Freedom To Change Series

The War of 1812 is called the war nobody won. It was a very

costly war for both United States and Britain, yet it was a war that

accomplished nothing, and should never had been fought. In fact,

the entire war was fought after the reason for it no longer existed.

France and England were at war, and the United States was neutral.

It was shipping goods to both nations. Britain decided no U. S. ships

were allowed to go to France, and Napoleon countered with an

order to confiscate all U. S. ships going to England. This put the U.

S. right in the middle of the war with both sides against her.

The U. S. protested, and finally in 1811 got Napoleon to respect

her neutrality and stop raiding U. S. vessels. Britain continued to

attack American ships, however, and forced American seaman into

the British Navy. Diplomacy was not working, and so President

Madison urged congress to declare war. They did so on June 18,

1812. What Madison and congress did not know was that two days

earlier on June 16, 1812 the British Council voted to cease

interference with U. S. commerce. The problem was resolved and

there was no need for war, but because communication was so slow,

Britain and America fought a war based on the obsolete past. Had

they known the present reality, and the change that had taken place,

the war need never have been apart of history.

The tragic story is repeated at the end of the war. Far away in

Ghent the American and British negotiators, out of sheer weariness

with a meaningless war, signed a peace treaty on Christmas Eve of1814.

But again, the good news could not travel fast in that day.

The result was, one week later on New Year's Day of 1815, Andrew

Jackson led the Americans in the great battle of New Orleans. It

was the largest and bloodiest battle of the war, killing over 2,000

men. The tragedy is that it was fought after the war was already

over.

Thank God for the radical changes in man's communication

systems. Today, only seconds after a decision is made anywhere in

the world, the news of it can be known in the rest of the world.

Change is not always good, but change always advances the

potential for good. Progress means man has found new and more

effective ways to prevent folly, and to prevent the destructive forces

in nature, and his own fallen nature. Progress is a positive word, for

it represents a positive experience. It is advancement, moving

ahead, climbing toward a goal. If you stay where you are, you can't

get to where you ought to be, so progress is good. but progress

means change, and change is not as clear cut a positive as is

progress. You can't have progress without change, but not all

change is progress. Change covers many complex circumstances

both good and bad. That is why the thought of change can make us

both hopeful and fearful. That is why a New Year holds before us

both hope and fear. The fear that change will be negative, and the

hope that change will be positive.

The one thing we know for sure is that change is certain. Change

is inevitable in a world like ours, and though we love it or loath it,

we have to live with it. Sometimes change seems progressive, and we

can flow with the stream. Other times changes seems regressive,

and we have to fight it, and swim against the stream. But one way

or the other, we are always in the stream of change. Bob Dylan

wrote,

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land,

And don't criticize

What you don't understand.

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command.

Your old road is

Rapidly agin

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend a hand,

For the times they are a-changin.

This sounds very contemporary, but it could have been a popular

song back in Daniel's day. Daniel lived in a time of radical change

where even the things tied down and locked in were changing. He

and his friends, who were the cream of the crop, who were educated

youth of Israel, were carried captive into the land of Babylon. All

their dreams and plans for the future were radically changed. They

had to give up their culture, and adapt to a totally new culture.

They took on new names, a new language, and a whole new way of

life in a foreign land.

There is no book of the Bible more filled with change than Daniel.

It contains 14 references to Hebrew words for change, which is more

than any other book. No other book better illustrates both sides of