By Stephen McDowell

 

The Declaration of Independence is a Christian document — Christian because it reflects many biblical principles, including the Christian idea of man and government, Christian self-government, biblical means of resisting tyranny, limited nature of civil government, the biblical purpose of government, to name a few. It acknowledges God and His revealed will as the source of rights and law. It appeals directly to God as the Supreme Judge, protector, and provider. The ideas contained in our founding covenant reiterate those expressed in the civil documents written by the colonists in the 150 years prior to independence and show the Founders’ Christian faith.

Reading the Declaration of Independence and identifying biblical ideas is an exercise every Christian should undertake. Doing so will reveal one’s ability to reason biblically and to identify Christian ideas of government. It will also show how much history someone knows, since understanding the context will enable you to find more Christians ideas.

Most Americans (including Christian Americans) have not read the Declaration of Independence. For those who have, few can identify many biblical principles in the document. Why? One, they are a product of secular schools which teach that our nation was founded upon enlightenment ideas, and any reference to a higher power was merely out of cultural deference to some deistic God. Two, for those who are Christians, most have not been taught by their pastors and churches how to reason biblically regarding governmental or civil issues.

How many Christian ideas can you identify in the Declaration?

Let’s see how you well do in this exercise. Read the Declaration of Independence that follows. As you read, write down all the biblical ideas you can. A list of some of these ideas follows the document. The list is not exhaustive by any means, but shows that the Declaration is much more biblical than most people have ever considered.

 

(For a brief summary of the events surrounding the adoption of the Declaration see the article, “What Really Happened on July 4^th”)

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Declaration of Independence (1776)

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Governments. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasion on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Government:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Suppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, Therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliance, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

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Some Christian Ideas in the Declaration of Independence

 

Ideas in the Declaration of Independence that reflect the Christian idea of man and government, and Biblical principles include:

