By STEELE BRAND
Mike Johnson opened his tenure as Speaker of the House with a speech citing the creator God mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. The speech drew criticism from columnists in the Washington Post, Time, PBS, and the New York Times, among others. Much of it shifted between Johnson’s support of Trump, his church affiliations, and his penchant for employing biblical language.
Each of the columns raced to the accusation that Johnson is a Christian nationalist. Yet none of them offered a counterargument to the fact that the Declaration of Independence actually does reference God in the course of justifying America’s separation from the British. The Declaration in fact makes four references to God, using the parlance of the 18th century.
The first reference is in its opening paragraph, which appeals to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” thus grounding the legitimacy of the new “thirteen united States of America” in natural law and its divine author. This nation endeavors to conform to God’s moral order from its inception.
The second reference comes in the first sentence of the next paragraph and is the most famous: “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.” The securing of these rights concisely expresses the American understanding of government’s purpose. Government derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed.” But both government and the people are subordinate to the Creator, who stands outside the material world and brought all things into existence.
Thomas Jefferson and the Second Continental Congress presumed a common (although not coerced) belief in God. Without God, the fight for independence was unjust. Without God, the new nation had no duty to protect life and liberty. Without God the people’s right to pursue happiness, understood by the founders as the classical pursuit of goodness and virtue, would deserve no mention. Without God, the Declaration’s claims become sophistry, because the very concepts of justice, goodness, and truth are subject to constant redefinition based on the whims of the moment.
This understanding of God-given rights is why another body of representatives, including six who had signed the Declaration, enshrined religious liberty in the Constitution. Some things belong only to humanity’s Creator and must remain untouched by human officials. America’s limited government might assert faith in God, but it would not trample on conscience or coerce belief; even those citizens who deny the existence of God deserve life, civil liberty, and religious freedom.
The Declaration then moves through its specific condemnations of Britain’s monarch, explaining how the king has violated the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God and the liberties granted by the Creator. The concluding paragraph then makes a logical shift to the final two references.
It opens with the representatives’ appeal “to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.” This bold invocation asks God to judge not only their words but their motives. This appeal hearkens back to the medieval concept of a trial by combat, where God will vindicate the just and punish the evil. Using an Enlightenment framework, Congress was arguing that virtuous citizens using their reason could achieve a victory by acting in accordance with the moral framework of the universe.
The closing sentence reiterates this belief in God as the cosmic judge. Congress pledges its “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” knowing that if they are proven wrong they will lose their “Lives,” “Fortunes,” and “sacred Honor.”
Even the least religious of the founders feared the judgment of God. Jefferson references God throughout his “Notes on the State of Virginia,” once again describing God as the Creator of the earth, man, and animals. Man is unique because he is the only animal that can create like the Creator. This sense of humanity as being created in the image of God prompted Jefferson to fear God’s “wrath” on a country that still allowed human beings to enslave one another, for liberty is “the gift of God.” Jefferson, a man deeply troubled by his own guilt in perpetuating slavery, wrote: “Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.” The same perfectly ordered and just being whom he believed would protect America during the Revolution would punish America if it did not end slavery.
So why does exploring the founders’ reliance on God in the Declaration matter today? Because it is the most fundamental matter at the root of every political question. Why are humans equal? Because God created them so. Why do all humans have dignity? Because they are created in the image of God. Why can government not solve every problem? Because it is not God. Why can our magistrates wage war or kill criminals? Because God delegated authority to civil government to punish evil and promote good. Why is governmental power limited in society and why must it protect human liberty? Because God distributed power to other human institutions (such as the family and the church), and every human being has a unique soul.
Civic theism for the authors of the Declaration moved beyond a narrow set of religious practices or beliefs. Individual founders differed in their doctrines, and yet they unanimously advocated for a theistic republic. It was built on the premise that a good God not only created the world but demanded justice, liberty, and equality from those who govern it.
Remove its foundation, and a republic such as this is doomed to fracture and collapse.
Steele Brand is Professor of History at Cairn University. He serves as a residential scholar at the John Jay Institute and is a faculty fellow with the Jack Miller Center.
