On Memorial Day we remember those who have died in our country’s battles. We remember their courage even if they were afraid. We mark their place even if their life was lost in an unidentified spot. We honor their heroism even if they were simply one of many fulfilling an assignment. Governments are duty-bound to honor those who protect it from external threats.

We hope governments are good, but sometimes they are not. The horror of a bad government, an internal threat, resisted at a terrible cost bears our consideration, for our nation now faces a loud and strong clarion call to Socialism.

History is clarity’s friend, so let’s examine a few times when people of a nation succumbed to the allure of empty government promises. A nation is rarely suddenly killed from within. No, it’s crippled bit by tempting bit.

God’s moral laws are denigrated. When we dismiss God’s law, Government’s law will take its place, and things go horribly, predictably wrong. They’ve been going so wrong, in fact, that some of our population is  now struggling to know the distinction between male and female. Such an obvious difference has become a question. There is a blindness that goes beyond sight.

It is the obligation of the church to speak up. It’s tempting to let little things slide in the interest of making ourselves approachable. But when the church is silent – no matter the reason, whether out of concern to not offend or desire for popularity or misguided belief that it should not mix it up with politics (Elijah must have missed the memo) – it will be one of the first to taste destruction.

Citizens aren’t deceived by outright lies. They are deceived by half-truths, distortions, and duplicity. They are proverbial frogs in a kettle. The water has been on a slow boil for awhile already. First their economy is crippled, making it difficult for folks to meet financial obligations. Obamacare mandate, anyone? People exchange their free independence for regulated dependence on the government. History is rewritten, monuments destroyed. Weapons are taken away in the interest of safety, thereby removing citizens’ ability to defend themselves. Then words like “fairness” or “change” are used to lure the naive into a socialist ideology. Socialism is simply Communism lite. Lite doesn’t last. It is always replaced with the real thing. Constitutions are circumvented by declaring emergency law and order. Then the country is – bingo – under communist rule. No shots fired. That comes later.

But those advocating Socialism want to help the poor. They want to make it a fair playing field. They’re benevolent, right?

Let’s look at a few Communist rulers. Pol Pot killed between 1.5 and 2 million of his own people. Anyone who had allegiance to God or anything other than the State was tortured and killed. Prisoners were made to dig trenches, then ordered to kill the person next to them where the deceased would tumble into the trench. Friends. Family members. I’ll wager hope and spirit tumbled into those trenches, too.

Or how about Romania? Ceausescu hated the church so much he destroyed their buildings. His Government did not tolerate disloyalty and neighbor turned against neighbor as a matter of survival.

Stalin killed over 20 million of his countrymen in Russia. Hitler killed around 6 million Jews and 5 million others. Mao Zedong had over 45 million Chinese people killed.

While we memorialize our soldiers this coming weekend, let’s do one more thing. Let us resolve to keep the freedom for which they died. Even if we have to fight on our own land in our own way, big or small, to do it. Because citizens of resolve are a nation’s only hope for freedom. God be with us.

Revelation 22:2; Image: http-pixabay.com-en-eagle-america-flag-bird-symbol-219679.jpg