• “people to dissolve” — Power flows from the people (the people under God, see next point). A self-governed people are the source of power in a Christian nation. The government is not unlimited. Jesus taught the concept of limited government when He said we are to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s (Matt. 22:17-21). He also implied it is the responsibility of His people to assure government is limited and does not encroach upon the jurisdictions of the family or church. Lord Acton wrote: “When Christ said ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s,’ He gave to the state a legitimacy it had never before enjoyed, and set bounds to it that had never yet been acknowledged. And He not only delivered the precept but he also forged the instrument to execute it. To limit the power of the State ceased to be the hope of patient, ineffectual philosophers and became the perpetual charge of a universal Church.”
• “the laws of Nature and Nature’s God” — The people and nation were under God. This phrase had a well-established meaning and was defined by many political and theological writers of that time. The laws of nature were understood to mean the revelation of God in His creation and in the conscience of man. All men know that God exists, and they have some knowledge of His moral requirements because they are written upon man’s conscience and are seen in the creation. Yet, man is limited in his ability to clearly see and understand God’s law. Mercifully, God has made them clear via the laws of nature’s God – the revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures. (For more, see Stephen McDowell, The Bible: America’s Source of Law and Liberty, Chapter 8.)
• “declare the causes” — they were giving principled reasons for their actions.
• “We hold these truths to be self-evident”
• There is truth. There is right and wrong. There are absolutes that we can know. This common adherence to truth was what unified early America.
• These truths are self-evident; they need no proof. A self-evident truth is true because it has been naturally implanted in men as a direct revelation from God, without the need of proofs, as Paul discusses in Romans 1 and 2.
• The Declaration recited self-evident truths in order to appeal even to the man without the Bible who knows in his heart that such truths are true, because God has placed them in him (Rom. 2:14-15).
• “that all Men are created equal”
  • Truth emanates from the Creator. Men are created by God, and have equal standing before Him. This gives all men value.
  • Man was created. Man did not evolve.
  • We did not lay the foundation of this nation upon the opinion of men but rather upon our faith in the existence of God, the Creator – upon the reality of God’s created order. The eternally existent One created unchanging, absolute, and universal truths upon which one could confidently found a new civil order.
• “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
  • We have Creator endowed rights, not government granted. If government can grant rights to man, government can take them away. Our rights are unalienable – they cannot be taken away, and we cannot even give them up.
  • The Bible teaches we have a right to life, liberty, and property. (“The pursuit of happiness” included the idea of property. The phrase “life, liberty and property” was well known and used often.)
  • William Blackstone explains what “the pursuit of happiness” meant to our Founders: “God so intimately connected, so inseparably interwove, the laws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be obtained but by observing the former; and if the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but induce the latter.” Blackstone observed that God’s law is not only right, but that it also produces happiness. The pursuit of happiness, as mentioned in the Declaration of Independence as a God-given inalienable right, is the pursuit of obedience to God’s morality. If I am kept from following my conscience – the place where the laws of God are written (that which distinguishes right and wrong) – then I am kept from pursing happiness. We have the duty and right to change any government that obstructs freedom of conscience and the pursuit of happiness.
• “to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men”
• Man is superior to the state. God ordained civil government to advance His purposes in a fallen world and to serve man.
• The primary reason God ordained civil government is for the protection of our God-given rights. The Scriptural purpose of government can be stated with 5 P’s: Protect the righteous, Punish the evil-doers, Promote Biblical justice (good), Praise those who do right, Provide peace (Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pet. 2:13-14; 1 Tim. 2:1-2).
• “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
• Governments are only to exercise just powers. Power is limited. Government should only have enough power to fulfill its purpose. Who limits government? The people:
• The power of government does not flow from the top, down – not from the ruler down to the people. Rather it flows from the people to the rulers. But it is not people operating on their own. They (and the government rulers) are subject to the “laws of nature and nature’s God [paragraph 1].”
• To reiterate an important biblical idea: In the worldview of the Founders as expressed in our founding covenant, we as a nation hold a common set of truths that have their origin in the Creator; we adhere to laws originating from nature’s God. We did not derive our laws, or rights, or liberties from man — whether one or a few rulers (not from presidents, legislators, or judges), nor from the consensus of man. While those who rule do so only by the consent of the governed, laws do not emanate from the governed. There is a higher authority to which all men are subject.
• “consent of the governed” — people giving their consent to government is seen in the Hebrew Republic and is a biblical idea (see Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles, Liberating the Nations). Government flows from the consent of the governed.
• “the right of the people to alter or to abolish it” — power flows from the people (under God) out to the government, not from the government down to the people. Power flows from the bottom up, from the inside out.
• “prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes” — this reflects a knowledgeable citizenry (as does many other items in the Declaration). Such citizens are essential to maintain free societies. The king and parliament had violated the rights of the colonists (their rights as Christians, as British citizens, and citizens of the world) for many years, during which time they petitioned for change and suffered patiently. The continued abuse left them no other choice but to take the step of independence.
• “it is their duty, to throw off such Government” — such duty is a Biblical concept.
• “patient sufferance” — shows Christian character.
• “a history of . . . usurpations” — their identification of usurpation by the King shows their Biblical understanding of the function of government.
• “Let facts be submitted to a candid world” — the bulk of the Declaration is a listing of the ways the King and Parliament had violated their civil and Biblical mandate for governing. This shows that the Americans were standing upon the idea of the rule of law. They were also following the biblical steps for resisting tyranny, first by protesting and taking all legal recourse available to them.
  • The list of grievances and abuses reflects many biblical rights and liberties including: The rule of law, with kings being subject to the law as well as the people; the duty to resist the tyrant; self-government; representative government; separation of powers; jurisdictional authority; civilian control of police and military; the family as the fundamental governmental unit; economic freedom; property rights; free and fair trials; trial by jury; government’s role to protect citizen’s property, not plunder their property; freedom of conscience; nation building through covenant. (To learn about the biblical foundation of these rights see: Liberating the Nations and America’s Providential History by Stephen McDowell and Mark Beliles; and The Bible: America’s Source of Law and Liberty by McDowell).
• “Unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation” — the Americans understood representation to be a fundamental right they possessed as British citizens and as Christians.
• “He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly” — the King acted above the law, but the Americans saw that the King is subject to the law as well as the people. The rule of law is a Biblical idea.
• “He has made Judges the administration of justice” — he violated the separation of powers, which is based upon the Christian idea that man is sinful, and thus his governmental powers must be limited.
• “He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” — the King violated the Biblical jurisdiction of the role of government. It was involved in areas outside its rightful domain.
• “He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power.” — He violated the Biblical idea of the civilian control of the military.
• “He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws;” — he violated the rule of law and the Americans right to self-government.
• “For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us.” — These troops often moved into private homes and assumed ultimate authority there, thus over-riding the authority of the father and family.
• “For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world.” — he cut off their economic freedom.
• “For imposing taxes on us without our consent.” — he violated the Biblical principle of property (see Stephen McDowell, The Economy from a Biblical Perspective).
• “For depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury; for transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.” — he violated their right to a free and fair trial.
• “For taking away our Charters … For suspending our own Legislatures” — he violated their right to self-government.
• “He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.” — Instead of fulfilling the Biblical duty to protect the citizens, he was plundering the citizens, as tyrants have done throughout history.
• “He has constrained our fellow citizens … to bear arms against their country.” — he sought to force the people to violate their conscience.
• “In every stage of these suppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms.” — their Christian character and their Christian action in regards to steps taken to address injustices was seen throughout the struggle.
• “Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions” — they reveal that God is their ultimate authority and appeal to him, laying the foundation of their actions and nation under His hand. They understood that the foundations of free nations are rooted in God.
• “With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” — they covenanted together under God to establish free states. America was built upon the Biblical idea of covenant.