This article was originally published by RealClearReligion and made available via RealClearWire.
The declaration isn’t the supreme law of the land, that’s the Constitution, which is a purposefully secular document, because the Founders knew the dangers that religion posed to the new country.
Neither Jefferson nor Madison wanted chaplains in the armed forces or opening Congress. Take a look at the Jeffersonian Bible and tell me he was anything other than a theist…if that.
The Founders also recognized, much more importantly, the dangers that out-of-control centralized government posed to the new country. Sadly, their experiment in limited government was virtually a complete failure, as we see today.
“Government is not eloquence, it is not reason, it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master”.
– George Washington
My little informational book said Jefferson the founder of this experimental form of government was never met to have a strong centralized national government (DC). The power is supposed to rest locally in each state control, the local state leaders are supposed to be more powerful than a federal government (power in the people). That makes sense when the people are closer to their local leaders than those leaders covering national even international work and issues. I don’t like national leaders making decisions for where I live. My little magazine book’s articles authors said the states and the people have given too much power into a national government (DC) when power rests on the people. One leader from Iowa spoke during recoded meeting with Dr Dobson he had said to an assembly “it’s not DC where change happens, the change of our nation begins right in our state, and our founding fathers of America never intended to make a strong national government so far away from the people.
“The Rebirth of America. 1986 edition of Arthur s demoss foundation.
Jefferson? That slave owner who cheated on his wife, was a deist, they all were
If the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, why don’t liberals want us to follow it exactly?
What country DO liberals want to live in, since they wish to ignore our “supreme law of the land”?
Every State constitution references God, so which country will you go to to get away from him?
or her, or it.
Did you even read the article cman? Without the context of the Declaration, there would be no Coinstitution in the form it takes or the liberties it and the Bill of Rights protect.
“This understanding of God-given rights is why another body of representatives, including six who had signed the Declaration, enshrined religious liberty in the Constitution. Some things belong only to humanity’s Creator and must remain untouched by human officials. America’s limited government might assert faith in God, but it would not trample on conscience or coerce belief; even those citizens who deny the existence of God deserve life, civil liberty, and religious freedom.” Even you, cman.
To quote the MA below, “Cue heads exploding everywhere.” Typical apoplectic knee-jerk freak-out by another unenlightened blind atheist – willfully ignorant. Open your eyes and your heart to the truth.
“The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’.” Psalm 14:1
Religion was man made to stave off the fear of death.
Some people need religion, some don’t.
I need it – to stave off fear of communists & other liberals
sorry about the typo… Constitution! fat-fingers strikes again.
It gets worse as you approach 70. I’m gonna need extra wide keyboards before long.
What is striking again is uniquely deficient software. I have yet to find another comment board where the commenters are not allowed to edit.
Not true cman.
The Declaration and the Constitution were created basically by the same group of people, though Jefferson basically penned the Declaration and Madison the Bill of Rights and, along with Governor Morris and James Wilson, the Constitution as well.
However, that does not mean they did not have direct influence from their earlier works or their contemporaries.
The founders knew that religion was the wellspring of all human rights and concomittently of all human liberty and flourishing.
What the founders were attempting to do was to keep the government from creating a state religion and mandating that religion to its citizenry. In other words, to ward off the Catholic vs. Protestant type fights of earlier England or the Church of England abuses that led to the Pilgrims coming to America. More specifically, the Anglican church was the state religion under the thirteen colonies, though the founders were nearly all of different Christian denominations or even deists as you say.
The point was NOT to eliminate religion in the state WHATSOEVER.
The point was specifically for the state to allow “THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF” of your desired religion.
And by the way, Secularism is also a religion the state has no authority to impose as the state religion.
Ordinarily I ignore you. I don’t feed trolls. However…
Every so often you show just how much of an idiot you are. Today is a masterclass in your self revelation. As usual, your arrogance and ignorance are racing each other. No matter which wins, the ultimate loser is you.
I could filet your post indefinitely, but will focus on just a couple points.
1-a breathtaking lack of understanding of history, circumstances, and cause and effect. The Declaration is the foundation of everything that happened afterward. Without the Declaration, the Constitution doesn’t happen.
