This year, on the 29th of January, President Donald Trump issued an official proclamation, formally declaring 2026 a "YEAR OF CELEBRATION AND REDEDICATION." What kind of celebration; any distinctive type? What kind of rededication? And based on what initial dedication, shall we now be re-dedicated? The presidential proclamation reads, in part:
"...Unlike other nations, America’s Founding was rooted in the belief that every man, woman, and child is 'endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'
This conviction, enshrined in our Declaration of Independence, and indelibly etched upon every American heart, remains the bedrock of our government and the crown jewel of Western civilization. For 250 years, the burning flame of liberty has been passed down from one generation to the next, and has carried our Nation and our people to heights that our Founding Fathers could have never dreamed.
The Bible teaches: 'In all circumstances give thanks.' As such, it is fitting that we mark this special year as a unique occasion to celebrate our proud history, reflect on our abundant blessings, pray for our country and our people, and rededicate ourselves as one Nation under God.
From the earliest days of our national story, reflection and thanksgiving have been central to our character, identity, and destiny. Just weeks before declaring independence, the Second Continental Congress ordered a day of 'fasting, humiliation and prayer,' petitioning God 'to pardon all our manifold sins and transgressions' and to 'establish the peace and freedom of America, upon a solid and lasting foundation.' Later, in the heart of the Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress declared it 'the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God.'
In the sweltering summer of 1776, the promise of Freedom moved our ancestors to break with a tyrannical empire, issue the Declaration of Independence, and go on to overcome every hardship to establish a Republic like no other. It is this unwavering spirit of courage, faith and patriotism that propelled Paul Revere on his famous midnight ride, and that later inspired some of the world’s greatest men to pledge their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to build a new nation...." (This proclamation's full text is available online at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/year-of-celebration-and-rededication-2026/.)
So, the "celebration" is more specific than just a yearlong 250th national birthday party. And this "rededication" call is not merely to renew a generic patriotism, customarily (at least for the last seven decades) avoiding acknowledgment of the part-Jewish and mostly Christian origin of that patriotic fervor which inspired our Founding Fathers to stand, at last resort by the Declaration of Independence, severing all ties with the British crown: yet standing not as anarchists rioting against all government, and not (as revisionists so widely teach today) as secularists elevating collective "reason" as a replacement for omnipotent deity, but rather (kneeling first, and then) standing as one nation under God.
Accordingly, in the true spirit of American patriotism which recognizes our dependence upon Him ("Blessed is that nation, whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance" {Psalm 33:12}), "Rededicate 250" is an enormous prayer event set to occur on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this Sunday, 17 May 2026. Like the call issued by the Continental Congress in 1776 for a national day of fasting, prayer, and humiliation (i.e., humbling ourselves...see 2 Chron. 7:14)--observed 250 years ago, to the day--this Sunday's event will not only count national blessings, but will also involve public repentance from our collective sin before God, and asking both for mercy and fulfillment of God's specific destiny for the nation in covenant with Him, as Solomon did before Israel in a national assembly (beginning in 2 Chron. 6:14). Participants will be asked to kneel before Almighty God our Creator, from Whom alone come our inalienable rights. "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD, our maker" (Psalm 95:6).
Many people, some of them totally unaware of American civil liberty's origin in publically-lived Biblical faith, and others knowingly and willfully seeking to eradicate this from our culture, will oppose it. This is sad, but it should not surprise us at all. Let us remember, "...[W]e wrestle not against flesh and blood..." according to Ephesians 6; and in the same passage, we learn that "the evil day" is not a time to hide or be silent, but rather to stand--strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, fully equipped with the whole armor, wielding God's Word, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, whereafter bold-mouthed gospel utterance is specifically requested and authorized.