 

 The Right of the People to Resist

The entire nature of the Declaration reveals the understanding that the American people had of the right to resist rulers who violate their duties and plunder the people, and their property, rather than protect them. In addition, their resistance was conducted through legitimate governing officials, through lesser magistrates. This biblical idea, known as interposition, is rooted in Scripture and was written about by early Christian leaders, practiced by the barons and bishops at the time of the Magna Carta, and applied during the Protestant Reformation. The concept of interposition was developed in the writings of John Calvin (Institutes), the French Huegenots (Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos, 1579), John Knox, and Samuel Rutherford (Lex Rex, 1644). England applied interposition in the Glorious Revolution when the Parliament invited William of Orange to rule in place of James II.

Lesser magistrates have the right and duty to hold higher officials accountable to the law of the land and to divine law – to the laws of nature and of nature’s God. With the King rejecting all our petitions and even acting more contrary, we had no other recourse than to declare our independence.

 

The above list of Christian ideas contained in the Declaration of Independence is by no means exhaustive, but it is extensive enough to show the deep biblical reasoning and action of the Founding Fathers.

 

Five hundred years ago Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” on the church door in Wittenberg, marking a pivotal event in the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. The focal point of the Reformation was the Bible being made available to the common man. Luther and others sought to translate and distribute the Bible because they believed it was much more than just a religious or moral book. To them it was divine. Following are a few articles on the work of Luther and the importance of the Bible in transforming men and nations.

Martin Luther and Reformation Day

The focal point of the Protestant Reformation was the Bible being translated and made available in the common languages of the people. People began to read the Bible, and when they did these things happened: 1) Individuals were transformed; 2) The Church began to be changed, putting off corruption; 3) The state was gradually reformed. The fruit of the Reformation was revival of individuals, restoration of the church, and reformation of all society.

God uses individuals to change nations and the course of history. Some of those people God used in the Protestant Reformation included Martin Luther, John Calvin, William Tyndale, and John Knox.

God used a flawed, rough, and at times harsh man to launch a gigantic revolution. Martin Luther stood up against the whole force of the religious establishment. “His profound experience of forgiveness in Christ gave him the courage to stand alone against the entire weight of established and entrenched religious deception and blow it to the winds.”

Read On

 

Evidence of Biblical Inspiration

When we read the Bible we are confronted with a claim that requires a response: that is, that this book is the Word of God, the Word of the Almighty One who created and sustains all things. In the Bible God reveals and declares Who He is and how we are to live. We can reject the claim or believe it, but to ignore it is foolish. If it is what it claims to be, the Word of God, then our adherence to its requirements is essential for life, here on the earth and in the eternal hereafter.

Can we know that the claims of the Bible are true? Is there any evidence of its divinity and infallibility? The answer is a resounding YES! One of the numerous arguments for Biblical inspiration is the Bible’s social influence.

The Bible has changed world history. No book has had such a positive impact on society. Wherever the Bible has gone and taken root and grown, it has changed cultures and nations. There are myriad examples, from the advance of Biblical Christianity in the first few centuries, to the transformation of Ireland and Western Europe via Patrick and his Biblical training schools, to the central role of the Bible in the birth and development of America.

Read On

 

The Importance of the Bible

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BIBLE SOCIETY IN BOSTON, MAY 28, 1849.

By Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Editor’s Introduction

President Andrew Jackson said on June 8, 1845, that “the Bible is the rock on which our Republic rests.” Early Americans would almost universally agree that the religious, social, educational, and political life of America was primarily shaped by the Bible.

Our states were colonized by people who desired to freely worship the God of the Bible; our schools were begun so that everyone would be able to read and understand the Bible for themselves; our universities were founded to train ministers who were knowledgeable of the Scriptures; our laws and constitutions were written based on Biblical ideas; and our founding fathers overwhelmingly had a Biblical worldview.