2-the Founders and Framers both were overwhelmingly believers in God. Both saw the world through a religious lens.
The reason most of the early fathers were against having clergy associated with the military is simple. No state religion. Our earliest settlers (yup, evil white Christians) came here was to get out from under the yoke of Church of England. Plus the goal of the military is to kill people and break things. Pastors tend to object to that.
In more ways than it’s easy to list, the belief in God permeates the thinking of the Founders and Framers. It’s in writing everywhere. Even Jefferson’s.
A wise man questions his beliefs. Even how he sees God. At the end of the day, if the questions are sincere, it usually fortifies belief. Not uncut it.
Your ongoing failure here is you insist on seeing the world through your weird myopia. Not as it is. Or in this case, was. As difficult as it is for you to accept, the world existed long before you were born.
You are welcome to throw tantrums like a toddler in Freddy’s. It will get you noticed. It might get you sympathy. But it doesn’t make you smart. You can blame Trump for everything, make all the whataboutism you can scrounge up. You can, occasionally, score a point of two.
But you’ll never be right or change a single mind. But you will get attention.
Isn’t that your ultimate goal? “Notice me! See me! Verify I’m as smart as I think I am!”
The real difference between you and me? End of the day? I acknowledge there is so much I don’t know, and I’m willing to explore it. You? Your head is so deep in your intellectual cranial rectal inversion all you can contemplate is what you had for lunch.
You’ll be compelled to respond. Have at. I won’t bother to read it.
Your entire post is one long tantrum so no need for me to have one.
Your entire piece is incorrect.
Rarely see someone get so throughly owned in their own comment.
Damn.
And yet you keep replying. If you think I’m a troll, why keep feeding me?
All too easy.
Cman, your “secular” document is our Founders’ attempt at codifying the principles stated in our Declaration of Independence. It holds that certain truths are self evident: Man is created by a Creator, he is endowed by this Creator with rights, and that he institutes government to protect his God Given Rights. The fact that you don’t see that which is Self Evident to all of mankind should give you pause. It would make any reasonable man question where his reason, logic, rearing, and education went so terribly, terribly wrong.
It wasn’t that they saw religion as a danger, they saw coercion and loss of free expression and free will as a danger and a horror.
No charge, friend.
I challenge you to attend a Biblical Citizenship class and learn the truth including numerous quotes from Jefferson and Madison. By the way, have you heard of the Black Robe Regiment? Did you know it was the members of a church that stood against the British on Lexington Green when the shot heard around the world was fired? Did you know that a Black member of that church was one of the Patriots who died that day.
The argument that all men are endowed by a creator with certain inalienable rights is a counterargument to the divine right of kings to rule. The argument is stronger when couched in the same religious metaphor. The founding fathers did not believe in the divine right to rule or they would never have rebelled.
The language is curious, men are not endowed by “the Lord God Almighty” or “The father, son and the holy spirit” or “Jehovah, God” or whatever appellation was current in Philadelphia in 1775. It’s almost as if the founding fathers found it distasteful.
It is also easy to see this language as a rhetorical flourish, rather than a deep-seated desire to create a theocracy. Remember, 1775 was right after the Reformation, and after religious colonies in Massachusetts got a bad name for repressiveness and undemocratic leadership.
If you want to get a sense of the founders’ feeling on this subject, rather than inferring something from a couple of mentions of “the creator” in a fiery declaration of war, you should look at what many of these same gentlemen said when they had more time to think. The Constitution is a deeply and unapologetically secular document.
Nicely laid out Kurt. Your explanation is what happens when critical thinking is employed. But typically, commenters here are only interested in easily understood misinformation from the usual manipulators.
Yup.
Cue heads exploding everywhere.
One thing I can say for certain, even without looking at the byline of this article, is that is was absolutely, positively NOT written by anyone at Harvard, Princeton or Yale.
Or Columbia, Brown, Penn, and sadly most allegedly Catholic institutions.
I have been waiting for the day, which I expect to be imminent, when the National Archives remove the original copies of the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence from public view, if not destroy them altogether, due to “racism” and/or “misogyny” and/or “lack of inclusivity”.
