St Jude's In The Mountains
Anglican Church - Tehachapi CA
Anglican Church - Tehachapi CA
1
Happy Independence Day! Here we are in the midst of summer and for a change my travels are minimal, but I'm sure many of us will be on the road. What a joy it is to be in a country where we are free to go where we please, with whom we please, when we please. Freedom preserved through our right to vote and our right to free speech, even the right to bear arms. These are just a handful of liberties we take for granted in this country, whose birthday we celebrate this month. Time will tell if the providence of our Lord will prevail for our nation and our liberties extend in future generations.
One of the most valuable connections to God's providence for our nation is the faith of the American people. In an age where continental Europe and most of England have either become secularized or have been given over to the advance of Islam, America still stands tall as a nation founded on Christian principles. This is no accident. The Founding Fathers of our nation and their families came to this land not merely for economic liberty but for religious liberty as well. The religious liberty sought was not merely the obscure views of secularists, Deists, Quakers and Unitarians, but primarily Evangelical Anglicans, Puritans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Huguenots and even Lutherans. These were people who recognized that government can never dictate one's conscience, and too much power in the hands of a few leads to tyranny. They believed that any government not grounded in biblical principles and subject to the will of the people will eventually fail. With this in mind, the prospect of a new nation was pursued.
Though much has been written of the skeptical Deism of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, there remained strong influence of Evangelical Christians in the founding of our nation, even in the drafting of The Declaration of Independence. The writers of the Federalist Papers, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, each were committed Christians. Jay in particular was a very devout Anglican, baptized at Trinity Church in New York, educated at an Anglican religious school and much inclined to the reforms in England of William Wilberforce. Each of these men played a key role in the drafting of the Bill of Rights, and their world view is evident in the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence begins and ends with acknowledgement of God, particularly mankind's accountability to Him, thus recognizing the need to justify to Him (as well as to other people) the breaking of ties to England. Thus it begins, "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 entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." This precedes the most famous line, "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." After declaring that legitimate rule can only be by consent of the governed, it then enumerates 27 complaints against the King of England and concludes, beginning with, "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;"
Notice the appeals to God. Notice the accountability to Him. As our culture becomes evermore secular, may we at least always cling to our Lord, that the liberty He gives our nation may be preserved.
One of the most valuable connections to God's providence for our nation is the faith of the American people. In an age where continental Europe and most of England have either become secularized or have been given over to the advance of Islam, America still stands tall as a nation founded on Christian principles. This is no accident. The Founding Fathers of our nation and their families came to this land not merely for economic liberty but for religious liberty as well. The religious liberty sought was not merely the obscure views of secularists, Deists, Quakers and Unitarians, but primarily Evangelical Anglicans, Puritans, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Huguenots and even Lutherans. These were people who recognized that government can never dictate one's conscience, and too much power in the hands of a few leads to tyranny. They believed that any government not grounded in biblical principles and subject to the will of the people will eventually fail. With this in mind, the prospect of a new nation was pursued.
Though much has been written of the skeptical Deism of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, there remained strong influence of Evangelical Christians in the founding of our nation, even in the drafting of The Declaration of Independence. The writers of the Federalist Papers, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, each were committed Christians. Jay in particular was a very devout Anglican, baptized at Trinity Church in New York, educated at an Anglican religious school and much inclined to the reforms in England of William Wilberforce. Each of these men played a key role in the drafting of the Bill of Rights, and their world view is evident in the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence begins and ends with acknowledgement of God, particularly mankind's accountability to Him, thus recognizing the need to justify to Him (as well as to other people) the breaking of ties to England. Thus it begins, "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 entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." This precedes the most famous line, "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." After declaring that legitimate rule can only be by consent of the governed, it then enumerates 27 complaints against the King of England and concludes, beginning with, "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;"
Notice the appeals to God. Notice the accountability to Him. As our culture becomes evermore secular, may we at least always cling to our Lord, that the liberty He gives our nation may be preserved.
