God Bless America
From a root should be expected a corresponding fruit. Deny the root and destroy the fruit. The root of America has been canonized by our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Both have been minimized by revisionists who are trying to rewrite the basis of both. Not all involved in their authorship were Christians, but all, that is all, knew Scripture and Christian doctrine. The training of several was at the hand of ministers.
Those closely associated with the founding of our nation testify of the faith factor.
In a letter from John Adams written to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813, Adams wrote: “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
Benjamin Franklin did not shrink from acknowledging his belief in God at work in forging our Constitution. “I have so much faith in the general government of the world by Providence that I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance [as the framing of the Constitution]… should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that…beneficent Ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being.”
This being the celebration of our independence consider these factors regarding the Declaration of Independence. On the issue of independence all the colonies were agreed, but a few of the most cautious delegates still were not sure about the timing. Rev. John Witherspoon, a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, and a Founding Father of the United States, a delegate from New Jersey, answered their concerns as he said: “There is a tide in the affairs of men. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery. That noble instrument should be subscribed to this very morning by every pen in this house. Though these gray hairs must soon descend to the sepulcher, I would infinitely rather that they descend thither by the hand of the executioner than desert at the crisis the sacred cause of my country!”
The delegates went on to approve the Declaration of Independence. After the announcement of the vote, silence moved over the Congress as the men contemplated the magnitude of what they had just done. Some wept openly, while others bowed in prayer. After signing the Declaration with unusually large writing, the President of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, broke the silence as he declared, “His majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can also double the price on my head.”
They knew the possible consequence might be their deaths. As Franklin suggested, they did “hang together, or we shall hang separately,” (meaning, we must stay together or we will be hang separately). Many of these signers as well as tens of thousands of colonists lost their lives, families, reputations, and property in order to purchase liberty for themselves and their posterity.
John Hancock furthermore said, “Let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lord of the Universe…. Let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of Him who raises up and puts down the empires and kingdoms of the earth as He pleases.”
Please God, please bless America, and help us to live with brotherhood for all.