You know it’s coming.
You can believe Steele Brand or you can consider the words of John Adams in 1797.
“As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…”
Nice try, but fail. You’re attempting a false equivalency by inserting Christianity into God.
The Founders were not uniform in how they saw God. That’s why they came here.
History. Too bad it’s not taught anymore.
The two are not incompatible. In Mr. Brands own words, “Civic theism for the authors of the Declaration moved beyond a narrow set of religious practices or beliefs. Individual founders differed in their doctrines, and yet they unanimously advocated for a theistic republic.” Notice how Christianity wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the article, the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution? Belief in a good and just God is not limited to one particular creed and the Founders were well aware of that.
Pete …. they were Deists …. no mention of Christ (although some were Christian)
None of us are claiming that, nor is Mr. Brand.
Who do you think was a Deist? A Deist is one who believes in a God, but no divine providence. I would venture to say most we Christians of various denominations. The Founders cited the Bible more than any other source in their writings.
Jefferson almost certainly was; Franklin and Paine held many Deistic views as well. Washington may or may not have been one as he spoke very little about the details of his religious views in public.
.
Also, your characterization of Deism is not entirely accurate as Deists differ on their beliefs in divine providence. The core tenet of Deism is that the existence of God can be determined solely by rational observation of the natural world without any reliance on revelation.
I’ll take deism over DEIsm any day.
I agree about Thomas Paine, but not necessarily the others when you research their writings. For example, Franklin is often considered one of the least religious of our Funding Fathers.
Below is a quote from Benjamin Franklin from June 28, 1787 when the Constitutional Convention was stalled:
“In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible to danger, we had daily prayer in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor… Have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth–that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writing, that ‘except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel…”
I therefore beg leave to move–that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business…”
In any case, hopefully we can agree that we need to return to our founding principles as outlined in the Constitution. When Franklin left the Constitutional Convention on September 18th, 1787 he was asked “Have we got a mA republic, if you can keep it”. Let’s pray we keep it. God bless.
Please do not force your God on either me or my government. You forget that the vast majority of Americans are not practicing Christians, and they do not want the beliefs of a pious minority imposed upon them. The Nation has changed since 1776.
Please do not try to force your Godlessness on me. You forget the rapidly eroding rights that you now enjoy were brought to you, and fought for by a Godly people, and it is the fact that many of them have FORGOTTEN their way that has allowed us to get so close to the precipice. It is ONLY through God working through those that are available to serve him and his purposes that there will ever be a bright future. We will gather those lost souls that we may to Him, and we need all hands on deck.
It is fine if you do not want to be a part of that. Just do not insist that you know of a better way. There are no atheists in foxhole, and if it keeps going the way it is, you will likely have an opportunity to learn that the hard way.
As soon as you stop forcing your non secular religion on us.
At least those of us with faith are honest about it. As opposed to the church of woke progressives who delude themselves into thinking otherwise.
*whistle* kaboom! there goes the nation.
Even Russia, an old nation older than America, returned to God after 1989 and its little communist/socialist experiment wrecked them. The Russians are still recovering rebuilding itself to this day from communists/socialists dreamers destruction on Russia.
I’ve long said that a big reason the communists failed in the Soviet Union was that they were not able to completely eradicate religion from the culture. China, sadly, seems to be doing a better job of it.
AK pilot, China is doing a better job hiding the destruction occurring on its society but also I won’t forget the Chinese Church unceasingly praying for China, for its leaders and for more Chinese peoples eyes to be open to the Truth and hope and for the safety and prosperity of their nation. Just as Isreal Jewish people possess admirable qualities . Well Chinese Christians in China are admirable in their devotion, faith, worship, and prayer even under scrutiny and persecution by China government authorities- they endure and persevere.
There is a gem of a story-true stories- to encourage and challenge the East – the Americas- about how the way we serve worship and pray to God on dvd through Chinese Christians. I find my copy at Salvation Army Thrift store I share here if other readers want to try to find a copy on internet.
