Many Christian Americans are retreating from the political sphere,
citing spiritual reasons, willfully forfeiting the liberties protected
by earlier Christians.
For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. — Luke 12:48
As a minister, 1 know from personal experience that many of our Christian brethren do not view the preservation of our great country and God-given liberties as some-thing they should be involved with. Their attitude seems to be that God will take care of it or that we are in the end times and so any involvement on our part would not make any difference anyway and in fact could conflict with God’s will. They ignore the fact that God accomplishes much through His instruments on Earth, that God expects us to oppose evil and do good, and that we have clearly been told to occupy until He comes.
God expects us to pray and to put our faith in Him, of course. But He also expects us to work. A farmer should pray to God for a good crop, but he must not anticipate that God will answer that prayer if he does not lift a hand himself— if he does not plant the seeds or cultivate or harvest the crop. God can and does perform miracles, but He still expects man to do what he is capable of doing.
The freedom fight is no different. In fact, the history of our great country, which has been abundantly blessed by God, shows that our Christian forebears understood this principle and worked and sacrificed so that we would have the freedoms we enjoy today.
The United States of America owes its liberty and prosperity to the willingness of Christian patriots to take up the fight for freedom and independence. While modern secularists lampoon the impact and influence of Christian people in the development and struggle of early America, the facts cannot be ignored: Christian thought and ideology formed and framed the philosophy and actions of Colonial America. Furthermore, it was largely the dedication and determination of Christian patriots that purchased America’s freedom. Not all of America’s colonists were Christians, of course, but many were. And even those who were not Christians understood the impor-tance of Christian principles.
Remember, it was Christians (from a single church congregation, no less) who sailed on the Mayflower across the Atlantic Ocean into this new world. Stitched into the sail of that tiny ship was the motto under which they traveled: “In God We Trust.” It was Christian Pilgrims who left Europe looking for a land of religious liberty. It was Christian Puritans who followed the Pilgrims and settled much of New England. It was Christian patriots who stood on Lexington Green and Concord Bridge and withstood the Crown’s troops, who were attempting to confiscate the colonists’ firearms. It was Christian militiamen who fought and died on Bunker Hill. And it was largely Christian men who pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor in order to birth this great country.
Beyond that, it was Christian pastors in Colonial America who helped lead our fight for independence. They preached “political” sermons in which they explained, expounded, and extrapolated the principles of liberty and independence. Without this instruction and inspiration, the colonies would have lacked the resolve and understanding to carry out such an arduous task. Some pastors, of course, did much more.
Numerous pastors not only encouraged the men of their congregations to take up arms against the British, they, themselves, did the same. Take, for example, the Presbyterian pastor James Caldwell of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Also known as “The Rebel High Priest” and “The Fighting Chaplain,” Caldwell is perhaps most noted for taking hymn books to the battlefield in order to help make wadding for colonial muskets. The fighting preacher implored his troops to “Give ‘em Watts, Boys!” — a reference to Isaac Watts, who is credited with writing over 750 hymns and is known as the “Father of English Hynmody.” Rev. Caldwell’s rallying cry was almost as universally quoted among the colonists as Patrick Henry’s famous cry, “Give me liberty or give me death!”
Consider, too, Joab Houghton, who was preaching in the Hopewell Baptist Church in New Jersey when he received the first word of the battles of Lexington and Concord. His great-grandson, the Reverend Spencer Cone, gives the following eloquent description of the way he treated the tidings:
[He mounted] the great stone block in front of the meeting-house [and] beckoned to the people to stop. Men and women paused to hear, curious to know what so unusual a sequel to the service of the day could mean. At the first words a silence, stern as death, fell over all. The Sabbath quiet of the hour and of the place was deepened into a terrible solemnity. He told them all the story of the cowardly murder at Lexington by the royal troops; the heroic vengeance following hard upon it; the retreat of Percy; the gathering of the children of the Pilgrims round the beleaguered hills of Boston; then pausing, and looking over the silent throng, he said slowly, “Men of New Jersey, the red coats are murdering our brethren of New England! Who follows me to Boston?” And every man of that audience stepped out into line and answered “I!” There was not a coward or a traitor in old Hopewell Baptist Meeting-house that day.
