One Nation Under God
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Galatians 5:13-16
Independence Prepared with Prayer
A year before the Declaration of Independence was signed, in June of 1775, the Continental Congress laid the foundations of American Independence when they tried to work out their relationship with Great Britain, but came to a complete standstill over how to balance the issues of rights with the importance of loyalty and reconciliation. At this critical time, they called upon an Anglican priest to lead them corporately in prayer for wisdom and renewed vision. After this, the Congress issued the following proclamation for all 13 colonies to pray and fast in an act of national humility until July 4th of the following week. That declaration was as follows…
A National Day of Prayer
“As the great Governor of the World, by his supreme and universal Providence, not only conducts the course of nature with unerring wisdom and rectitude, but frequently influences the minds of men to serve the wise and gracious purposes of his providential government; and it being, at all times, our indispensible duty devoutly to acknowledge his superintending providence, especially in times of impending danger and public calamity, to reverence and adore his immutable justice as well as to implore his merciful interposition for our deliverance:
“This Congress, therefore, considering the present critical, alarming and calamitous state of these colonies, do earnestly recommend that Thursday, the 20th day of July next, be observed, by the inhabitants of all the English colonies on this continent, as a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer; that we may, with united hearts and voices, unfeignedly confess and deplore our many sins; and offer up our joint supplications to the all-wise, omnipotent, and merciful Disposer of all events; humbly beseeching him to forgive our iniquities, to remove our present calamities, to avert those desolating judgments, with which we are threatened, and to bless our rightful sovereign, King George the third, and [to] inspire him with wisdom to discern and pursue the true interest of all his subjects, that a speedy end may be put to the civil discord between Great Britain and the American colonies, without farther effusion of blood: And that the British nation may be influenced to regard the things that belong to her peace, before they are hid from her eyes: That these colonies may be ever under the care and protection of a kind Providence, and be prospered in all their interests; That the divine blessing may descend and rest upon all our civil rulers, and upon the representatives of the people, in their several assemblies and conventions, that they may be directed to wise and effectual measures for preserving the union, and securing the just rights and privileges of the colonies; That virtue and true religion may revive and flourish throughout our land; And that all America may soon behold a gracious interposition of Heaven, for the redress of her many grievances, the restoration of her invaded rights, a reconciliation with the parent state, on terms constitutional and honorable to both; And that her civil and religious privileges may be secured to the latest posterity.
“And it is recommended to Christians... to assemble for public worship, and to abstain from servile labour and recreations on said day.”
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| The Congress at Prayer |
America’s Historical Blind-Spot
Exactly one year later, the American Colonies proclaimed their independence, starting the most successful project of religious freedom in human history, firmly founded upon the tradition of Anglican Prayer. The United States declared itself independent with these words…
“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.”
The Declaration went on the illustrate the ways in which the British King and Commonwealth had invalidated their claims to authority, through unfair and unjust actions, contradictory laws and regulations, and by disinterest, foreignness and a lack of local involvement.
Our founders’ understanding of authority was not one of a top-down, inherited, “divine” right, but one of function, service and of mutual consent. It replaced the “papal” claim of kings to a “synodal” form of government - one that focuses more upon cooperation and a synthesis of ideas, on compromise between personalities, rather than upon an absolute claim to authority by the assertions of a historical narrative. I many ways, the American way of seeing independence was a rejection of Ultramontanist Catholic history, and an attempt to return to Early Christian Conciliarity, mutual submission and agreement revealing the Will of God. Ultimately, however, the dynamic tension between these views that represents Christian Orthodoxy were rejected and a cheap form of populism, seen in the later successes of radical Anabaptist and “Evangelical” Protestantism within our culture, which rejects all claims to authority based upon continuity and a wider perspective, was lost in the American Ethos.
While there were many profound and orthodox theological truths contained within the Declaration of Independence - such as the necessity of relationship and representation within hierarchy and the importance of local, pastoral governance, which is enforced for the good of the ruled and not to the advantage of the ruler - there was also a strand of thinking that could and would easily lead towards rebellion, dissolution of culture, and a kind of antinomianism that typifies the American attitude about history to this day. “If we don’t like the laws of an authority, then we just pronounce ourselves separate from it, and insulate ourselves with ignorance and rejection, rather than grappling with the hard questions of our inheritance.” This rebellious perspective did not seek to keep the laws, language and cultural conventions of that which came before, but, instead, saw an opportunity to create a “Tabula Rasa”, a “clean slate”, upon which a new history could be written - one less traditional and religious and far more secular and progressive. In the words of our cultural idiom - “Ignorance is Bliss.” This instinct to create purity through division, and then seal on self off from any further contact by rejection and intentional ignorance is one of the defining characteristics of American Christianity. These attitudes have come to define American Christianity more than the Bible itself.
