"Jesus Mighty King in Zion"
It was my favorite childhood hymn, Jesus Mighty King of Zion! We sang it every day at Vacation Bible School and the occasional times the children had a separate service. The first verse and chorus are: “Jesus mighty King of Zion, / Thou alone our guide shall be. / Thy commission we rely on. / We will follow none but Thee. / We will follow none but Jesus. / Jesus is the life the way. / This the path in which He leads us. / This the path to endless day.” When the church published a new hymnal in 1956, it had a different tune. I don’t ever remember singing it again.
The commitment expressed in this hymn was not just confined to our church, then. It expressed the religious desires of the people in the small midwestern town where I grew up. Almost everybody went to church. The Bible was read in school and prayers were offered at most public events. As a community, we thanked God at Thanksgiving for the bounty of the land and the freedom of our nation. We re-enacted the birth of Jesus at the school’s Christmas Pageant and sang about the resurrection at Easter time.
Since those rather innocent childhood days, I have learned that America was founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ and its principles as recorded in the Bible. Jesus’ own words best express the concepts of equality and freedom. Our nation’s founding fathers cherished those principles and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance wrote them into the Constitution. They even fought two grueling wars with England to ensure our liberty. Why? Because they wanted to follow King Jesus. Just before the Revolutionary War, one of the colonies’ crown-appointed governors wrote to England’s Board of Trade, “If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.”
The founding of the United States was more than the establishment of a democratic form of government. It was an effort to build up the kingdom of God on earth. The colonists were devout Christians. Almost all were Protestant, with 97% regularly attending church. They sincerely believed, “No King but King Jesus.” Their struggle for freedom was a religious effort to place Jesus on the throne and bring the kingdom of God to earth. Samuel Adams stated it in his speech when the delegates assembled to sign the Declaration of Independence on August 1, 1776: “We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.”
On July 4th, America will celebrate our nation’s independence. It is nearly 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Even while we celebrate, our nation is under attack. No nation is currently invading our lands, but thousands, among whom are terrorists and foreign enemies, are crossing our borders each day. Murders abound, major cities have become dangerous, and sexual predators are trafficking children, while others are advocating mutilating their bodies. As Wesley Bradshaw foresaw, “For, ere another century shall have gone by [after the Civil War], the oppressors of the whole earth, hating and envying her exultation, shall join themselves together and raise up their hands against her.” In the 1960s, 100 years after the Civil War, the oppressors of the earth mounted their propaganda campaign against the United States. Those seeds have grown and now produce home-grown fruits that threaten our freedom.
In the face of the current attack on our nation and its Christian foundations, we adamantly declare that God appointed America for His latter-day purpose. We are, as President Lincoln said in 1862, “The last best hope of earth.” God will save the kingdom that He intends to build in this land. Framing it as the redemption of Zion, He revealed, “The redemption of Zion must needs come by power; therefore I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel, for ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham; and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched out arm; and as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be” (D&C 100:3d-e).
Moses prophesied that God would raise up another like him and warned people to obey that prophet. That man is Jesus Christ. Peter preached, “Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people . . . Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities” (Acts 3:22-26). Jesus said, “I am he of whom Moses spake, saying, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul who will not hear that prophet, shall be cut off from among the people” (3N 9:60-61).
Jesus will come and reconstitute His kingdom (Acts 3:19-21). Isaiah prophesied it: “I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city” (Is 1:25-26). The hope of many of our nation’s founders, who said, “No king but King Jesus,” will be realized in this soon-to-be event, but will we rightly respond?
I suspect that this event will be as startling to us as Jesus’ birth was to the Jews. They could not understand how the voice that spoke out of the fire that burned Mount Sinai’s top could become flesh in baby Jesus. Will we have the same difficulty understanding how the Lord comes to arm His people with righteousness (1N 3:231)? Traditionally, we called it the endowment and considered it the reinvigoration of our church, but what is coming is more. The salvation of God’s Kingdom is a national event with world-wide ramifications. And it happens as surprisingly and stealthily as a thief. Its power will drive away wickedness. Only righteousness will remain.
This 4th of July is a day to celebrate our national independence. As we do, let us make it a day to pray for independence from wickedness and the forces that are promoting it throughout our land. Let us pray for an outpouring of righteousness and the blessing of God to endure it. Let it be a day to get ready for King Jesus.