I’m suspending Friday Freethought Perennials for a while in favor of alternating essays from two men I deeply respect. One of these, Michael E. Buckner, is my son and has been one of the two or three most important people in the world to me for over 50 years—and he’ll be presenting the side I firmly agree with. The other, Jay Lucas, is pastor of Grace Community Church in Washington Courthouse, Ohio. I not only respect Jay—I like him. Despite my strong bias in favor of Michael, I pledge even-handedness in this cordial exchange. The two will take turns presenting essays based on their opening statements in a debate back on 16 March on “America's Foundational Documents: Christian or Secular?” (see my Letter on 12 March for more detail), then at least one rebuttal each. The actual order will be:
MEB (Declaration)—last Friday, 21 June
JL (Declaration)—today, 28 June
JL (Constitution)—5 July
MEB (Constitution)—12 July
MEB (Rebuttal)—19 July
JL (Rebuttal)—26 July
With more to follow (?) if both men agree more is warranted—conclusions, perhaps, or second rebuttals, or concurrences for either or both that minds have been changed.
Both understand that they can include links, footnotes, referrals to the writing of others, etc. —and that they need not adhere too closely to their actual debate remarks.
Both have agreed to this process.
Today, Jay—
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Jay Lucas
Good evening everyone. I appreciate your interest in tonight’s topic, for it is very important. I am especially grateful for Michael Buckner’s participation. I trust that all of you will see that two people can strongly disagree over controversial issues, yet be civil and respectful toward one another. That has always been my experience with the Buckner family, and I expect that will continue tonight with Michael.
Before discussing the Christian influences upon the Declaration of Independence, I need to first clarify that in no way am I claiming that America is a Christian nation or that it was founded as a Christian nation. The reason I say that is because, strictly speaking, the New Testament makes no provision for a nation being Christian. The Bible identifies individual believers who are Christians, communities of Christians joined together to form local churches, and then the universal connection of all Christians together called the Body of Christ in Ephesians 4:12. Technically speaking, it would be biblically inaccurate to suggest that a nation can be Christian. Having said that, I will spend my time tonight demonstrating that the United States came into existence largely because of the influence of Christian doctrine and because of the actions of Christians.
The document that gave birth to the United States of America begins with these words:
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 Law of Nature and Nature’s God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.
What you just heard is consistent with the Christian worldview. Indeed, the Declaration was the fruit of 150 years of colonial history, a history that was deeply shaped by Christianity. Each of the original thirteen colonies was settled by Christians, from the Pilgrims and Puritans of Massachusetts to the Baptists of Rhode Island, and from the Presbyterians of New Jersey to the Anglicans of South Carolina and Virginia. Other than the Bible itself, no document in human history has done more to advance the cause of human liberty and God-given rights than the Declaration of Independence.
The Christian God is mentioned four times in the Declaration. This is because the founders recognized that God is the source of fundamental human rights, including the right to replace an existing government with a new one. In 1776 the vast majority of Americans were professing Christians and they took their faith very seriously. The Declaration would have been dead on arrival if it had been seen as a departure or rejection of the Christian worldview that dominated Colonial America. That is not just my opinion. In an 1854 report by the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives are these words, “Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle.” The Declaration is an expression of the biblical doctrine of justified resistance to tyranny, in keeping with the writings of great Christian thinkers and reformers such as John Calvin and John Knox, Christian theologians whose writings were well known throughout the colonies and they pre-dated the Declaration by over 200 years.
But what about Romans 13:1-7? In this famous passage the Apostle Paul instructs Christians to submit to governing authorities because they have been instituted by God, thus the Bible warns that he who rebels against government authority is actually rebelling against God. Does not the Declaration directly violate Romans 13? In his book, In Freedom We Trust: An Atheist Guide to Religious Liberty, Michael compares Romans 13 to the opening words of the Declaration about which he says, “They also went against the plain text of the Bible.” On page 86 he refers to Romans 13 and then writes, “The theory of government presented in the Declaration of Independence, then, represents a radical break with Judeo-Christian traditions that went back thousands of years.”
Michael has raised a very important issue, and I applaud him for wanting to compare the Declaration to the Bible. Many Christians have asked the same question and perhaps some of you here tonight have also wondered about Romans 13. I, too, want to compare the Declaration to the Bible, and, with all due respect, I believe I can demonstrate that the Christians who signed the Declaration, and others who supported it, had good reason for believing they were acting biblically. Included among that number were many pastors who served in the Continental Army along with the men of their congregations.