America’s “feet of iron and clay” can be seen in the more secular influences of people likes of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, whose approach to the Bible was just as revisionist as their French Enlightenment-inspired approach to State-building. Others, Like Washington and Adams, were concerned with continuity in the midst of change, and maintaining those Christian virtues which made the Declaration of Independence’s understanding of the “Creator” more clear. These men sought consistency with first principles, rather than radical revolution. They stood their ground and were content with local leadership because they saw the source of authority as truth and a universally accessible polity, based upon the consent of the governed, rather than upon a will to power of the claims of a king to the “Divine Right to Rule.”
The problem is, as time has gone on and men have become more forgetful, we have replaced that foundation of continuity, of Creedal Christian Faith, and have begun to manifest and recognize only the visions of the Deists who were tolerated at the foundation of our Nation, rather than uphold the mandates of the Christian heroes who bled and died to pass on a biblical patrimony of faith. This land that was envisioned as the sanctuary of religious liberty and freedom of conscience to follow God in an uncoerced and truly loving way - reflecting the reality of our personal relationships with God, in which God never forces us to love Him and allows us to condemn ourselves to a Hell of our own making.
The “beam in our eye,” our blind spot, has been a lack of understanding and appreciation for the way our Christian history, the Apostolic, Orthodox, fully Catholic inheritance of the Western Civilization has effected our desire for and understanding of freedom. Freedom has been pictured as an innate human right, but freedom only exists if man is made in the Image of God and we are more than biological or intellectual units, equipped with an eternal, immaterial soul. If the spiritual component of each man, woman, child ever born is not equal and sharing the same potential for salvation and reflection of God’s glory, then, truly, there is no basis for equality. Equality can only exist as a theological capacity, as a revealed truth, not as a humanistically self-evident state. Some people are stupid, some are weak, some are addictive and dysfunctional. If our equality is based on sameness, then we are, obviously not equal. But, if our equality is given by God, who rules over mankind, and Who has revealed the Law as His Divine Will for mankind, then, we must submit to God and recognize, even begrudgingly, the worth of those who do not bring value or who take away from our biological or intellectual advantages and survival.
This is why it is wrong for us to force freedom upon non-Christian cultures, and why it is unreasonable to expect those without a Judeo-Christian Faith to believe in a governmental system established to insure not only equality, but the free exercise of the human will in the worship of God and the propagation of a virtuous family. As George Washington famously said, “Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people. The general government . . . can never be in danger of degenerating into a monarchy, an oligarchy, an aristocracy, or any despotic or oppressive form so long as there is any virtue in the body of the people." Those without the basis of Christian religious faith would find such structures unnecessary, unpalatable, and in opposition to their own free wills. They would, rather, find the original form of American governance offensive and biased, and insist upon its replacement by some other values and exercise freedom, not a a process of virtue and self-restraint, but as a license to sexual wontonness and an invitation to cultural suicide. It would become, rather than an invitation to apostheosis and glory, a short-lived experiment in hedonism and Epicureanism.
Christian Foundations of America
Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. We are truly blessed, because that from our Pledge of Allegiance to every piece of our money, we insist that we are a “Nation Under God” and “In God We Trust.” While secularists today vigorously deny that the United States is built upon a foundation of faith, the founding fathers of America were obviously men with a lively confidence in God’s existence and the value of God’s Word. America was founded upon Biblical truths. As we just showed, the Declaration of Independence declares that all people “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” Rights were an expression of God’s creation. The pillars of a strong Christian faith in God and the Bible are apparent throughout all of our foundations. Just a cursory look is enough to prove that those who insist on a secular foundation are motivated by an anachronistic agenda, and not by a truthful reading of history.
When Harvard was established in 1636 as a divinity school, their statement of purpose said, “Every student’s main aim is to know Jesus Christ, and to recognize that Christ is the foundation of all learning.”