(‘The Cross- Jesus in China’. China soul for Christ Foundation thru www dot chinasoul dot org. 2003.)
Russia insists on a Christianity that sublimates Christian thought and conscientious, purposeful, Christlike behavior to the repressive human government. Russia enters gatherings of Christians during religious teaching and arrests actually good Christian husbands, not fornicators prone to pumping the first, exotic, female sexual deviant hoping to sublimate the foolish man with a jingle in his pocket and ply him with vodka till she takes his integrity from him. Russia also interrogates those men in their places of worship and arrests them and treats them as America treated the J6 visitors. These Russian Christians are stripped of their rights and liberty for attempting to live their in a way that is in compliance with Jesus teachings which they have worked hard to learn and sound down into their hearts. The Bible describes “Russia” as the King of the North as a bear that does not spare for women and children’s crying. Bears stalk the perimeters of their large territories daily and are merciless in their attacks on smaller beasts they predate upon. As a resident in the territory of such a government would you enjoy those merciless traits? What is their chosen symbol right now. It is the merciless bear. Their choice for some reason. In reality Russia is attacking the actual good men in their societies and harming them mercilessly. I would urge President Trump to ask Putin about the true Christian men who were pulled out of their congregations for living as Christ taught men to do and ask Putin when he will return them to their families. Pray for those Christians and please don’t affront true Christians by extolling the forces harming these Christlike, long suffering Christian men in Russia. God sees their situation and WILL take punitive vengeance against those who have made Christ their enemy. It’s called completing His conquest. The Battle is the Lord’s. Those foreign non-American countries should let those Christians OUT of their gulags or they will be held accountable to the true, existing Creator, Jehovah.
You clearly do not understand that our representative republic works precisely because of religious belief.
Religion values the individual regardless of rank or station in life. God sees intrinsic value in every single human and delineates the way to attain peace and grace. Religion tempers the more base instincts. Many of our laws are based on Judaeo-Christian principles.
Now you are going to tell me that the Greeks already had democracy. Did they really? It was basically a small bunch of rich guys in togas standing around the Agora making rules for all, while the poor laborers, shop keepers, non-Greeks, slaves and women had no say.
The abolishing of religion by the Jacobines was one major reason why the French Revolution failed and turned into bloody tyranny.
In summary the freedoms you enjoy are precisely because our founders were men, who respected deeply held religious belief.
Actually, if facts matter to you, according to a 2022 Gallup poll 34% of Americans identify as Protestant, 23% as Catholic and 11% as “non-specific Christian”, which means 68% of Americans consider themselves Christian in one form or another. Only 21% do not consider themselves affiliated with any *organized* religion at all, but that doesn’t mean they don’t believe in anything; a 2021 Pew Research survey found that 91% of Americans believe in God or some other higher power.
AK pilot All have been given the knowledge of God. So therefore we are without excuse to deny not to have knowledge of God. A built in knowledge of Good and Evil called “general knowledge”. I can’t say anymore cause you won’t understand what the Spirit of God hasn’t enabled you to understand and see. Reading articles from such pastors and teachers as Charles Stanley that would help you will sound jibberish and rubbish. As Eph 1:17 ESV speaks “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach (to all), and it will be given him.” Just as unbelievers of the past becoming firm believers in God, and ultimately recognizing Christ as His gift of salvation when they pondered there has to be more to this life that what I know and all they did was seeked and asked.
Ak, it no use arguing with people who think they can just say a few words and be forgiven for anything. It’s not worth your time, best you can do is head to the voting booth and vote for people who actually realize how special and important it is that we have a Secular government. Let them rot in their paranoid religious stew.
Oh Rino, IF you would just let us!
But “NO” you have to convince all and sundry that God is a figment of their imagination, makes them dumb and unworthy of having ANY input. That you can not handle or accept graciously that others do not share your vision for how a life should be lived, or that there are greater things than yourself, is more a testament to your life, than to that of others. We can debate whether God exists all day long, but in the end it comes down to mutual respect for each other.
You have none.
You are entitled to your atheism, but like it or not the 1st Amendment gives me the right to view the world through the wisdom of God.
