[Darris McNeely] This week is the 4th of July in the United States, a national day of celebration of its independence. The Declaration of Independence was signed on or about July 4th. And it's a remarkable document in all of history. Probably, the most quoted phrase is that we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. And that has been the ideal throughout American history of creating a society of equality for everyone. It has gone a long way. It's not been perfect. And today there's a great deal of discussion about what really would make this country equal for everybody. And some have a different ideology. Some want to go towards socialism, some want to just stay with capitalism. But it's still a much-debated idea. What is it that makes everyone equal in the phrasing of the Declaration of Independence is something to think about on this particular day, not just for Americans, but really for everyone. 

There was a line from a book that I have often gone to, called "The History of the English Speaking Peoples." It talks about the history of America and Britain, but it concludes after talking about all of the advancements and the achievements of these peoples throughout the last 200 or so years, and it makes a comment about the English speaking peoples, America, Britain, Australia, Canada, and others being what the author calls the last best hope for mankind. And that as history goes along and should things ever change, he makes this one comment about what these people stand for and I think it's something to think about at this time. He says, "When the time finally comes to render up the report of their global stewardship and history, there will be much of which to boast and only when another power holds global sway will the human race come to mourn the passing of this most decent, honest, generous, fair-minded and self-sacrificing imperium," speaking about the English speaking peoples. 

And again, as we think about the national day of celebration of the 4th of July, what Thomas Jefferson wrote with the phrase, "All men are created equal," I think that the best thing I could go back to is what we find in the book of Galatians, where the Apostle Paul wrote about true equality and let's measure that up against any other human standard of government and our ideas. In Galatians 3:26, Paul writes that, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many as you have been baptized into Jesus, you have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." That's the standard. That's the gold standard for equality from a biblical perspective that Paul writes here. And then he says, "And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." That's the standard of equality.

There's been no nation in all of history to come up to it. I think that what we might look at with the history of the English speaking peoples has brought a fair measure of prosperity and levels of equality for many people around the world through history. There's a lot yet still to improve, and it's only when mankind comes up to the standard of equality that God puts forth that there can be a true celebration.

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