtue is the only foundation of the republic." And George Washington: "Virtue is the necessary spring of popular government." Eric: "To be governed by a monarch (see yesterday's Views) or anyone else - simply meant obeying those authorities."

     Virtue. "To govern ourselves means doing the right thing when no one is looking, where there is no authority enforcing that behavior. Why behave virtuously? Faith. If you believe in God and want to serve him, you don't need a government to threaten you. You will do it out of love, repentance and fear of God. This was the secret." 

     Metaxas wrote, "Long before the Revolution, Pilgrams and Puritans fled England for the chance to worship God freely. Many Americans at the time of the Revolution were descendants of those devout Christians. In the 18th century there was a Great Awakening, one of the greatest revivals in history. The main figure was George Whitefield, who said we need not look to kings or bishops, but to God himself. Even kings and bishops would be judged by God.

Tomorrow: What's on a dollar bill?