And God’s anointed has been cast off by the people of this Godly republic. DJT was sent by Him to serve us, and we rejected Him and him. Now we struggle to find our way. There is only one way, His way. And only one leader capable of manifesting His desires for our Great Nation, DJT.
Vote wisely.
Hill. No way. You’re being sarcastic. Right? Please say yes!
Well maybe you’re not trying to make me laugh. If you believe in a virgin birth and a dead man coming back to life, I reckon you’ll believe defendant Trump’s numerous and documented lies.
Democracy wise,I fear your mental reasoning more than anything.
You are gonna be quite surprised how wrong you will be proven in the warmer climates of the afterlife, lol.
Feels good when this article is a review when I learned this through reading, The Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation ‘ The Rebirth of America’. It’s a quick read of articles for the common American readers to read three sections America Yesterday: A Nation Established, America Today: A Nation Adrift and America Tomorrow: A Nation Reborn (first printing 1986) the way writers wrote back then and earlier they wrote in such elegance and humility.
But! A wayward American has no understanding how wayward he is when he has no absolute standard to measure himself against. Noah Webster said this “The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” Closer to home Alaska is sn example of a people bother leaders and common peoples live their own live on their own thinking what they think is right and wrong.
You left out the other religious books (bibles) Koran etc.
Police (policy) enforcers of the realm not republic. All took oaths to defend and secure the US Constitution. Not everyone in power wants to be governed by the US Constitution. It is the prerogative of God to determine who has the right to be sovereign. We, the people have an unalienable right to be secure in our morals and religion to determine for himself what is the equitable will of God for him as we “hug the delusive phantom of hope”. Forbid it Almighty God. Are we still spurned at the foot of the dias/throne? The God of Hosts is all that is left us. IT WAS Obama and some Rino’s view that we the people should submit to a sovereign”. The congress in 1774 couldn’t say openly “We want independence” from the monarchs. But that was the sentiments of the people expressed in anonymous pamphlets in every colony resolution in 1775.
God can be anything to anybody and with over 2,000 religions, you can take your pick, just don’t push it on anyone else. including political parties.
Well said, 3rd Generation! God has many manifestations to many different people, which is why it is imperative to separate the State from religious dogma.
Honest comment. Fair enough. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. The founders didn’t include this for show “The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment gives you the right to worship or not as you choose” but that doesn’t stop people sharing.
Just as long as the non believers don’t enforce their unbelief on those whom think they are wacky nor be pig headed and prejudice against Christians and Jews denying them employment and advancement as due to each one.
Christians have one that battle Jen. Your god has snuck into currency, governmental public meetings, government sanctioned christian holidays and even the pledge of allegiance.
Is the Continental Congress Trivia? What is a Declaration? (Why do judges like them so much)? It is “laying down the law”. (DE= DOWN, CLARE = SAY). your standing, status, rights. Not just store owners welded into a friendly American, states union.
If god existed, we could discuss the religious beliefs back then. Without a god, what’s the point.
If you existed, we could debate your asinine comment.
Problem is, there is far more evidence of God than there is of you.
They argued for tens of years these things. “is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? “Forbid it Almighty God. Give me liberty or give me death”.
Our form of government is supposed to be limited not unlimited creating financial crises. Our Bill of Rights is a Paper declaration of our rights and they are not in moth balls. Nor is the Magna Carta in moth balls.
There are a few serious misconceptions here interspersed with fundamental truth…”Why can our magistrates wage war or kill criminals? Because God delegated authority to civil government to punish evil and promote good. Why is governmental power limited in society and why must it protect human liberty? Because God distributed power to other human institutions (such as the family and the church), and every human being has a unique soul.”…ALL governmental authority resides in the PEOPLE. God doesn’t empower government…the governed do. Any human created institution gains its legitimacy from the people. If this is not true then there must be aspects of government and/or other institutions that fall outside of the power of the people to control and that is disturbingly reminiscent of the King of England’s “Divine Right” to enact his version of God’s will on the people with only the church elite to offer any opposition and, face it, the King and the Church were just two sides of the same coin.
