Most conservatives living in America today realize that the personal and constitutional values we hold dear are being assaulted daily. As a result, many have become more political than they ever imagined they would be: getting involved in tea parties, running for political offices, writing letters to the editor, as well as a myriad of other activities. With all of this, there is still a level of frustration that is well-founded but potentially lethal to future of liberty. Admittedly, I have often felt the same frustration. However, I have managed to overcome and bounce back with passion and commitment because of the realization that this is a battle that is being fought on two fronts – neither of which we can afford to lose.

The most obvious battlefront is the one being fought over political ideologies. This perhaps is also the front that will prevent many from engaging in the war as they should. It overshadows the more important front and the front that ultimately determines who we really are as a people and as a nation. It is the spiritual front. Since the beginning of time, nations have come and gone but only Israel and the USA have been founded on the idea that our liberty is both a gift from God and that He is its author. The spiritual component of this battle makes it one that pits the devil and his minions against the Creator of the universe, which in turn makes its outcome far more important than whether or not we are ruled by a king or lead by a president.

Spiritual weapons

For those that understand that this is a spiritual battle, the weapons are clearly described in Ephesians 6:10-18. Unfortunately, these weapons are usually only applied when one thinks of battles where thoughts of demonic manifestations conjure up images of demons hiding behind rocks, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting believers. Again, that is unfortunate. The most effective spiritual warfare that the devil employs is one for the hearts and minds of God’s children, which by extension includes the heart and soul of America.

Because the spiritual battle for America is less obvious with the political battle acting as the decoy, many do not use all the weapons available to them. Since the beginning of time, no devil inside or outside of hell could prevail against a true warrior of the most high God. In truth: if God goes before us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31 and Isa. 41.10. Also see Deut. 31:8; 20:1, Ps. 27:1, and 2 Chronicles 32:8). Should the battle be won in the spiritual realm, the political battle will soon fade into obscurity. However, since the spiritual battle is given only a passing thought, most patriots (even believing patriots) tend to fight restricting themselves to the political tools mastered by the devil himself when weapons of mass destruction of the kind hardly imaginable are readily available to us for the price of a bent knee.

Political weapons

As powerful as the spiritual weapons available to us may be, there are also political and physical weapons that need to be acknowledged. They, too, are often overlooked while conservatives repeatedly claim constitutional grounds for their arguments that fall upon deaf ears.

Although the percentage of loyalists to revolutionaries in the 1700s is hard to nail down, most estimates project that 10% or less were committed to the cause of liberty. Regardless of the exact percentage, the odds were certainly against the rag-tag militia comprised mostly of farmers and average citizens who were taking a stand against the most powerful military force in the world at that time. Not only did the British soldiers outnumber the Americans, they were well-trained, well-organized, and well-funded. The Americans were none of these things. Nevertheless, the Americans prevailed.

Today men like George Washington and others are glorified for their genius, their novel ideas about liberty, and their battlefield wins against all odds. But once again, a crucial element of their personalities is overlooked. They were brilliant but they were also so committed – almost beyond reason – to the cause of liberty that they were willing to risk some of their substantial fortunes to secure it for the masses. But perhaps the most vital trait of all of these was their tenacity. They did not hold back from entering into the battle, knowing full well that if they lost, they would not be the heroes of liberty we know today; they would have been hung as traitors to the Crown who would scarcely occupy a page in the history of the world.

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Patrick Henry, like so many of our Founding Fathers, refused to surrender the cause of liberty to a seemingly overwhelming enemy – even when victory seemed nothing more than a child’s fantasy to the majority. They were brilliant, it is true. But more than that: they were brilliant and tenacious. Henry said many inspiring things in his speech that should resonate with us today – many things that indicate that our Founders fairly assessed their situation and knew that God played an integral part in the battle they were considering. While the entire speech is inspiring, for these purposes I will draw your attention to the excerpt below but I encourage you to read the speech in its entirety:

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

In this day and age, if you consider yourself to be a patriot – a conservative – a constitutionalist, then you should also consider yourself to be a revolutionary in the most noble of ways. Before us today is another fight for liberty; another cause that must be fought at the cost of chains and slavery. Will we prove worthy of the blood that was shed and the treasures that were lost by those revolutionaries that came before us? Or will we give up out of frustration and be happy to click on the next channel with our remotes?

I encourage you to take up your armor, petition Almighty God, and take a stand beside others who will not submit to chains and slavery. If you don’t, you won’t have to account to me; you will have to account to the author of liberty. He gave us liberty; we must preserve it.

Can I hear an Amen?

Reprinted from The Daily Rant, copyright 2015 Mychal Massie. Used by permission.

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