Showing posts with label Declaration of Independence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Declaration of Independence. Show all posts

Thursday, April 19, 2018

'This Was Promised to Us By God': The Declaration of Independence that Changed the World - CBN News Julie Stahl,Scott Ross

'This Was Promised to Us By God': The Declaration of Independence that Changed the World

04-18-2018CBN News Julie Stahl, Scott Ross

TEL AVIV, Israel – 70 years ago in an art gallery in Tel Aviv, David Ben Gurion made a declaration that changed the world forever. On May 14, 1948 he declared the birth of the modern state of Israel. For the first time in nearly 2,000 years, the Jewish people had a nation.
CBN's Scott Ross spoke with Isaac Dror, who heads education at the place where the declaration was made – now known Independence Hall.
"Ben Gurion chose the words 'we hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel to be known as the State of Israel.' This was the birth of a Jewish state for all Jews," Dror told CBN News.
"Ben Gurion was standing here as the voice of 11 million Jews around the world who had no voice, who had no address and nowhere to go to," Dror said. 
"This was promised to us by God," he said. "We are the only people in the history of the world that live on the same land, speak in the same language and believe in the same God more than 3,000 years."
It was Friday afternoon and the ceremony needed to be finished in time for the guests to get home before sundown when the eve of the Sabbath began. The ceremony lasted just 32 minutes. 
The British, who had ruled mandatory Palestine for about 30 years, left and reborn Israel was invaded by five Arab armies.
"The civil war that was launched upon us six months before the declaration was still going on. Jerusalem was besieged and struggling, not very far away from here," Dror said. 
"It's like when you mix the happiest day for the Jewish people, one of the greatest moments for our nation in modern times with one of the most dangerous and sad days when Israel was that close to a complete annihilation," he added.
Dror said the building had been chosen because it was the "safest auditorium" in Tel Aviv. Most of the guests, too, were from Tel Aviv because the "country" was divided up and Jerusalem disconnected. 
"Only 350 of them were lucky enough to be squeezed in the room with no air conditioning," he said.
One of those people was Yael Sharett, the daughter of Moshe Sharett, the second prime minister of Israel. 
"Her father was on the stage here, Moshe Sharrett. He was the right hand of Ben Gurion and the, kind of, foreign minister of the provisional government of Israel," explained Dror.
"When they came to the ceremony, they came with an invitation. It was issued on the 13th of May, which is 24 hours before the event. And it says, 'we are honored to invite you to the ceremony of independence.' And then it goes 'we ask you to keep it as a secret.'
"You don't want thousands of people to swarm the street when you expect an air raid later that day. And then it says the invitation is 'personal,' like come alone.
"And here, you have Mr. Moshe Sharrett who brought his daughter with him. And not only his daughter, but his sister as well and the guy at the door said 'what are you doing? This is just for one person.' And Moshe Sharrett said, 'they will share the same chair.'
Ross met Yael Sharett Medini at her home in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv. On the wall, is a photo of the ceremony. Using a toothpick, Yael pointed out where she and her aunt had been sitting.
"Here's my aunt and this is my forehead and we shared a chair there – next to the wall," Yael told Ross.
Just a day earlier her father had dictated to her a draft of the Declaration of Independence. A copy of that draft is also hanging on the wall in Yael's home.
"This is the document. This is my father's version of the declaration – the one that he dictated to me. This is my handwriting," Yael said.
"And this took you how long?" Ross asked.
"I think that I sat there about three-quarters of an hour to an hour," she said. 
Despite her participation in such a momentous event, Yael referred to herself as simply "a handmaiden of history." She told us her story.
At age 17, she said, she wasn't so interested in the declaration ceremony.
"I knew that this was going to happen from the age of zero. That we are going to have a state. And, we are rightfully here," she said.
Yael and her family were living in New York at the time where her father was busy at the United Nations, convincing countries to support the soon to be born Jewish state. When they returned on May 11th for the declaration of statehood she stayed in Tel Aviv with her aunt.
"So, my father came to his sister's apartment place to dictate this to me, right. When he finished, he said, 'tomorrow there is going to be a ceremony declaring the state, ok. Now I'm going to pick you up at 3:30, you and your aunt. Be ready, get dressed, comb your hair, and be presentable.' And, I obey orders," she said.
"Do you remember the event itself? When Ben Gurion stood up and read?" Ross asked.
"Yes, this I remember," she said. "It's really epic. It's poetry actually." Nevertheless, it was an ancient Jewish prayer that touched her most.
"The only time I was really moved I must say was when the Rabbi Levine made the old age Jewish blessing: shehecheyanu, v'kiyimanu, v'higiyanu la'z'man ha'zeh," she said.
That prayer is recited on momentous occasions and thanks God "who has given us life, sustained us and allowed us to reach this day." 
"We are not religious, I am not religious. But, this blessing has an echo of generations," she said.
At the end they stood and sang the national anthem, HaTikvah, The Hope.
The next day was the Sabbath. US President Harry Truman became the first world leader to recognize the re-born state. But Yael wasn't so interested.
"I had to get in touch with my friends who were already mobilized, while I was not yet because I was in America. And, I was very eager to join with them – to be mobilized, to be part of the fighting call. That was on my mind," she said.
According to Dror, Truman's top advisors were opposed to the US recognition of Israel.
"The Pentagon and the State Department truly believed that Ben Gurion, the leader of Israel, is leading the world into a new catastrophe," Dror said.
"(Truman) understood something that most of his top advisors and ministers failed to see. This is truly prophecy being realized," Dror said.
Against all odds the fledgling state not only survived but thrived.70 years later it's clear Truman was right.
"We are faster, better, prettier than ever today," Dror said. 
"The economy in Israel is doing wonderfully well and Israel is, you know, innovation country, a start-up country. 
"More and more countries around the world realize that what Israel spoke about for so many years now is a reality. Suddenly, people understand why we are here," he said.
Watch here: Promised Land