George Washington was not only the first President of the United States of America. He was the first PRESIDENT in all of History. All rulers before him where just that, Rulers— Kings, Chiefs, Czars Khans, Caesars, Pharoehs, and Emporors. The Continental Army wanted to Crown Washington King after the Revolutionary War. He said NO. What do you people think we have been fighting for. No more Kings. Government rising up from the people, not down from an authoritarian. The Continental Congress said what can we do, we need order. Washington basically said, you figure it out, and let me know. The Continental Congress, wrote the Constitution, and asked George if he would be President. He said —if ELECTED.. GEORGE WASHNGTON was a MAN OF GOD. He led our country into Gods arms. No President Washington—No Lincoln, or any other President for that Matter. Jefferson and Madison where men of ideas. Washington was The Founding Father who led a tiny army against the Greatest world power of the time —-AND WON.. His writings are like David the Shepherd, and King communicating with GOD as he fought the uphill battle, of the Revolutionary War. PRAISE GOD.
Continental Army won the war with the assistance of French soldiers.
….and the British lost with Hessian soldiers.
What’s your point?
You want to go back and fight it again and see who wins this time??
The French mostly supported the war effort with materials, supplies and some troops, along with the Spanish and Dutch.
In essence the American revolution in a confluence of events, was one of many fires the Brits had going at the time. With the French Spanish and Dutch opening other fronts, the Irish rebelling, the Brits had to make a tactical decision and Hessian “Rent-a-Soldiers” gave them the ability to keep their own troops in Europe.
So we owe a great “thank you” to all those allies otherwise we’d be Canadians.
Nova Scotia provided naval services in the Civil War one of the captains of whom became an Alaska Commissioner after the civil war and had a large family in Alaska, is buried in Unga the former seat of government at the time with his wife my Great Great Aunt. Perhaps we were never so hostile as we have been lead to believe in the errors of this undereducated generation by virtue of Rothschild funded well accepted history textbooks upon which indoctrinated democrats jovially and loyally rely.
Just noticing that neither the constitution nor the declaration of independence said we needed to give hundreds of billions of borrowed federal reserve notes to Ukraine and Israel. Also looking for the part where a parallel judicial system gets to indefinitely detain citizens before trial whilereleasing murder suspects without bail. Also looking for the part that says unlimited illegal migration has to happen and 15,000,000 illegals have to be put in hotels for $3,000 a month forever.
Noticing you are incapable of following a topic.
It’s all inter-related. Tyranny does not exist in silos. It is insidious.
Excellent point: the Founders knew the dangers that religion brought to the new country.
This is the end result of not teaching history. Idiotic comments like this.
Teaching FACTUAL history makes it difficult to transform not only America but the entire World to something we wont even recognize and God only will know what it will look like in a very short time considering the pace of “The Change” that was promised and many people voted for it (and still vote for today)
I think it was more like the Founders knew the dangers of restricting religion by the government….
If that were so, they wouldn’t have been equally concerned with protecting “the free exercise thereof.”
Excellent article! If anyone wants to find out the truth of our founding as a Constitutional Republic, find a Biblical Citizenship class sponsored by the Patriot Academy near you. There are ongoing classes in Anchorage and Wasilla. Classes have also been held in Juneau & Fairbanks. The class is eight weeks long and I guarantee that regardless of how knowledgeable you are on the history of our country you will learn fascinating information about our founding you have never heard. It will also motivate you to get involved to help save our City, State and Nation. God bless!
Religious schools do not teach reality.
At least they know how many genders there are. I’d say secular schools do not teach reality anymore.
Okay define “Reality”.
It seems that many live in a land of fake.
There is the climate change cult. Supposedly it never happened before, in the millions of years this rock has been around, clearly not reality.
Oil and gas destroy the planet and we need to stop using them. An irrational and unattainable reality as both are the quintessential natural products.
Men can become women and are better women, clearly also not reality, despite good plastic surgeons and drugs.
Kindergartners know with whom they want to have sex with and what they identify as….disgusting perversion not reality.
…and you are worried about religion?
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”.
