It has been a long time since I have sat in an American history class. Decades in fact. We tend to forget, and in some cases, were never taught the providential history of our nation. People often see and judge the past by current culture. We need to push through the curtain of spin to see the full picture. Our founders were not perfect, but they were men of strong character who created a Constitution that could build a country of the people, by the people and for the people.
Contrary to what children learn in school today, our founding fathers grew up in the knowledge of God’s Word. Even those who were not professing Christians received an education including the Scriptures that impacted their thinking. These men knew Jesus’ prayer. “…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” When our founders gathered to write the greatest Constitution in the history of man, they clearly had the Lord and His Word in mind. In fact, they opened most of their meetings in prayer and sought Divine guidance.
What does God’s Word say? There is diversity as well as unity in the Body of Christ. Each human being is created by God with unique talents and abilities, and has a purpose designed by God to benefit all. Beginning in 1382, John Wycliff’s translation of the Bible into English spread to the people. He said, “This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Our founding fathers took that to heart.
It is the renewed mind and internal change Christ brings that is revealed through action. The Great Awakening began in the 1740s with the sermons of John Wesley and George Whitefield. The quality of education (home schooling for most) in America at the time the Declaration of Independence had literacy rate at well over 70 percent. The primary textbook was the Bible, the main focus to educate individuals in the Scriptures so that they could discern truth from falsehood and incorporate biblical principles into every aspect of their lives.
Note: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and other great American leaders were educated in the home.
What does the Bible teach? God is sovereign. He loves us. He calls us to love one another as first He loved us. We are to renew our minds in the truth of God’s Word and be a living sacrifice to God for His good purposes. Freedom is in Christ. We are all flawed individuals with a sin nature, but God has given us the Holy Spirit to convict our consciences and bring forth inner change first, and then outward reformation as well.
Note: Thomas Jefferson was the superintendent of schools at one point and said only two books were necessary: the Bible and Isaac Watts’ hymnal.
So much of our history has been forgotten, revised or eliminated from curriculums today. Pastors stood without fear and proclaimed the Gospel. They were involved in civic government. They formed colonies, laws and constitutions. Perhaps they took the example of biblical prophets who were politically active. Men such as Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Ezra. Others like Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Mordecai held public office.
If we are to save our nation, we must learn our true history and take up the standard of our forefathers again. If we don’t, we will lose the hard-won freedom which they entrusted to future generations. The Great Experiment of a constitution and country founded on Christian principles will fall, and the freedom of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with it.