Robert Rodkey

Julian

This fledgling nation a mere 250 years ago has arisen to be the most powerful nation in the world, both militarily and economically. The United States of America is the economic engine that pulls the world’s economic train. The USA is the greatest country with the most freedoms of any land on the face of this planet. How can this be?

Terry Prachett said, “If you don’t know where you came from, then you don’t know where you are, and if you don’t know where you are, then you don’t know where you are going.”

The point being in relation to our country and its heritage is that you need to understand its beginnings, the present circumstances and where it is headed. Therefore you can successfully plan ahead.

This nation was founded as a Christian nation. From the time of the Pilgrims in 1620 with the signing of the Mayflower Compact, they made a covenant with God, to advance the Christian faith, to covenant and combine themselves into a civil political body for better order and preservation of society. They went on to say they would constitute ordinances and laws for the general good of the colony.

Fast forward to the 1730s and 40s, there was a great spiritual revival called the First Great Awakening. George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards and others preached the “new birth,” an inward conversion with a relationship with God, as opposed to just having an intellectual belief.

From this period people found out that our liberties and freedoms came from God, not man, according to the Word of God, aka, the Bible.

The colonies were primarily made up of various Protestants denominations and sects. There were some Catholics, so you see these were people that believed in the Old and New Testament scriptures. There were also a handful of Jewish believers of the Old Testament.

George Washington, when he became General of the Continental Army and saw the rabble of undisciplined men issued, “orders on July 20, 1775, that all officers and soldiers not on duty must attend Divine Service at the accustomed places of worship. This was a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer, as ordered by the Continental Congress.”

Thomas Paine, that some say he was an atheist and others say an agnostic, and even others say he became a Christian later in life said that the Americans were guided by religious belief and scriptures. He should know, because he lived during this period of American history.

Francis A. Schaeffer, a modern day theologian and philosopher, said, “the word Christian can be used in two ways. The primary meaning is: An individual who has come to God through the work of Christ. The second must be kept distinct but has validity. It is possible for an individual to live within the circle of that which a Christian consensus brings forth, even though he himself is not a Christian in the first sense.”

Some of the founders were Deists, but were not pure Deists as those of the Enlightenment in France which eventually led to a godless revolution. They believed the scriptures were good for social order, but did not believe that God interacted in the affairs of man. When I studied this subject matter in college, I was told by the professors that our founders were all atheists, agnostics or Deists. That simply is not true.

The clergy debated the just war theory. At this time in history there existed the doctrine of the “divine right of kings,” which is a doctrine that their authority to rule comes directly from God, they stood in the place of God, and represented him to the people. Since the kings were a Divine position, they were not to be questioned for any reason.

As the clergy wrestled with this since we had been invaded by the British and they forced colonies to house them often against the colonists’ wishes. There were burdensome taxes levied, all which added up to the conclusion war would be just because it was in self-defense. They cited Neh.4:13-14 7 20-21, Zech.9:8 and 2Sam. 10:12, etc.

Rev. Jacob Duche, a controversial Anglican clergy and loyal to the British Crown, actually argued from the Bible in favor of the American Colonies stance. That stance was that the colonies were not in rebellion to God’s ordained institution of civil government.

He said, “Inasmuch as all rulers are in fact the servants of the public and appointed for no other purpose than to be ‘a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well’ (Rom.13:3), whenever this Divine order is inverted, whenever these rulers abuse their sacred trust by unrighteous attempts to injure, oppress and enslave those very persons from whom alone, under God, their power is derived — does not humanity, does not reason, does not Scripture, call upon man, the citizen, the Christian of such a community to ‘stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free!’ (Gal.5:1) The Apostle enjoins us to ‘submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake,’ but surely a submission to the unrighteous ordinance of the unrighteous men, cannot be ‘for the Lord’s sake,’ for ‘He loveth righteousness and His countenance beholds the things that are just.'”

Samuel Adams, father of the American Revolution and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, said, “The rights of the colonists as Christians may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.”

So, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence (D of I) was read. The American colonies declared their independence and were officially at war with Great Britain. The D of I describes the grievances, a list of charges against the King, and declares that the source of our government comes from God. It mentions the God of the Bible four times. The titles used for God are specific for the point being made. “The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” These are the things we know and see around us. And by laws of nature “all men are created equal.” All men are equally human therefore are equal in their rights. Our rights come from God, “unalienable Rights.” Among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Our knowledge, understanding, or awareness that there is the Divine or God comes from nature. It is in the book of Romans. Theologians call it general revelation.

The D of I mentions the “Supreme Judge of the World,” God the final authority to which a nation pleads its case and desires. Appealing to the Supreme Judge “for the rectitude of our intentions”, in other words according to Webster’s Dictionary: with moral integrity, correctness of procedure, virtue, goodness, morality and probity (uprightness and honesty).

Finally “Divine Providence” the Founding Fathers are asking for God’s support, guidance and protection. This is not a request of a bunch of Atheists, Agnostics or Deists, because this comes from the Bible with the firm belief that God interacts in the affairs of men. They went on to say, “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

We need to know and understand our Christian heritage and how it applies to our government and social order so that this One Nation Under God can persevere.