John Adams
Well done
There are three Constitutions. Which one are you talking about, the Constitution for the united States of America (1787), the Constitution of the United States of America (1789), or the Constitution of the United States? (1790) Maybe there was another one in 1868. I can understand why they had to do the Declaration of Independence, but they did label indigenous people as “merciless Indian savages”, which is probably better than the demeaning label of US Citizen.
Actually the founding fathers had already married into Indian tribes and the Lees and Washington were proud to include the statements of wisdom from tribes at the time into the Declaration of Independence. Washington was not too proud to accept the strategies of the Indian warriors who fought and prevail with him to toss off the tyranny of the monarchs at the time. They btw never gave up and are still fighting our productive, middle-class liberties by injecting their agents into our sell-out governance who now appear to re present the monarchical joking desire of ridding the planet by careful thought, secret, effective means as was tersely reported by Zbigniew Brzezinski in his many (many no longer available) books.
The Constitution was signed September 17th, 1787. It was amended many times since, including to include the Bill of Rights (first 10 Amendments) in 1791.
Sharon again you are making statements not in evidence.
Initially the 13 colonies had a lose agreement under the Articles of Confederation, but it became obvious that more structure was needed. In 1787 at the Philadelphia convention the US constitution was created and signed. In order for the lose association to become a sovereign country, states had to ratify the same document (in essence join the club so to speak). Some states insisted to have the bill of rights included. By 1788 11 states had ratified the document and elections were held in 1789. The bill of rights was ratified in 1791. It is all the same document not 3 different ones as you imply. The constitution continues to be amended to address or clarify issues.
I feel sad that you find the designation of “US Citizen” shameful. I for one am proud to be an American!
nice post
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The article was fine “Why can government not solve every problem? Because it is not God.”, until he got into a rhythm of nonsense: “Why can our magistrates wage war or kill criminals? Because God delegated authority to civil government to punish evil and promote good. Why is governmental power limited in society and why must it protect human liberty? Because God distributed power to other human institutions (such as the family and the church), and every human being has a unique soul.
No God has ever “delegated or distributed power”. That is religious hocus pocus mumbo jumbo.
Does it say “guest contributor” because nobody in their right mind would put their name on a piece of tabloid style gibberish like this?
David Pecker, John Eastman, Ken Cheesebro, Jenna Ellis, and La Kraken might approve, but it ends there.
Founders : Church + State = Bad News, centuries of precedent proving them nothing but 100% correct.
All Christian Evangelical Nationalist Extremists have done so far is also prove them correct.
100%.
What a fascinating debate we have here, but I have a question for the non believers. It’s a simple question in today’s digital world, but where did our genetic code come from? Or the code for every other living thing on this planet? What little I can comprehend of of the double helix, broken into 23 chromosomes of human life, it begs many questions in my mind. I know the digital device I am currently using has a operating system that was of intelligent design, made of materials pulled from the soil. Much like us I’m thinking. So to the nihilist who does not believe in creation, or a Creator, then where did we come from? And for what purpose? I know our digital devices were not discovered by a sheep herder in the desert after tossing a stone into a cave. And I also know with certainty where the OS on this device came from. So why is it so hard for others to conclude where our OS may have come from? That some three or four billion bits of information encoded into us just spontaneously arranged into the sequence of us, of life, of a thinking entity, a human. And my final thought to those who hate the concept of a creator. We all know we will all pass from this world, and there is no escape from this fact. But what would you say before this entity, when the time finally arrives? Would you show contempt? Resentment? Disgust? Hate? Just like in your living years? This is the part I cannot understand about the mind of the self proclaimed enlightened ones among us. While some of us are are searching for the truth, the rest appear to be searching for results.
Memorizing foundational documents! Great!!!!? Show me one once of accountability!!!!!
Listen to this. At least our Speaker of the House knows the truth of our Founding. Sign up for a Biblical Citizenship class near you so you can be educated.
‘https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1724809472529633434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1724974216380830155%7Ctwgr%5E31c008eb12ea929df99f06539416e5f658bb2a25%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww2.cbn.com%2Fnews%2Fus%2Fhouse-speaker-johnson-boldly-points-out-separation-church-state-not-constitution
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