I once experienced one of those great moments, like the scene in Casablanca when the entire club stands to sing the French national anthem in the presence of the Nazi soldiers. However, it was a different era, country, and anthem.
In God Is Our Trust
Music recitals are very familiar, even routine events to me. My parents were musicians, and my children are fifth-generation violin students. I take the music at recitals for granted and usually just sit back and enjoy. But this night, a Suzuki spring recital, was different.
A local homeschooler began to play the “Two Grenadiers.” Part of the piece is the French national anthem. When that part of the piece began, Henry substituted the American national anthem for the French! We are a second-generation Suzuki family, and I never, ever remember hearing a student change a piece in a recital.
The audience became more still and attentive as they realized what he was doing. It was one of those electrifying moments when a musician captures the heart of a crowd. The audience thundered its appreciation when he finished the piece.
A friend tells me all the time that I think too much, and she's right. But as he played, I thought about the roots of the French anthem and revolution and our own anthem and revolution. Their revolution was bloody, chaotic, godless and resulted in anarchy. Our revolution was brought about by thoughtful, devout men who lived by their principles. The motivations of both revolutions have borne fruit in what we see now in France and America.
The young musician's technique and notes were on target. But that wasn't the important part of his music. What was important was that he took what he knew and spoke from his heart about something which was important to him.
We all can't and won't teach our children to be great artists. But we can teach them to read, write, think, speak, and act. And we can fill their hearts with what is good, right and true in the eyes of God. With those tools, they can lead a generation, a culture, and a country to remember its roots:
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Sacred Love for the Fatherland?
But what about that French anthem? What about that French Revolution?
They began with noble intentions reforming corruption in their country, improving the nation’s economy, and working towards equality among the people. The leaders proclaimed a new era of “Liberty, equality and brotherhood.” They wanted to end economic injustice and the plight of the poor who suffered and went hungry.
They hated authority and, ironically, gained an ally in their fight for a new system of government in corrupt nobles of the ruling class.
A new king came to the throne who tried to resolve budget problems by cutting expenses. This meant less money for corrupt nobles. He insisted that noblemen had to pay their debts. Not surprisingly, the nobles in the national assembly clashed with the king.
Then riots began. A great fear spread through the land: brigands were coming. Who were the brigands? The people didn’t know, but knew they were dangerous, and when brigands didn’t arrive, the people simply decided who might be brigands and attacked them.
The assembly declared its independence in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Man’s rights did not come from God but from the state, or the “rule of the majority.” They could be changed or taken away at the whim of the state. Men, women, and children were subject to and property of the state.
Next came the Jacobins. They submitted to no authority and believed that freedom meant people could do whatever they wanted.
Then began open attacks on God in the form of the Church. Church lands were taken over by the state. Churches were desecrated and precious works of religious art were destroyed during mob rampages.
The state called upon clergymen to declare their loyalty first to the state and then to God. Clergymen were selected by election, and even those who didn’t believe in God could participate in the voting.
The assembly descended into chaos as legislators screamed insults at one another. Meanwhile the Jacobins marched, singing of their bloodythirsty revolution. Their marching song eventually became the French national anthem. Some of the verses follow:
Arise children of the fatherland!
The day of glory has arrived.
Against us tyranny's
Bloody standard is raised.
Listen to the sound in the fields,
The howling of these fearsome soldiers:
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of your sons and consorts.To arms citizens!
Form your battalions!
March, march!
Let impure blood
Water our furrows!We shall enter into the pit
When our elders will no longer be there;
There we shall find their ashes
And the mark of their virtues.
We are much less envious of surviving them
Than of sharing their coffins.
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or joining them.Sacred love for the Fatherland!
Lead and support our avenging arms!
Liberty, cherished liberty!
Join the struggle with your defenders!
Under our flags, let victory
Hasten to you virile force,
So that in death your enemies
See your triumph and our glory!
The Fatherland, the state, was what they worshipped instead of God. The Fatherland would care for the poor and hungry. The Fatherland would teach your children. The Fatherland would care for you, from cradle to grave, and in loyalty to the Fatherland, you must arise and kill the Fatherland’s enemies.
Calling Down Fire from Heaven
Thus began the Reign of Terror. Public executions were the rule. Crowds cheered as Madame Guillotine dispatched so many people that the sites of exectution were slippery with blood; at least 40,000 people fell under her blade. Drums rolled, heads rolled, and the crowds thundered their approval.
Mobs beat victims until they died. Women were tortured and raped in the name of defending the state. What better way to take revenge on the “brigands” than to victimize their women?
Now the Fatherland controlled property, wages, and prices. The Fatherland told men what work they must do. Famine spread through the land.
The state kicked God out of its equation and established its own church in worship of goddess reason. The state declared that the new clergy must wear vestments reflecting the colors of its flag.
Then the state changed the calendar, creating a ten-day week. The law required that the tenth day be the state’s day of rest. The state had replaced the sovereign God, with His seven-day work-week and sabbath day of rest.
The state streamlined trials for those accused of treason by ending the right to legal defense. If you complained about being hungry, you could be tried and executed for treason against the state.
At last, with demonic zeal, they guillotined sixteen nuns, Carmelites of Compiègne. The nuns had a special devotion to Elijah, who withdrew to encounter God on Mount Carmel. When they were taken as a group to the guillotine, they knelt and sang hymns. The first to die was the youngest. She sang “Come Lord of all the people” and willingly placed her neck under the blade. The other nuns, one at a time, followed her example until all died.
This time, it was different. No drums rolled. The crowd fell silent.
As Elijah reminded the Hebrew nation of its godly heritage, these women reminded the people Who the real Creator is. Genesis 1:1 does not declare, “In the beginning the state created the heavens and the earth.”
The next day, the state leader, Robbespierre, was killed. According to one legend, as his body was laid out, a workman walked by and said, “Yes, Robespierre, there is a God.”
The worst abuses of the Revolution ended. The godless state may have been abolished, but the seeds of a godlessness were spread on the wind. Some sprouted with the rule of Hitler, and others grew through the coaxing of Lenin, while the people these new revolutions claimed be liberating were worse off and lived in a land of poverty, hunger, anarchy, terror, and financial ruin.
As we contemplate the consequences of these dangerous errors in western history, we must evaluate the motivations of events shaping our own nation's history and be on guard.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Mary Biever is a homeschooling mother of two who publishes encouragement articles and runs Encouragement Workshops For Today's Families.
This article was adapted from one of her columns.