Much of the content of the Declaration can be found in thousands of sermons preached in colonial pulpits in the years prior to 1776. A classic example of this was a sermon preached in 1750 by the influential pastor of Boston’s West Church, the Reverend Jonathan Mayhew. The sermon to which I refer was a verse by verse study of Romans 13, and Mayhew explained that Romans 13, rightly interpreted, does not preclude Christians from resisting or even replacing existing governments. The occasion for his sermon was the one hundred year anniversary of the beheading of England’s King Charles I in 1649 by the British Parliament, among whose members were many English Puritans. By 1749, one hundred years later, the Church of England had turned King Charles into a great Christian martyr, a saint to whom the Church of England dedicated a special feast day of honor and remembrance. Reverend Mayhew wasn’t buying it, and in his sermon he explained the purpose of Romans 13. Mayhew explained that it was directed against a small number of Christian zealots in Paul’s day who believed that they were not bound to obey any civil government. His sermon was very popular, especially in the New England colonies, and historians consider Rev. Mayhew to be one of the most influential proponents and civil liberty of his day. His sermon is readily available on the internet and I encourage all of you to read it, remembering that he preached on Romans 13 twenty-six years before the Declaration of Independence was written and that these were Christian ideas.
What many Americans today do not understand about their nation’s history is that arguably the most influential group of people who prepared the way for independence and the writing of the Declaration were the Christian clergy. In those days, the Sunday sermon was, for many colonists, the number one source of education for political theory and the history of governments. Everything contained in the Declaration of Independence, including specific complaints against King George and Parliament, can be found in countless sermons preached throughout the thirteen colonies that pre-date the Declaration. And it wasn’t just Sunday sermons. Perhaps you have heard the term “Election Day Sermons.” These were sermons preached on annual colonial election days. They were preached by pastors and attended by entire government assemblies and colonial leaders. Election Day sermons combined exposition of Scripture with lessons on history, political theory, and commentary on the issues of the day.
Time permits me to give you just one example of a typical Election Day Sermon. In his sermon in 1768, Reverend Daniel Shute of Hingham, Massachusetts said, “Life, Liberty and property are the gifts of the Creator”. Eight years later nearly these exact words were written into the Declaration of Independence
Why do I mention Election Day sermons? Because they reveal that the ideas found in the Declaration were being preached by Christian pastors to Christian congregations and colonial government leaders before the Declaration was written, and that these were Christian ideas.
The British government was very aware of the impact made by the colonial clergy, and hated them for it. During the War of Independence the British derisively called the American clergy “the Black Robe Regiment” because of the black robes worn by many clergy when they preached. One famous incident took place when Lutheran pastor John Peter Muhlenberg encouraged the men in his congregation to join him in the Continental Army. Reverend Muhlenberg was appointed Colonel of the 8th Virginia Regiment, and 300 men from his church and surrounding churches joined him. By war’s end he had fought in several battles and had risen to the rank of General. Reverend Muhlenberg was later elected to serve in the First Congress after the Constitution was ratified.
Since our time is very limited, I want to quickly touch upon other considerations that indicate the Declaration was not a radical departure from Christianity, nor was it perceived to be by the Christians who supported it. The majority of the signers of the Declaration were practicing Christians. The influence of deism is greatly exaggerated by modern historians. The problem with much of what is taught today in schools and universities is that many historians do not understand 18th century theology, and many theologians do not understand 18th century history. Signers like Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Reverend John Witherspoon of New Jersey and Richard Stockton of New Jersey, all of them devout Christians, had plenty of company among the other fifty-two signers. Speaking of Richard Stockton, who was a trained lawyer, he did not live long enough to see the Treaty of Paris which officially ended the war. He had been imprisoned by loyalists and the cruel treatment he received led to his premature death in 1781. In his last will and testament he wrote to his family a passionate appeal to be followers of Jesus Christ, be students of Scripture and to commit themselves to worshipping in a local church. There is simply no way Richard Stockton would sign a document that he thought was a departure from Scripture. Another signer, Dr. Benjamin Rush, has been called the father of American medicine. In 1808 he helped found the Philadelphia Bible Society. Several other signers were also active in starting Bible societies. This is yet another evidence that undermines the belief that the Declaration was a rejection of Biblical Christianity.
Perhaps you are familiar with the name of British philosopher John Locke, who died in 1704. Locke’s writings on government and liberty were very popular throughout the colonies and it is universally agreed among historians that John Locke had a major impact on the writing of the Declaration. Unfortunately, students today are usually taught that John Locke rejected Christianity for Deism and that it is Locke’s deistic beliefs that shaped the Declaration. However, Locke’s writings are filled with hundreds of Bible references and acknowledgements that Jesus Christ is the Savior who redeems from sins, something no true Deist would say.
We must also take into account that the Declaration was not a declaration of war, it was a declaration of independence written in response to King George’s declaration of war against the colonies. Again, most American students today know nothing about the Continental Congress’s request for peace in the Olive Branch Petition of July 5th, 1775, a document that also promised the Colonies would be loyal to the Crown if their grievances would be addressed. King George refused to read the Olive Branch Petition and instead issued the Prohibitory Act in December 1775, which announced his intention to destroy colonial resistance. Thus the Declaration of Independence was written and ends with these words:
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 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; and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Christians signed the Declaration of Independence as a way of appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world to providentially vindicate their cause, and they did this because they believed it was their God-given right to do so.
Thank-you
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