Then there was the Lutheran pastor John Peter Muhlenberg of Woodstock, Virginia. When the news of Bunker Hill reached Virginia, Muhlenberg reminded his congregation that there was a time to preach and a time to fight. And for him, the time to preach was past. During that Sunday sermon, he said, “There is a time to fight, and that time has now come.” And saying thus, he threw off his vestments and stood before his congregation in the garb of a Virginian colonel.
Muhlenberg’s brother, Frederick, quoted John Peter as saying, “You may say that as a clergyman nothing can excuse my conduct. 1 am a clergyman, it is true, but I am a member of society as well as the poorest layman, and my liberty is as dear to me as any man. I am called by my country to its defense. The cause is just and noble.... I should obey without hesitation; and as far am I from thinking that I am wrong, I am convinced it is my duty so to do — a duty I owe to my God and my Country.”
Ah! There it is. The duty we owe to God and our country. The Lord Jesus Christ put it this way, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Christians are not exempt from their civic obligations simply because they are Christians. In fact, for those of us privileged to live in these United States of America, our civic responsibility demands a deliberate and indefatigable willingness to fight for liberty and independence.
At the time of America’s initial fight for independence, Chris-tians from virtually every denomination rallied together for the defense of liberty. Their duty to God certainly did not conflict with their duty to liberty. It only enhanced it.
When Thomas Jefferson concluded the Declaration of Inde-pendence, he wrote, “We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, ap-pealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions...”
You see how America’s birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, appeals to God to judge the rightness and justness of America’s Great War. This country’s Founders were not trying to divorce themselves from God (as did the authors of France’s fallacious and failed revolution). Instead, they cast their cause and its consequences directly under God’s authority and supervision.
This is seen by the very words of the signers of the Declaration. For example, John Adams said, “[Independence Day] will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.”
As he signed the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Adams said, “We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.”
America’s Founders believed their fight for liberty and inde-pendence was an act of obedience to God. This can be affirmed by the fact that our nation’s founding documents find their root in the principles contained in the Holy Scriptures.
Some say that the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are totally secular in nature. Even some misguided Christians have bought into this erroneous belief. They have accepted the secu-larist “separation of church and state” mantra to the point that they do not even recognize their own heritage. Fortunately, America’s Founding Fathers suffered from no such malady.
For example, America’s most notable and celebrated jurist, Daniel Webster (1782-1852), said, “Finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian Religion. They journeyed by its light, and labored in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary.”
Did you catch that? Daniel Webster said that America’s Founders incorporated the principles of the Christian faith into the civil and political institutions of America. And so they did. In the very first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson refers to “The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” Of course, Jefferson was addressing Natural Law. Our Founding Fathers had studied the writings of John Locke, John Calvin, and other philosophers and ministers of the period who had taught extensively about Nat-ural Law. They all understood it. Natural Law is the instinctive un-derstanding of basic morality, the innate understanding of good and evil as provided by our Creator.
William Blackstone’s Com-mentaries on the Law were the chief influence upon the legal philosophy of America’s Founders. Those commentaries formed the most authoritative manual of law for over 100 years following the War for Independence.
Blackstone wrote, “Man, con-sidered as a creature, must neces-sarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a depen-dent being.... And consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker’s will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature.”
Accordingly, for the first time in the history of mankind, a nation ingrained the Creator’s will for civil government in its founding documents.
When Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” he was recognizing the principles of Natural Law as seen in Genesis 2:7, Galatians 5:1, and Ecclesiastes 3:13.
Beyond that, the 10 articles contained in the Bill of Rights also have biblical foundation. For example, the First Amendment recognizes the natural right of freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. Christians are clearly given divine instruction regarding each of these responsibilities. Accordingly, our founding documents properly establish a government designed to “secure these rights” (Declaration). Therefore, under the First Amendment, Christians are free to preach the Gospel and assemble for worship.
What many Christians today might not know is that America owes its First Amendment liberties to a Baptist pastor by the name of John Leland. After witnessing — and experiencing himself — many acts of violence against religious expression in Virginia, Leland utilized his influence with James Madison (“The Father of the U.S. Constitution”) to ensure that the principles of religious liberty would be the very first of the original 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. And so they are.
