American Liberty: Its Promise and Its Price

Individual Freedom in the Land of the Free

The United States of America has been called the “land of liberty” since before it was even a nation, going back at least as far as Joseph Warren’s 1774 anthem, “Free America.” That was a half-century before Samuel Francis Smith in 1831 wrote of the “sweet land of liberty” in his famous “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” And Thomas Jefferson called his growing nation an “empire of liberty” on more than one occasion.

Indeed, if any single concept, hope, or dream is most fundamentally interwoven with all that America represents, it is probably that of liberty—a commitment to individual human freedom on a scale perhaps never seen in any nation before it. And in 2026, as the U.S. comes to the 250th anniversary of its independence, the theme of liberty is very much on the minds of those celebrating the occasion.

Throughout its history, countless millions have seen America as a beacon of liberty and freedom. This is perhaps symbolized best by France’s gift of the Statue of Liberty, bearing the date “July 4, 1776” on the plaque held in Lady Liberty’s arms—and on its pedestal the famous words from Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Even during its bloody civil war, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, with an eye on the principles of human liberty on which the nation was founded—and on which his country was then being tested—called America “the last best hope of earth.”

But where have 250 years of unprecedented individual freedom taken the “land of liberty”? The nation that has long been an inspiration to the world has become riven by anger and division, increasingly coarse and even violent in its politics, degraded in its culture, and chaotic in its morality. The phrase spoken reverently for generations as part of the Pledge of Allegiance, proclaiming the country “one nation under God, indivisible,” often appears to bring little more than embarrassed laughter as the U.S. seems divided into angry, warring, uncompromising factions—perhaps more so now than at almost any other time in its 250-year history.

Why is this so? When understood clearly, the path from America’s founding to its current condition is not due to some sort of aberration from its original ideals. The Founders’ concepts of freedom and liberty have not been cast aside, though loud voices of all political stripes and party loyalties claim this to be so. Rather, the U.S. is beginning to experience the fullest blossoming of the “tree of liberty” of which Thomas Jefferson spoke so dramatically.

Understood from God’s point of view, which can be seen by human eyes under the light of His word, America’s current and growing state of chaos is not a departure. Rather, it is the result of the nation’s founding commitment to a radical sense of individual human freedom and liberty. And the only solution is clear: We must embrace freedom and liberty as God understands it—and a commitment to walk the only viable path toward that liberty.

A Nation with the Consent of the Governed

The U.S. was founded on a concept of liberty advanced by the philosophers of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century and, more directly, the Enlightenment of the eighteenth. The writings of men such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were rich with new ideas about self-governance and the structure of human society.

To be sure, many of America’s founders were influenced by the Bible—but the guiding principles of the fledgling U.S. can be found in the works of the Enlightenment philosophers. For instance, the separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches can be seen in the writings of Montesquieu. The Founders’ debates reveal the tension between Hobbes’ view of human nature unrestricted by strong government and Locke’s sense that government should flow only from the consent of those governed. And Rousseau’s concept of the “social contract” and seeking the “general will” can be seen in the final form of U.S. government, in which the people’s will is expressed democratically but filtered through a republican structure.

In its conception, the U.S. represented perhaps the best and most thorough and thought-through application of the political philosophies of its day. As Thomas Jefferson would later write, the Declaration of Independence was built upon “the harmonizing sentiments of the day” and “intended to be an expression of the American mind.”

And at the center of that mind was a radically new conception of liberty.

The Ideology of Individual Liberty

The Enlightenment philosophers’ sentiment concerning individual human freedom is often called “liberalism,” not in the modern political sense of “liberals versus conservatives,” but as a label for an ideology focused on the freedom of the individual—who possesses rights against any government that might rule over him or impose ideas upon him without his voluntary choice.

This liberalism was popular among Enlightenment thinkers and a strong influence among America’s founders. And it represented a great departure from the more ancient concept of liberty. Political philosopher Patrick Deneen, in his book Why Liberalism Failed, notes that, “as commended by ancient and religious traditions alike, liberty is not liberation from constraint but rather our capacity to govern appetite and thus achieve a truer form of liberty—liberty from enslavement to our appetites” (2018, p. 130).

The Enlightenment philosophy of liberalism that motivated America’s founders transformed this concept of human freedom in a fundamental and radical way: “Liberalism rejects the ancient conception of liberty as the learned capacity of human beings to conquer the slavish pursuit of base and hedonistic desires…. Liberalism instead understands liberty as the condition in which one can act freely within the sphere unconstrained by positive law” (pp. 37–38).

It is this sense of freedom and liberty that America’s founders sought to weave into the fabric of their new America. The Old World they had departed was filled with constraints that bound and restricted the citizenry. Established churches, monarchs, inherited obligations, and rigid social expectations all limited the individual’s ability to chart his own course according to his own conscience, ambitions, and concept of happiness. America was to represent a new land of opportunity where every individual could be free of those historic constraints.

