On April 26, 1777, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”
Freedom has an actual price, as exemplified by one of the most notable couples in American history who had to live separate from each other for substantial periods of time due to John’s political and diplomatic duties.
The period that John Adams had to stay in Philadelphia for the Continental Congress [1774-1777] included multiple absences, amounting altogether to some 2-3 years of separation.
After that there was the Diplomatic Mission to Europe [1778-1788] when John Adams was appointed a diplomat to France in 1778 and subsequently held various diplomatic positions in Europe, including in the Netherlands and England, until 1788. Abigail joined him in Europe for part of this time, but they were away from each another for significant stretches. Overall, they spent approximately 5 to 6 years apart during these years.
In the years 1789 to 1801, John Adams served as Vice President under George Washington and then as President. Although he and Abigail were mostly together, there were still periods of separation due to his duties.
In early America and up until the 20th century, traveling was a challenge. Solomon noted in Proverbs 10:26, “As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy man to those who send him.” Jewish Hebrew scholar Michael V. Fox helps us understand the significance of delegating responsibility:
“Messengers were indispensable until modern times, for communication at a distance required delegating others to travel and represent one’s interest. Much depended on their honesty, diligence, and accuracy.” Since other tasks of go-betweens included responsibility for making offers, explanations, elaborations, negotiations, transporting money, and receiving payments, those displaying honesty and diligence were at a premium.
Given the current state of America, we may wonder whether President Adams would have repented in heaven for his effort and pains to build and preserve America and its freedoms. This was brought to mind by listening to what author and columnist Douglas Murray had to say when interviewed by Peter Robinson:
www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=iTXB8sWfCDE
“I’ve changed in the last six months and some of my viewers and readers have noticed it. I’ve changed because of what I’ve seen in Israel and the response – specifically the response – of young Israelis. There was a sort of view among older Israelis that the young generation was a bit soft.
“But years of peace has done what years of peace always do. ‘You know, they just want to party in Tel Aviv, go out to the clubs, go on Instagram and Tik Tok, and that sort of thing.’
“When the moment of test and trial came for their generation, as it did on the seventh [October 2023], they stepped up. They’ve been magnificent. Magnificent. I’ve seen them up close [and] I’ve seen them in the field. I’ve seen people who have just lost their comrades, and they go straight from the battlefield to a funeral and straight back to the battlefield.
“These are remarkable young men and women. Now they understand something very important. I said this a few weeks ago at a speech in Manhattan, ‘Life isn’t just given to you; life is something you have to fight for.’ You have to fight for the right to be at the club in Tel Aviv, or somebody else has to fight for you. If you want to live a good life either you fight for it or you expect somebody else to.
“I believe very strongly today that people in America, Europe, Britain, and the rest of the West will have to get serious very fast because something is going to happen. I don’t know what, but something is going to happen in my lifetime that is going to bring the kind of reality that the people of Israel saw on the seventh [October 2023] to the people of America, to the people of Europe, [and] to the people of Britain.
“And we should prepare for that, and we should prepare a generation for that, and we should encourage them. They’ve got to break out of the thing they’re in, these ignoramuses, the narcissists, [and] naval gazers. We’ve got to tell them that the age of grievance is over.
“The age of grievance will be over with an age of heroism and courage, and we should encourage that from everybody. And if these other people who want hold us all back and want to make us talk about things that are so banal and boring, like gender woo-woo and ‘I’m feeling non-binary’ – no, [we] don’t have time for you, get out the way. Life’s too serious. Get ready.”
Pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer [1906-1945] remarked, “If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction,” shortly before he was executed by hanging in one of Adolf Hitler’s last despotic acts.
Alan Bloom wrote in The Closing of the American Mind that “polluted sources issue in a muddy stream where only monsters can swim.” Pagan secularism has plunged America into the unforgiving darkness of decadence and depravity, which brings us to Ronald Greer’s book, If You Know Who You Are, You Will Know What to Do: Living with Integrity.
During the dark days of the Nazi takeover of Holland, with the Gestapo everywhere and Jews vanishing, some Dutch Christians asked former missionary Hendrik Kraemer [1888-1965] what they should do. The lay missiologist answered, “I cannot tell you what to do, but I can tell you who you are. If you know who you are, then you will know what to do.”
Kraemer then read to those scared Christians the words written for early scared Christians in 1 Peter 2:9: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people claimed by God as his own, to proclaim the triumphs of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The people thanked him, left, and started the Dutch underground resistance.
Evangelical and Pro-life Catholic Christians must come to the front of America’s public square for our next generations to make it through. Thankfully, Gideons and Rahabs are beginning to stand.
David Lane
American Renewal Project