But what about the “separation of church and state” — as coined by author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Baptists, who often suffered from religious persecution, of Danbury, Connecticut? This is, as was stated by former Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist. “a metaphor based on bad history.... It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.... George Washington himself, at the request of the very Congress which passed the Bill of Rights, proclaimed a day of ‘public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God.’”
Thomas Jefferson simply meant by that phrase that the Constitution did not allow government to control religion in any manner — let alone stop religious expression. This belief can be confirmed through other letters written by Jefferson. In a letter to the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1808, he stated, “Our excellent Constitution ... has not placed our religious rights under the power of any public functionary.”
The fact that God was meant
to be a part of public life was
not the view of only a rebellious few. In 1789, the same Congress that approved the U.S. Constitution, hence passing the “es-tablishment clause” of the First Amendment that is presently being used to strip religion from the public domain, especially from schools, passed the Northwest Ordinance, which established statehood requirements for new territories. Article III of the Northwest Ordinance states: “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
And contrary to the ranting of modern-day secularists, even our U.S. Constitution recognizes the Lord Jesus Christ to be the God of this nation and gives to Him due submission and reverence. Article I, Section 7, Paragraph 2 states, “If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted)...” No-tice, the U.S. Constitution de-notes Sunday — the Christian day of worship, also known as “The Lord’s Day” — as being a day of rest from governmental business. Accordingly, the U.S. Constitution demonstrates preference for the Christian faith.
In addition, Article VII of the Constitution states, “Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of OUR LORD [emphasis added] one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth.” Notice, the U.S. Constitution concludes by identifying the Lord Jesus Christ as being “our Lord.”
No wonder Daniel Webster saw no conflict in the following two statements.
If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instruction and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity.
Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Consti-tution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.
Obviously, Daniel Webster believed that the U.S. Constitution (along with our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights) contained the “principles taught in the Bible.”
It is the responsibility of America’s pastors and ministers to inform, educate, and inspire the American people to live up to their heritage.
As our second president and Founding Father John Adams said, “It is the duty of the clergy to accommodate their discourses to the times, to preach against such sins as are most prevalent, and recommend such virtues as are most wanted. For example, if exorbitant ambition and venality are predominant, ought they not to warn their hearers against those vices? If public spirit is much wanted, should they not inculcate this great virtue? If the rights and duties of Christian magistrates and subjects are disputed, should they not explain them, show their nature, ends, limitations, and restrictions, how muchsoever it may move the gall of Massachusetts?”
In other words, whether our preaching is politically correct or not, preach the truth. Whether people like it or not, preach the truth. Explain the principles of liberty. Show the nature of man and the importance of binding our civil magistrates down from mischief “by the chains of the Constitution” (Jefferson). Explain the doctrines of jurisdiction. Expound the 5 themes of limited government and personal responsibility.
If today’s pastors were doing their jobs and preaching Christian duty and responsibility toward government instead of emulating the Pied Pipers of prosperity theology and entertainment evangelism, America would not be in the miserable mess she is in today.
Adams also said, “Let the pulpit resound with the doctrines and sentiments of religious liberty.”
The famed 19th-century revivalist Charles Finney was even more direct. He said, “If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.”
It should be obvious that the current infatuation with political non-involvement demonstrated by many pastors and Christians today has no basis in American history. In fact, it is safe to say that had our country’s Founding Fathers — including ministers and Christians of the period — believed and behaved as many Christians and ministers do today, this nation would still be a Crown colony (or worse) with few of the liberties and freedoms that we all hold dear.
America is the “land of the free” because it is also the “home of the brave.” Take away the latter and we lose the former. And that is exactly what is currently happening. And, sadly, the majority of blame for this tragedy can be laid directly on the doorsteps of America’s churches, just as Rev. Finney said.
America’s future freedom and independence will, likewise, be largely determined by the willingness or unwillingness of today’s ministers and Christians to live up to their heritage.
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Used by Permission from The New American, December 24, 2007.
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Dr. Chuck Baldwin is Pastor of Crossroads Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. Dr. Baldwin is the radio host of “Chuck Baldwin Live.” He is the author of two books and weekly syndicated columns.
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