This sense is captured in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, in one of its most famous statements: “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. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

This freedom to pursue happiness—even to define happiness according to one’s own conscience—represented a new idea of individual liberty. The idea that the government’s task was not to shape man’s conscience or his soul, but rather to protect each man’s freedom to shape his own, was radical for its time.

Unrestrained Personal Freedom?

And it is this idea of radical, individual freedom that has exemplified the U.S. in the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, framing it as a nation where all people are free to seek the life of their dreams. Unencumbered by imposed ideologies, state religions, or compelled consciences, Americans have been free to succeed and free to fail, free to worship and free not to do so—freer, perhaps, than any people on earth have ever been. And America’s successes have in turn inspired other nations, turning the American sense of individual liberty into a coveted condition desired by the citizens of many nations around the world.

It also happens to be an individual freedom and liberty that is tearing the U.S. apart. Indeed, it is 250 years of radical individual freedom that have brought about the very social and moral chaos we see in America today. While the phrases “You do you” or “Speak your truth” may be easy to mock, they reflect the extreme but natural consequence of the philosophy that guided the nation’s founders.

At the heart of Rousseau’s “social contract” philosophy that underlies the American experiment is the belief that a community should be able to define its own rules, values, and principles—even to change them as the community changes. But what if that community changes for the worse instead of the better? In fact, how can we even know whether that is happening, since “the worse” and “the better” are left up to the community to decide? When right and wrong are defined only by what the community agrees upon, yesterday’s “wrongs” can become today’s “rights,” and vice versa.

If there is no absolute standard of how family should be structured or function, then what is to stop widespread acceptance of homosexuality and the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples—or even more than two people? Why can’t gender roles—even the meanings of “man” or “woman”—be reconsidered? When a community sees these as “external constraints” and “customary norms,” what is there to restrain those who seek to change these concepts? If old vices—gambling, prostitution, drug use, or drunkenness—can be legalized, and the people want to do so, why can’t they? Who is to say that such clauses in the social contract are forbidden?

The freedom of expression that allows this magazine to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the whole world is also the freedom that has allowed the U.S. to become the world’s leading exporter of pornography. This is not a “bug” in America’s system—it is the system. After all, if government can decide what is decent and indecent expression, where do the boundaries of that power lie?

The Fundamental Flaw of Liberalism

To be sure, America’s founders were generally men of good character. But as Patrick Deneen summarizes, “Liberalism has ruthlessly drawn a reservoir of both material and moral resources that it cannot replenish” (p. 18). By ensuring there were no institutions with the power to forcibly govern and direct Americans’ consciences, those consciences naturally grew toward being without governance and without direction.

America’s founders shared philosopher Hobbes’ fear that, without a sufficiently strong government, humanity would descend into a brutal “war of all against all” with every man seeking his own desires, security, and passions against all other men. But they also feared Hobbes’ proposed solution—government with absolute power. Instead, by trusting the people to carry the burden of maintaining their character and virtue, the founders sought to maximize individual human liberty and freedom.

But who can look at the current condition of the U.S. and deny that Hobbes’ “war of all against all” is on the nation’s horizon? Has the rhetoric of politics and policymaking ever been more violent? Have Americans ever been more divided on even the most basic ideas of right and wrong? Has a sense of a common morality ever been as impotent—or even nonexistent?

Deneen summarizes the situation well: “Liberalism has failed—not because it fell short, but because it was true to itself. It has failed because it has succeeded” (p. 3).

Yet America’s path is not without precedent. Anyone wondering where the U.S. is headed—where its 250 years of radical individual liberty are leading—need only turn to their Bible and read from the book of Judges.

Repeating the Mistakes of the Book of Judges

Ancient Israel, freed from slavery in Egypt, had finally taken possession of the land God had promised to their forefathers. They needed only to observe the laws He had given them at Mount Sinai—laws providing a culture, moral understanding, and way of life ensuring that the promises He gave to Abraham would be theirs in perpetuity.

In a very real sense, they were the freest people the world had ever seen. They had the Creator of the Universe as their Benefactor, they had His laws that would guide them and keep them in contact with Him, and they had only to choose to follow those laws.

But after the death of Joshua and those elders who had known him, Israel lost its way. The book of Judges documents Israel’s quick descent into chaotic moral collapse, perversion, and senseless violence. No institutions remained to enforce the moral and ceremonial systems with which God had blessed the nation. Yes, there was the priesthood, but in the absence of any governing authority—and surrounded by such freedom to choose as they willed—the priesthood became just as corrupt as the rest of society. And with no institutions enforcing or even encouraging a unified submission to God’s authority, ancient Israel quickly fractured into tribal self-rule, producing a landscape of spiritual apostasy, social breakdown, and extreme brutality that mirrored—and sometimes exceeded—that of the pagan nations surrounding them.