When Congregationalist Yale University came into existence in 1701, their motto was - “God is the source of all wisdom,” and they required all their students to attend daily public prayer services both morning & evening.
When Princeton came into existence in 1746, Dean John Knox Witherspoon proclaimed in a sermon called "The Absolute Necessity of Salvation through Christ”, on January 2nd, 1758, “Accursed be all that learning which sets itself in opposition to the cross of Christ! Accursed be all that learning which disguises or is ashamed of the cross of Christ! Accursed be all that learning which fills the room that is due to the cross of Christ! and once more, Accursed be all that learning which is not made subservient to the honour and glory of the cross of Christ!”
Patrick Henry said, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians. Not on religion but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
William Penn, said, “If we aren’t governed by God we will be ruled by tyrants.”
John Jay, first justice of the Supreme Court, said, “It is the duty as well as the privilege and the interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
James Madison the chief architect of the constitution said, “Religion is the basis and foundation of our government”
George Washington said, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” He also said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God and to obey His will.”
The Delaware Indians came to George Washington and requested that their children be permitted to study in his schools because they wanted their children to learn morality and integrity. Even though they didn’t understand the Bible’s message about Jesus, they wanted their children to learn the principles taught in the Bible.
Thomas Jefferson, the third president, said, “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” And, Jefferson, not a Christian himself, insisted that two books be used - the Bible, printed with the Watts Hymnal in the back, and the New England Primer, and these two were the primary textbooks in public schools until 1900.
Calvin Coolidge, thirteenth president, said, “The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.”
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president, said, “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance by faith, and you will lived and die a better man.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, thirty second president prayed, “O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade…Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.”
David Joseph Brewer, Supreme Court Justice from 1889 to 1910 said, “The American nation from its first settlement at Jamestown to this hour is based upon and permeated by the principles of the Bible.” (From Discovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich)
Ronald Reagan, fortieth president, aboard U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, New York Harbor, July 4, 1986, said: “And so tonight we reaffirm that Jew and gentile, we are one nation under God; that black and white, we are one nation indivisible; that Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world.”
In 1776, 11 of the 13 colonies required that one had to be a Christian to be eligible to “run for political office.” In 1777, the Continental Congress voted to spend $300,000 in gold to purchase Bibles for distribution to every household in the nation.
(List of quotes compiled by the Rev. Paul Hammons and the Rev. Robert Garret)
Christian Citizenship
How should we be good Christian citizens in a country with such a foundation? As Benjamin Franklin is renowned for in his motto for the University of Pennsylvania, “Laws without morals are in vain.” Scripture gives us this moral basis in Romans 13:1-14.
“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Summary
Our nation, which was established on the Anglican patrimony of traditional prayer and theological understanding of human values, is a “Christian Nation.” But, because we have forgotten God and abandoned our understanding of the universal value of human life as related to the Image of God in creation, we have redefined all of our history and political jargon to reflect a humanistic and anti-Christian worldview. Instead of looking to the Scripture, contemporary politicians looks to Darwin, Marx and Freud to define all relevant issues, and what emerges is a political vision of power and expedience that is completely stripped of its moral and theological dimension.
Human rights only originate in the “Imago Dei”, the image of God that is imprinted upon us in God’s act of creative grace in which He imparts life and gives us a living soul. Our wills, which are dependent upon His Will for a derivative nature, are inextricably tied to His moral law, which is His expressed Will for creation. Only in obedience to His Law can we reach our full potential as created beings. In order for us to be truly free, we must be truly good, for freedom is not the liberty to do whatever we want, but the power to do what is morally righteous and personally virtuous, for the good of all.
As we celebrate the Christian values in the foundation of the United States this July 4th, we mourn the breakdown of our Christian institutions, the destruction of the Christian Family, and the widespread apostasy and heresy that has destroyed and expunged our godly heritage. All traces of our previous Christian Orthodoxy have been whitewashed and painted over, and it is up to us to rediscover the great “Symphonia” of Christian civilizations of the past. Even as we speak, the memorials and ancient landmarks of our fathers are being torn down and replaced with Cultural Marxism and Postmodern cultural suicide, by those who would strip equality and egalitarianism from their only valid basis, the realization of God’s act of creation. But, just like the Continental Congress in a time of confusion and stalemate insisted in 1775, quoting the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
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