Where are America’s “Children of Issachar”?

by Tom Hoefling

And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment. – I Chronicles 12:32 (KJV), (written as David was given the administration of the nation of Israel).

In America, the elections of 2012 are a transition election. Our country is in a transition period. God knows what it is we are transitioning to. Time will tell. But, before we examine that, let’s step back a century and a half: In the America of the1850s it’s doubtful that many understood what was just ahead. In any generation foresight and true leadership are rare commodities. And as the Scripture says: “Where there is no vision My people perish.” – Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

Oh, the signs abounded, as they always do, and a few foresaw what was to come and dutifully issued stern warnings. Half a century before, the wise father of our country, George Washington, caught a glimpse of the dangers to our republic posed by the spirits of party and disunion, regional factionalism, and a departure from America’s founding principles, and used his last public communication, his Farewell Address , to strictly warn his generation, and ours, in no uncertain terms. You should read and deeply ponder every word of it. Thomas Jefferson literally shook with fear when he considered what the slave trade portended for the new nation:

“The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other…can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: That his justice cannot sleep for ever.” – Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1782)

And so, mere decades later, the America of the 1850s trembled on the precipice of coming dissolution, warfare, and bloodshed. Those few who understood how things stood, and saw the dangers lying just ahead, tried to turn the nation from a road that would inevitably end in wrath and destruction. One of the few who saw it all clearly, transparently, was a former slave, Frederick Douglass. If only America had heeded the fiery, eloquent rebuke he delivered to the nation in Rochester, New York, on July 5th, 1852 , much sorrow could have been avoided:

“I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

 From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Cling to this day — cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight…

…Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America! “I will not equivocate; I will not excuse;” I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.”

Again, I beg you, read his entire “What is the slave to the Fourth of July” speech and continue to read it until his message and righteous passion gets down into your very bones. It is now 2011, and the “leeward huge forms of flinty rocks” may be seen again, by those who will, with an informed eye, simply gaze ahead.

Since 1973 in our America more than fifty million innocent, voiceless, helpless, little children have lost their lives, brutalized by the conscienceless hands of the abortionists and their enablers. This, as nothing before, not even the horrors of slavery, is the abandonment of what America is, of every foundational principle upon which we premise our republican form of self-government and our liberty.

“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…” – The Declaration of Independence

The slaves found their voice for life and liberty in a freed slave. The murdered babies have no such advocate. On this earthly plane there is no such thing as a former aborted child. A slave can be freed, but dead is dead. So, as the inevitable storms faced by this generation bear down, who will speak fearlessly to a people who have lost their connection to the true American ship of state, a ship that from the laying of its hull was dedicated to God and to the equal protection of the lives and liberty of all those persons who were created in His image? Who will keep the constitutional oath to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to our Posterity”? Where are the “children of Issachar” in this generation? Where are those men and women who understand the times we live in, and who have the necessary courage to speak and act upon that knowledge? And even if those courageous leaders arise, will America listen? Or is destruction and dissolution our lot and the fate of our posterity? Will we dishonor the memory of every patriot who ever honestly pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the preservation of America and her principles?

Along with Thomas Jefferson, I tremble at the answers to these questions, because those answers will determine the earthly fate of my children and grandchildren, and whether America will survive in liberty.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tom Hoefling is the founder and Chairman of America’s Party. America’s Party is recruiting, training and equipping a new generation of leaders – patriotic men and women who will courageously act to implement America’s principles. Read more  – Click Here