 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

July 4th - Christian Quotes of the Founding Fathers

This is what they really said. And they didn't "separate" church and state. Steve Martin, Editor




Christian Quotes of the Founding Fathers - Quotes on Christianity, Faith, Jesus and the Bible

By Mary Fairchild, About.com Guide


Declaration of Independence Image: Photodisc / Getty Images


No one can deny that many of the founding fathers of the United States of America were men of deep religious convictions based in the Bible and their Christian faith in Jesus Christ. Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, nearly half (24) held seminary or Bible school degrees.

These Christian quotes of the founding fathers will give you an overview of their strong moral and spiritual convictions which helped form the foundations of our nation and our government.

George Washington
1st U.S. President


"While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian."
--The Writings of Washington, pp. 342-343.

John Adams
2nd U.S. President and Signer of the Declaration of Independence


"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! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God ... What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be."
--Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.

"The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite, and these Principles only could be intended by them in their address, or by me in my answer. And what were these general Principles? 

I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United: And the general Principles of English and American Liberty, in which all those young Men United, and which had United all Parties in America, in Majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her Independence.

"Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System."
--Adams wrote this on June 28, 1813, excerpt from a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. 

It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever."
--Adams wrote this in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on July 3, 1776.

Thomas Jefferson
3rd U.S. President, Drafter and Signer of the Declaration of Independence


"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; 

That a revolution of the wheel of fortune, a change of situation, is among possible events; that it may become probable by Supernatural influence! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in that event."
--Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, p. 237.

"I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ."
--The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, p. 385.

John Hancock
1st Signer of the Declaration of Independence


"Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. ... Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us."
--History of the United States of America, Vol. II, p. 229.

Benjamin Franklin
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Unites States Constitution


"Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, the Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That He ought to be worshipped.

"That the most acceptable service we render to him is in doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see;

"But I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. 

I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive, that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure."
--Benjamin Franklin wrote this in a letter to Ezra Stiles, President of Yale University on March 9, 1790.


Steve Martin singing...
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