Most Americans today have not been taught this important truth, even though many still recognize it. Even Newsweek magazine, on December 26, 1982, acknowledged that: “Now historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more than the Constitution is our Founding document.” It used to be common knowledge that America’s Biblical foundation produced America’s freedom, justice, and prosperity. In recent generations America has been shifting from a Biblical foundation to a humanistic foundation, where the God of the Bible is being replaced by man as god. The result has been the decay of society and loss of liberty. Noah Webster wrote:

The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.

For the good of America we must once again restore the Bible to the central role it played in shaping this nation. To do this we must first understand that role. Our founding fathers believed America’s liberty and prosperity was a result of the fruit of our foundation upon Biblical principles. They started scores of Bible Societies because they saw the transmission of the Bible as the only way to maintain liberty. The following address was delivered to one of those Bible Societies by Robert C. Winthrop, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1847-1849. Our civil leaders today must understand what our past civil leaders knew, that there would be no America, the land of the free, without the Bible.

Read Winthrop’s Address

This address contains these excellent words of Speaker Winthrop:

“Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”

 

 

The Liberty Bell has been used as the logo of the Providence Foundation since near the time of our official founding in 1984. A verse from the Bible, Leviticus 25:10, is engraved on the top of the bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof. Lev. XXV, X”

The context of this Scripture is the jubilee year of liberty, which according to God’s instruction was to occur every 50 years and was marked by forgiveness of debts, the return of all lands to the original owners, and freedom to enslaved Israelites. Appropriately, this good fruit partially represents the outcome of our mission to spread Christian liberty throughout all the nations. As we teach Biblical principles for all spheres of life, the result will be men and nations who are liberated, blessed, and advancing. Or as Jesus taught, we disciple nations by teaching men to observe all He commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).

The Liberty Bell is currently on display in historic Philadelphia. It was first cast in England in 1752 by order of the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1751 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Charter of Privileges signed by William Penn in 1701. This charter insured the freedom of Pennsylvania citizens, and so an appropriate scripture was selected to be placed on the bell — Lev. 25:10.

The Bell was hung in the Hall Tower at the State House in Philadelphia and cracked on its initial sounding in 1753. It was recast twice by Pass and Stowe before it had a clear and pleasant sound. As far as the Superintendents of the State House knew, this was the first time a colonial foundry had ever attempted to cast a bell, especially of this size. The bell weighed 2080 pounds, was twelve feet in circumference around the lip, seven and one-half feet around the crown, and three feet high.

 

 

The Liberty Bell contains the following inscription:

BY ORDER OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE STATE HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA, 1752.

And above this:

PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND, UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF. LEV. XXV X

John Watson, in his Annals of Philadelphia, says of the motto on the bell:

“That it was adopted from Scripture (Lev. 25, 10) may to many be still more impressive, as being also the voice of God — that great Arbiter, by whose signal providences we afterwards attained to that “liberty” and self-government which bid fair to emancipate our whole continent, and in time to influence and meliorate the condition of the subjects of arbitrary government throughout the civilized world!”[1]

This inscription on America’s most venerated symbol reminds us that civil liberty is a result of Biblical truth infused in the life of a nation. Noah Webster stated:

“Almost all the civil liberty now enjoyed in the world owes its origin to the principles of the Christian religion…. The religion which has introduced civil liberty, is the religion of Christ and his apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.”[2]

The Liberty Bell was intended to be rung on public occasions, such as the meetings of the Assembly and courts. However, it was rung at numerous other times, especially for fires and church events, so much so that many people living nearby made complaints. On July 8, 1776, the Liberty Bell called together its most important meeting, the assembly of the citizens to hear the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence, and then led the celebration by its ringing.

On September 18, 1777, the Liberty Bell was taken to Allentown, Pennsylvania, to prevent the British from capturing it and melting it down for use as a cannon. It was hidden for almost a year in Zion Reformed Church.

For 82 years the Liberty Bell tolled important events in the beginning of America. On July 8, 1835, the Bell cracked while being rung in memory of Chief Justice John Marshall of Virginia who had died on July 6th.

The Liberty Bell reminds us of Christ’s mission to liberate men and nations, or as He said in Luke 4 when He started His ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me … to proclaim release to the captives – to set at liberty those oppressed.” Since men will be liberated as they learn and obey God’s Word as it applies to all of life, the Providence Foundation will continue to train people in a Biblical worldview so they can transform the nations.

