Recognizing God
Where is God in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution?
What is God’s role in the founding of our country? How did the framers of the Constitution and our founding fathers view God? How did that perspective shape the way they viewed their own roles? These are things I think about a lot. I’ve written about it in one form or another for a number of years. Partly because this was on my mind again and partly because I didn’t want to write something new on my wedding anniversary last night (😜) , I decided to plagiarize myself. Here is something I wrote on this topic back in early 2019, but is every bit relevant today. I hope it provokes some thoughts and causes you to consider your own role in the preservation of this republic.
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Recognizing God
Usually I quote from the Bible when talking about the things of God, but I'm going to reference the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution today. Whenever I refer back to these documents, it amazes me that a group of men with different beliefs, some who struggled to define or outwardly doubted God, could come together to claim the following things AND sign their names to these documents...
References to God in the Declaration of Independence:
-The "laws of nature and of nature's God" entitle the United States to independence.
-Men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."
-Congress appeals "to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions."
-The signers, "with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence," pledge to each other their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.
While God is not specifically referenced in the U.S. Constitution, the purpose of the Constitution is laid out in the Preamble:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. "
Notice it says "secure" the blessings of liberty NOT "give" the blessings of liberty. Our rights and the abuse of said rights were clearly laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Both the origin of our rights and the perpetrators against our liberties were clearly defined.
It is also interesting to note that all 50 state constitutions reference God or the Divine at least once. Go figure...
Again, it is amazing that a group of men both seeking, questioning, and doubting God could come to a consensus agreement on all of these things. There is no limit to what a people united in the desire of liberty and a knowledge of the Granter of liberty can accomplish. On the contrary, there are no shortage of examples of countries who took their liberties for granted and were destroyed by a tyranny or fought against themselves to the point of destruction.
United we stand, divided we fall...
I like pointing out that there were over 400 people that are considered to have had a crucial part in the founding of our country. Whether through drafting/signing of documents like the Declaration or the Constitution, as writers of pamphlets and propagandas, or even as people that coordinated conventions and meetings... these men and women were 95% majority Christians. It's incredible to note that when the secular humanistic education systems of today are not teaching that in public schools. It's far too easy to claim that our country was partially founded by Godless men, after God was largely removed from founding literature in the early 1920's. A prime example is George Washington's "Maxims". That book was re-written in the 1920's to remove Christian vernacular in favor of secular alternatives. And now, instead of people learning from the original literature, that altered version has created a false sense that Washington was not a Christian, when he very much was.