247 4th of Julys ago
It's 247 4th of Julys ago that the signing the Declaration of Independence was begun. Here we are, in a nation that now seems confused about just what that independence should be about, and it's more than likely that confusion was encouraged by denial of some of the motives and forces at work in seeking and declaring independence. What better source to go to than the very people who were instrumental in the action. I provide only a few to illustrate a common—maybe THE most common—line of thought:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – J. Adams
“And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people 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 forever.” – T. Jefferson Writer of the Declaration we celebrate & 3rd President. That's right, this is the man touted as non-religious by modern non-religious writers. Whether he was theologically confused, he had no doubt about the reality of God and importance of acknowledging Him.
“While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” –G. Washington, 1st President.
“Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.” –J. Madison 4th President. Make no mistake, anyone at the time he wrote that would've understood that “subject of the Governor of the Universe” meant being a Christian, not some other religion or a theologically amorphous “spiritual person” making up his or her own set of beliefs.
Ministers and sermons played a considerably important part in the thoughts of the Founders and significantly helped to form thoughts and definitions of freedom and the place of government to the average American in the decades leading up to the Declaration, including the effect of the Great Awakening (1730s, etc.). Yale historian, Harry S. Stout Over the span of the colonial era, American ministers delivered approximately eight million sermons, each lasting one to one-and-a-half hours. The average 70-year-old colonial churchgoer would have listened to some 7,000 sermons in his or her lifetime, totaling nearly 10,000 hours of concentrated listening. This is the number of classroom hours it would take to receive ten separate undergraduate degrees in a modern university, without ever repeating the same course!
Sermons were also formative during the American Revolution: “Government corrupted by Vice, and recovered by Righteousness.” A Sermon preached by S. Langdon, D.D., President of Harvard College(!), before the Honorable Congress of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay(!) in New England..., on Wednesday, the 31st Day of May, 1775.
And after the War for Independence: “To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness, which mankind now enjoys…Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government – and all blessings which flow from them – must fall with them.” –Rev. Jedidiah Morse's sermon of April 25, 1799.
So, whether you have a cook-out or play baseball or go to a parade, take time to celebrate the part Christianity played in the founding of the United States. “What so proudly we hail” should be complete. Pastor Geoff Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance. Psalm 33:12