On the morning of September 13, 1814, British naval forces began firing on Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. Fort McHenry was one of the last lines of defense for the city of Baltimore during the war of 1812, and if it had fallen, Baltimore would have as well. Had that battle been lost, our newly birthed nation would have been in great peril.

One of the witnesses to that battle was Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key. Hearing the continual cannon fire and the constant booms of explosives, Key feared that the British would capture the Fort and move into Baltimore.

Instead, Key awoke to the sight of a large US flag still flying triumphantly above the Fort. This became the inspiration for a poem he penned that would later be turned into the song we now know as “The Star-Spangled Banner”. In 1931, this song officially became our national anthem.

Most of us know the lyrics to the first verse of the song, but many do not realize that it actually ends in a question:

O! say, does that Star-spangled Banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Why does it end in a question? Because the war with the British was still raging, and America’s future viability as a nation was still far from certain.

This was decades before the doctrine of Manifest Destiny – the national philosophy that our Republic was destined by God to expand its dominion across the entire North American continent. It was also nearly half a century before the bloody and grueling Civil War that nearly tore our nation apart.

Phrasing the final verse of the Star-Spangled Banner in the form of a question was appropriate both then and now. Many Americans today have become so accustomed to the idea that we will always have our freedoms that we have taken it too much for granted.

We are a military and economic superpower after all, and each generation of Americans has always had enjoyed greater opportunities to fulfill their God-given potential than their parents. Why should we believe that things will ever be any different?

Four decades ago, President Ronald Reagan warned us against this way of thinking:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

I have been blessed to live more than half a century in the greatest and freest nation in human history, but I fear today that Ronald Reagan’s warning is closer to coming to fruition than ever before. The events of the past few months have made that even more clear.

Who would have thought just six months ago that our leaders would lock our society down for several weeks and commit economic suicide to combat a virus that has turned out to be just slightly deadlier than the flu? Who would have thought that millions of people would have their livelihoods taken from them by government edict, and that state governors would turn into dictators that could issue any orders they wanted to restrict the freedoms of their citizens under the pretense of a public health emergency?

Who would have thought that what started as peaceful protests over the brutal murder of an African American at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer would turn into weeks of rioting, looting, tearing down statues, and even the temporary establishment of an autonomous zone in the downtown area of one of our major cities?

In recent days, it seems like America has been coming apart at the seams. 2020 has been the craziest year I’ve ever experienced, and it is only half over. The presidential election is about four months away, and no matter who wins, I do not see this situation ending well. Either way, there is likely to be more riots and violence, and if the wrong party gets into power, we may never get back to the America our founders envisioned.

In the midst of all this, there is hope. But our hope is not in the politicians in Washington or those who occupy positions in our state and local governments, and it never has been. Our only hope is in Almighty God.

America was born out of revival. The first pilgrims journeyed to the New World with a yearning for religious freedom. They risked everything and endured incredible hardships just to be able to practice their religion without government interference. Our Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 occurred in the shadow of the Great Awakening, a major spiritual revival that swept through the colonies during the mid-1700s.

Our founders knew that the best government was the least government, but they also understood that you could not have true liberty without true righteousness. John Adams, our second president, summed it up this way:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

The hope of our founders for the success of our Republic was not in government or in politicians, but in the righteousness of the people. And as it was then it remains today; our only hope for future success is if the hearts of our people turn back to God.

So, does our banner yet wave? Is America still that shining city on the hill that President Reagan so elegantly envisioned? Or is our light burning out? That is up to us to decide.

This Fourth of July, celebrate your freedom, enjoy the fireworks, the food, and the fellowship. And whatever happens, don’t let those who seek to tear this country down rob you of your joy. Yes, things do look bleak in a lot of ways, but we are still the greatest nation God ever gave to mankind. We have so much to be thankful for, and God has shed more grace on our country than any of us ever deserved.

As we celebrate, remember also that there is a lot of work to be done. If we are ever to turn our nation back around, we need revival. But revival is not something that happens “out there” somewhere, it starts in our homes. It starts in the way we treat our spouses, raise our children, worship, interact with our neighbors and those around us, and serve our community. It is my prayer that this Independence Day will mark a turning point in the very difficult year we have been through so far, and that our people will cry out to God for revival and once again put God first in our own lives. This is our Blessed Hope, and this is how we will preserve our great inheritance for our children and grandchildren.