To get in the spirit for the upcoming day (and for the rest of this year, especially) of rededication to God, please read the actual proclamation below (fascimile available at https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.03901000/), as approved by the Continental Congress and signed by John Hancock several months (and observed several weeks) before the Declaration of Independence, knowing full well that such emphatic public dependence on Almighty God would make their lives and property even more furiously the targets of the British monarchy with its political, military, and economic might seeking to rule every aspect of life with unlimited compliance. Only God could save the American patriots now.... Thank the Lord our forefathers, imperfect as they were, humbled themselves this way. God both heard and answered them:
I N C O N G R E S S,
S A T U R D A Y, March 16, 1776.
IN times of impending calamity and distress; when the Liberties of America are imminently endangered by the secret machinations and open assaults of an insidious and vindictive Administration, it becomes the indispensible duty of these hitherto free and happy Colonies, with true penitence of heart, and the most reverent devotion, publickly to acknowledge the over ruling providence of God ; to confess and deplore our offences against him ; and to supplicate his interposition for averting the threatened danger, and prospering our strenuous efforts in the cause of FREEDOM, VIRTUE and POSTERITY.
HE CONGRESS therefore, considering the warlike preparations of the British Ministry to subvert our invaluable rights and privileges, and to reduce us by fire and sword, by the savages of the wilderness and our own domestics, to the most abject and ignominious bandage: Desirous, at the same time, to have people of all ranks and degrees, duly impressed with a solemn sense of God's superintending providence, and of their duty devoutly to rely in all their lawful enterprizes on his aid and direction—do earnestly recommend, that
FRIDAY, the seventeenth day of May next, be observed by the said Colonies as a day of
H U M I L I A T I O N, F A S T I N G, and P R A Y E R ; that we may with united hearts confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by a sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease his righteous displeasure, and through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain his pardon and forgiveness ; humbly imploring his assistance to frustrate the cruel purposes of our unnatural enemies ; and by inclining their hearts to justice and benevolence, prevent the further effusion of kindred blood. But if continuing deaf to the voice of reason and humanity, and inflexibly bent on desolation and war, they constrain us to repel their hostile invasions by open resistance, it may please the Lord of Hosts, the God of Armies, to animate our Officers and Soldiers with invincible fortitude, to guard and protect them in the day of battle, and to crown the Continental arms by sea and land with victory and success: Earnestly beseeching him to bless our civil Rulers and the Representatives of the People in their several Assemblies and Conventions ; to preserve and strengthen their Union, to inspire them with an ardent disinterested love of their Country ; to give wisdom and stability to their Councils ; and direct them to the most efficacious measures for establishing the Rights of America on the most honorable and permanent basis—that he would be graciously pleased to bless all his People in these Colonies with Health and Plenty, and grant that a spirit of incorruptible Patriotism and of pure undefiled Religion may unversally prevail ; and this Continent be speedily restored to the blessings of Peace and Liberty, and enabled to transmit them inviolate to the latest Posterity. And it is recommended to Christians of all denominations to assemble for Public Worship, and abstain from servile Labour on the said Day. By Order of Congress,
JOHN HANCOCK, PRESIDENT.
Attest. CHARLES THOMPSON, Secretary.
Colony of the Massachusetts-Bay.
In COUNCIL, April 3, 1776.
READ and accepted, and Ordered, That a suitable Number be printed, in order that each of the religious Assemblies in this Colony, may be furnished with a Copy of the same.
Sent down for Concurrence. PEREZ MORTON, Dep. Sec'ry.
In the House of REPRESENTATIVES, April 4, 1776.
Read and concurr'd. SAMUEL FREEMAN, Speaker, pro Tem.
Consented to,
JAMES OTIS,
BENJAMIN GREENLEAF,
CALEB CUSHING,
JOHN WINTHROP,
JOHN WHETCOMB,
ELDAD TAYLOR,
MICHAEL FARLEY,
JOSEPH PALMER,
SAMUEL HOLTEN,
MOSES GILL,
JOSEPH GERRISH,
BENJAMIN LINCOLN,
CHARLES CHAUNCY,
JOHN TAYLOR,
BENJAMIN WHITE.
G O D S A V E T H E P E O P L E .