 

 

 

[1] John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, Hart, etc. publishers, 1850, p. 398.

[2] Noah Webster, History of the United States, New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1833, pp. 273-274.

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Stephen McDowell

 

The Uniqueness of the United States in History

America has been different than any nation in history. America has been exceptional. This has not been due to any inherent value of her people, but has been due to the valuable ideas upon which she was founded.

These include such ideas as: valuing the individual; freedom of worship; opportunity for all to labor and benefit from the fruit of their labor; freedom to elect representatives; freedom of expression of ideas; freedom to own property; freedom to get ideas, start businesses and create wealth; limited jurisdiction of civil government; the central role of the family.

These ideas produced great liberty, justice, prosperity, charity, virtue, and knowledge. They made America powerful. This power and wealth has been used, not for conquest, but for good — for furthering liberty in the world.

Throughout America’s history, people have flocked to her shores to experience the fruit of her liberty and prosperity.

Early Americans Recognized the Special Nature of the Nation in History.

John Adams said that: “I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”

Many of the early colonizers of America came with the vision of establishing a unique nation in history. John Winthrop wrote of the Puritan’s desire to be “A Model of Christian Charity,”— “as a city upon a hill,” where all the people of the earth would look upon and say of their own nation, “the Lord make it like that of New England.” William Penn said that God gave him the land that became Pennsylvania so that he could set up a model state — “a holy experiment” — “which should open its doors to every kindred” and be a refuge for men of all creeds.

America’s Founding Principles

There is a call today for America to be like other nations. Yet, we do not want to be like tyrannical nations, nor those with a dictator or one-party ruling. Neither do we want to be like secular and socialististic European nations, with increasing loss of religious and civil freedoms and more government control and taxation. America’s problems today have come as we have abandoned our founding principles and embraced secular and statist ideas.

America was founded by a people providentially prepared and greatly influenced by the Protestant Reformation, by a people of the Book. The founding ideas came from the Bible. The early settlers of America carried these seed ideas with them as they colonized the nation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These ideas were planted, grew, and began to bear great fruit. This seed determined the fruit of the American Christian Republic. It produced America as an exceptional nation, the most free and prosperous in history.

The Importance of Virginia and Vision for Its Founding

Virginia was the planting of the first seed of America, and as such it is a starting place to see God’s hand in the founding of the nation and to learn the ideas that made America powerful. We must remember so we can return America to her foundation of freedom and keep this nation a place of liberty, truth, and prosperity. This is for our good, but also that of our posterity, and for those people throughout the world who seek to establish freedom in their nations.

No man was more influential in the establishment of the American colonies than Rev. Richard Hakluyt. This minister, who from Biblical inspiration became the greatest English geographer of the Elizabethan epoch, compiled the records of numerous European explorations, voyages, and settlements with the view of encouraging England to establish colonies in the new world. True to the calling God had put into his heart, the spreading of the gospel and establishment of the Christian faith in new lands was at the forefront of his motives in undertaking this great task. Hakluyt also foresaw America as a land where persecuted Christians could find refuge.

Early attempts at colonization for purely economic reasons had failed. Hakluyt wrote that if past attempts

had not been led with a preposterous desire of seeking rather gaine than God’s glorie, I assure myself that our labours had taken farre better effecte. But wee forgotte, that Godliness is great riches, and that if we first seeke the kingdome of God, al other thinges will be given unto us, and that as the light accompanieth the Sunne and the heate the fire, so lasting riches do wait upon them that are jealous for the advancement of the Kingdome of Christ, and the enlargement of his glorious Gospell: as it is sayd, I will honour them that honour mee.

In 1584 Hakluyt presented his Discourse on Western Planting to Queen Elizabeth where he set forth the principal reasons for colonization. First and foremost was the religious reason. He said,

Wee shall by plantinge there inlarge the glory of the gospell, and from England plante sincere relligion, and provide a safe and a sure place to receave people from all partes of the worlds that are forced to flee for the truthe of Gods worde.

Hakluyt was an original incorporator of the Virginia Charter and a member of the governing body overseeing colonization. His ideas were written into the First Charter of Virginia, April 10, 1606:

 We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty,…and to a settled and quiet Government.”

Propagation of the Gospel

Orders and instructions given to the first colonists by the London Council emphasized the religious motive. They wrote: “We do specially ordain, charge, and require” those concerned “with all diligence, care and respect” to provide that the “Christian faith be preached, planted, and used, not only within every of the said several colonies, and plantations, but also as much as they may arouse the savage people which do or shall adjoin unto them,” and that every one should “use all good means to draw the savages and heathen people to the true service and knowledge of God.”

