HARRY MARTINEZ: A new nation

Published 8:25 am Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Harry Martinez, a resident of Albany, is a retired minister who served a nondenominational congregation in Florida. His weekly column appears in several South Georgia newspapers.

This is a momentous week in these United States as we celebrate our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain in 1776.  Amidst this celebration are speeches by governmental leaders, especially the sitting President.  During his term of office, Ronald Reagan gave this address to the nation … “My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past. Believe me, if there’s one impression I carry with me after the privilege of holding for 5 1/2 years the office held by Adams and Jefferson and Lincoln, it is this: that the things that unite us — America’s past of which we’re so proud, our hopes and aspirations for the future of the world and this much-loved country — these things far outweigh what little divides us. And so tonight we reaffirm that Jew and Gentile, we are one nation under God; that black and white, we are one nation indivisible; that Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world.”  

During the first term of President Trump, he made these remarks at the Lincoln Memorial: “Today, we come together as one nation with this very special Salute to America.  We celebrate our history, our people, and the heroes who proudly defend our flag — the brave men and women of the United States Military.  As we gather this evening in the joy of freedom, we remember that we all share a truly extraordinary heritage.  Together, we are part of one of the greatest stories ever told: the story of America.  It is the epic tale of a great nation whose people have risked everything for what they know is right and what they know is true.  It is the chronicle of brave citizens who never give up on the dream of a better and brighter future.  And it is the saga of thirteen separate colonies that united to form the most just and virtuous republic ever conceived.  On this day, 243 years ago, our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to declare independence and defend our God-given rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote the words that forever changed the course of humanity: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’  With a single sheet of parchment and 56 signatures, America began the greatest political journey in human history.”

Just as national freedom was purchased by the sacrifice of thousands in battle, so freedom for all mankind from the bondage of sin and spiritual death came by one sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.  The prophet Isaiah foretold this future event … “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:3-5 NIV).   

While the struggle to preserve our national freedom continues today, the once for all-time sacrifice of Christ is completely finished.  The incarnate Christ when coming into the world said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, O God” (Heb 10 5b-7 NIV).  Furthermore … “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb 10:14 NIV). 

Harry Martinez, a resident of Albany, is a retired minister who served a nondenominational congregation in Florida. His weekly column appears in several South Georgia newspapers.