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Who were the thinkers behind the American Revolution which would give birth to the greatest Republic the world had ever seen? Actually, men like Washington, Jefferson, or even Samuel Adams, were not the “root” thinkers of that Revolution. You may be surprised, but the truth is: It was the Pastors who inspired the thinking that brought about the American Revolution. They taught it in the churches! The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts stated in 1774:
“…we cannot but acknowledge the goodness of Heaven in constantly supplying us with preachers of the Gospel whose concern has been the temporal and spiritual happiness of this people…and do therefore recommend…that they assist us in avoiding that dreadful slavery with which we are now threatened…”
(Christian History of the American Revolution, V. Hall (F.A.C.E. pub.), p.402)
The inspiration for the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which began the Revolutionary War, was none other than Jonas Clark, Pastor of the Church in Lexington for twenty years before the Revolution. It was he who authored almost every state paper written to record the town’s position on liberty. Without him, there may have been no “shot heard round the world!”
America’s founders were taught the Biblical principles of resistance to dictatorial government by their Pastors. You hear these principles echoing all through our Founders’ writings. They wrote much in their journals and documents just so following generations could know the foundational ideas on which they birthed and built this nation into the greatest in world history. They didn’t claim that they came up with these ideas. They constantly acknowledged the Bible to be the source of this wisdom.
Let’s look at some statements of one of America’s Founders, John Adams. He gave over fifty years of his life in the service of his country. He signed the Declaration of Independence; was an Ambassador; was Vice President under Washington; and then finally President. He was very qualified to speak about the founding principles on which this nation was built. He was willing to lay his all on the altar of liberty that his children might have the opportunity to hear the truth of the Gospel in all areas of life. He wrote:
“If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have…a free country!”
(Adams, John. In contemplating the personal effect that separation from England would produce. Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, eds., Spirit of Seventy-Six (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1958), p. 26. | Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg’s Heart’N Home, Inc., 1991), 6.5.)
When some delegates in Philadelphia were hesitating to make the break with England, he urged them to approve, that very day, the Declaration of Independence. He told them:
“Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope [for] in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it…Live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence forever!”
(Adams, John. July 1, 1776, in speaking to the delegates of the Continental Congress. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1977), pp. 307-308.)
The delegates heeded Adams’ words and approved the Declaration of Independence.
John Adams had always believed God had birthed America for the purpose of getting the Gospel to the world. Their work that day in Philadelphia would create a new government that would begin to secure that purpose. He summed up his feelings about America when he wrote:
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand…design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
(Adams, John. February 1765, in his notes for A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law. Benjamin Franklin Morris, The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the U.S. (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, 1864), p. 109.)
Pastor, teacher, did you realize that was why God birthed America? Are you teaching it so that the liberty to get the Gospel to your children can be preserved?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.