Ralph Hamor lived in Virginia in the early years and wrote A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia, published in 1615. Hamor wrote that the work in Virginia would be for “setling and finishing up a Sanctum Sanctorum an holy house, a Sanctuary to him, the God of the Spirits, of all flesh, amongst such poore and innocent seduced Savages … to lighten them that sit in darkenes, and in the shaddow of death, and to direct their feete in the waies of peace.”

“A business so full of piety.”

Virginia was a business adventure, but not solely, nor even primarily, according to many involved. Hamor wrote that the Virginia endeavor was “a business so full of piety.” He begins his Discourse by saying that the work in Virginia is important and they must “proceede in a business so full of honour, and worth,” even “if there were no secondary causes,” [like business concerns] because “the already publish ends, I meane the glory of God in the conversion of those Infidels, and the honour of our King and country” were suggicient reasons in themselves. Thus, Hamor puts the pious motives as primary, and other things as secondary.

Planting the Seed at Jamestown

When the first 104 Colonists landed at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607, they erected a wooden cross where Rev. Robert Hunt led the men in prayer. Then they sailed across the bay and up a river that was named the James in honor of the king. On May 13 they reached the site they felt would be good for their settlement and called it Jamestown.

They put up tents until houses could be built and they stretched a sail between two trees as a place for worship. According to John Smith, “For a Church we did hang an awning (which is an old sail) to three or foure trees to shadow us from the sunne. Our walls were rales of wood, our seats unhewed trees, till we cut plankes, our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to two neighboring trees.”

It was here that the founder of the first Protestant church in America, Rev. Robert Hunt, conducted services until the church was built. This good and courageous clergyman preached twice each Sunday, read the morning and evening prayers, and celebrated communion once every three months. Rev. Hunt composed a special prayer for the colonists that was repeated each morning:

Almighty God,… we beseech Thee to bless us and this plantation which we and our nation have begun in Thy fear and for Thy glory … and seeing Lord, the highest end of our plantation here is to set up the standard and display the banner of Jesus Christ, even here where Satan’s throne is, Lord let our labour be blessed in labouring for the conversion of the heathen… Lord sanctify our spirits and give us holy hearts, that so we may be Thy instruments in this most glorious work.

There is a shrine honoring Rev. Hunt at historic Jamestown today.

Fulfilling the Vision in Early Jamestown

The vision to propagate the Christian faith was most notably fulfilled in the life of Pocahontas. This daughter of the Indian Chief Powhatan had providentially saved John Smith’s life when he was about to be clubbed by her tribesmen, by taking his “head in her armes and laid her owne upon his to save him from death.” She also helped secure peace between the Indians and settlers as well as obtain needed food. Smith said that she was “next under God … the instrument to preserve this colony from death, famine, and utter confusion.”

In 1614 Pocahontas renounced her paganism, confessed her faith in Jesus Christ, and was baptized in the church at Jamestown. Not long afterward, Rebecca was married to John Rolfe, which he said would be for the “good of this plantation, for the honour of our countrie, for the glory of God.”

Tercentenary Monument

In 1907 a monument was constructed at Jamestown Historical Park in honor of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown. Engraved on the monument are the concluding instructions to the colonists from the London Council’s Instructions for the Intended Voyage to Virginia:

Lastly and chiefly, the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God, the Giver of all goodness, for every plantation which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.

America’s Providential Purposes

The founders of America saw she had a providential purpose. That purpose, revealed in the writings of Rev. Hakluyt, include:

1. Inlarge the glory of the Gospel — that is, be a nation that produces the fruit of obedience to God’s truth (which is liberty, justice, prosperity, charity, virtue, and knowledge) and then spread that truth throughout the world.
2. Be a place of refuge and freedom for the persecuted from many nations.
3. Be an example of liberty — all kinds of liberty: personal, religious, civil, economic, political.
4. Propagate the Gospel to the lost — which has been greatly fulfilled since, “today a majority of Native people call themselves Christians” (from the Native People Museum in Washington, D.C.).

To fulfill the providential purposes of America and to make the American Dream a reality for ourselves and our posterity, we must remember what God has done in our history, repent of our apathy and ignorance, prepare ourselves and all citizens in the ideas that made us powerful, and return our nation to its original Godly covenant. This begins by understanding the story of the American Dream.

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To learn more see The American Dream, Jamestown and the Planting of the American Christian Republic

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