(This column originally appeared in The Town Talk on Sunday, July 1, 2018.)
One of the best-known sentences in the English
language is the second sentence of the Declaration. It opens by stating there
are times when one people must separate themselves politically from other
people and that when this happens, there should be an explanation. The second
sentence then establishes the core value behind the Declaration:
“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.”
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” are
held forth as being basic rights of all men, and the Declaration goes on to
explain all the ways that Great Britain had violated these basic rights. It
contained a whole list of charges against King George III, basically attempting
to show how he violated the colonists’ rights and was therefore unfit to be
their ruler.
All of the stated reasons for declaring independence
from England were based in a core value held by our founding father. The
underlying belief of those brave signers of the Declaration of Independence was
that rights were given, not by men, nor by governments, but by the Creator!
For the founding fathers, the most important core
value of all was a belief in a Creator God. That was a truth that was
“self-evident” – that is to say, universally accepted as true, just as we
accept that the sun is hot and rain is wet. No one has to prove these things –
they just are.
While it is fashionable among some to point to a few
of the founding fathers as “deists,” it is undeniable that the Judeo-Christian
faith and ethic had a tremendous impact on the founding of our country, which
we celebrate this week. Allow me to share just a couple of examples.
John Adams, a signatory of the Declaration of
Independence, and the second president of these United States, wrote the
following to Thomas Jefferson: “The general principles on which the fathers
achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow
that I then believed, and now believe, that those principles of Christianity
are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.”
John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United
States, in reflecting back on an anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
said, “The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government
upon the first precepts of Christianity.”
James Madison, another signatory of the Declaration
of Independence, and the fourth president of the United States, wrote these
words 2 years after signing that famous document: “We have staked the whole
future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it.
We’ve staked the future of all our political institutions upon our capacity…to
sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
This is the same James Madison who conceived the
three branches of government while reading the words of the prophet Isaiah who
said, “For the LORD is our judge, The LORD is our lawgiver, The LORD is our
king; He will save us.” (Is 33:22 NASB)
There are countless more quotes from our founding
fathers that demonstrate a foundation of faith that underscored their actions.
While not all were professing Christians, there was a common understanding that
God’s hands were involved in directing the affairs of men.
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