In just a handful of generations, the people of Israel gave up their commitment to follow God’s ways. Instead of receiving abundant blessings for living in the light of His wisdom, they fell to wanton acts of violence and perversion, calling to mind the horrors of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Doing What’s Right in Our Own Eyes Destroys a Nation

How did this happen? What caused such a fall—from the greatest possible height a nation could reach to such depths of self-destructive depravity? We need not speculate, because God clearly reveals the lesson to be learned, repeating it in various ways throughout the book of Judges and ensuring by the book’s final verse that we understand it as a summary of Israel’s entire experience: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Note that God did not say, “Everyone did what was evil in his own eyes.” Every man did what was right in his own eyes—that is, every man was essentially free to embrace “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as his own conscience defined those terms. There was no king to tell them otherwise—no authority enforcing a moral code other than what each tribe, each family, and ultimately each individual sought to hold dear.

The Israelites became essentially free to form their own “social contract” and define the values they would keep or cast aside. For the people of Israel, the time of the judges was a time of freedom and liberty reminiscent of today’s America—a time when “there was no king” and “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” And their individual pursuit of happiness resulted in one of the most shameful and degrading periods in ancient Israel’s long history.

Despite beginning with the greatest collection of advantages one could ever conceive—a direct relationship with the Creator providing His protection and blessings, the body of His laws, the way of life He designed to safeguard the people physically and morally, and no human king to oppress or exploit them—the Israelites’ freedom fueled their downfall. “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” and the result was the degradation of their society—and a return to slavery and servitude, in different forms, for what should have been the freest nation on earth.

In hindsight, we can see the dangers of the new and radical approach to human liberty embraced by America’s founders. But we can also see the wisdom in their impulse. After all, European history was filled with wars and conflicts rooted in differences of religion—even within so-called “Christian” nations—and rife with corruption among those who were supposed to be the keepers and exemplars of proper virtue and values. America’s founders hoped that virtue might survive without compulsion or coercion—that the people might bridle themselves, to borrow from John Adams, by means of morality and religion (“To the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts,” October 11, 1798).

But when we consider the lesson of the book of Judges, we must ask: What, then, is the answer? If a strong human government inevitably leads to tyranny and abuse, but weak human government inevitably leads to chaos and dissolution, how are human beings to govern themselves?

Real Freedom in Christ Defined

There is only one solution to this dilemma. We must understand that true liberty and freedom is what God reveals it to be—and, rest assured, it is not freedom from external control and unchosen obligations. Quite the opposite! True liberty and freedom are found only in turning away from sin and committing ourselves in obedience to Jesus Christ, the Son of God—in seeking His will, not our own, in every area of our lives.

It is quite an irony. The freedom of the world inevitably produces slavery to sin and to the Devil. But true freedom requires slavery as well—slavery to God and to His righteousness. There is no middle way. The Apostle Paul was under no illusions in this regard: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:16–18).

The Apostle Peter understood the same truth. “While they promise them liberty,” he wrote of those who misunderstand freedom’s purpose, “they themselves are the slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage” (2 Peter 2:19). In fact, the Apostle James, a half-brother of Jesus, called the Ten Commandments “the law of liberty” (James 1:25; 2:12).

Real freedom—the only freedom worthy of the name—is the ability to live free from the slavery of sin and to make oneself a slave to God. But how can humanity achieve this freedom? It will not arrive by the will of man. When Jesus Christ returns, 6,000 years of human history since Adam and Eve will have passed, and the lesson for mankind will be that every attempt of man to rule himself throughout those millennia will have failed. In fact, before Christ returns, mankind will have brought itself to the point of self-destruction (Matthew 24:21–22).

But God will not allow that self-destruction to take place. Instead, He will send Jesus Christ to take up His throne and inaugurate the reign of the Kingdom of God.

In effect, the government of “absolute power” Thomas Hobbes envisioned will be established, but it will be no government of man. It will be the reign of the Son of God, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), possessing more power than any human leader has ever held—yet also delivering more true liberty than humanity has ever known.

And this won’t come to pass merely through the enactment of wise and just laws, though that will indeed take place (Isaiah 2:3). As the book of Judges reveals, the presence of laws is not enough. Rather, Christ will accomplish in His reign what no human ruler or government ever could: the transformation of human character from the inside out. As God declares, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33). When the returned Savior’s foot touches down on the Mount of Olives, mankind will finally begin to experience true liberty, spreading from Jerusalem to all the world.

Seeking God’s Will—and His Kingdom

No, a perfect human government is not possible. America’s founders, seeking to prevent one kind of evil from afflicting their fledgling nation, laid a foundation that 250 years later has blossomed into evil of its own. But we can hardly blame them—for the solution is simply not in man’s hands.

Yet those who are willing to submit to Jesus Christ now, in this life—laying whatever freedom they possess in this world at His feet, seeking His will and not their own—will have the privilege of helping Him bring true freedom and liberty, finally, to humanity in the world to come. And it will not stop there, for God’s word promises that “the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

To borrow Lincoln’s words, the “last best hope of earth” is not the United States of America. It is the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. May the knowledge of that truth move us all to pray daily, “Your kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).