This post, the seventh in a nine-part series highlighting a specific topic from each chapter of Dr. Marshall Foster’s insightful book, The American Covenant – The Untold Story, documents the foundation of America based on Biblical principles. The background of America’s government as Biblically initiated by the Christian thinking of our founders is included throughout the book with the seventh chapter mentioning our founding documents.
Dr. Foster explains, “We have learned that self-government begins first with the individual aligning himself with the will of God, then caring for himself and others and applying Biblical principles to all areas of his life. A limited, representative civil government will not long survive without what George Washington called the pillars of America in his Farewell Address: ‘Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.'”
The Christian thinking of the Pilgrims in 1620 – their covenant with God declared in the Mayflower Compact before stepping foot on American soil – is America’s first great constitutional contract.
Christian author Verna Hall, a woman who devoted her life to writing about the providence of God in America and co-founder of the Foundation for American Christian Education had this to say about America’s Biblical foundation:
“Each religion has a form of government, and Christianity astonished the world by establishing self-government. With the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620, Christian self-government became the foundation-stone of the United States of America. ‘The stone which the builders refused is become the head of the corner.'” (Psalm 118:22; Matthew 21:42)
The American Covenant – The Untold Story
America’s federal and state governments are founded on Biblical principles deeply studied by our Founders; they read Scripture. They founded America on a Christian view of man. Our Constitution is based on representation just as Moses used representation:
Exodus 18:21 But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
The Founders understood power should never be in the hands of one man or one group, that is why the Constitution includes separation of powers. The Founders understood all true power comes from above:
Isaiah 33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us.
In studying God’s authority over man versus man’s authority over man the writers of the Declaration of Independence were also concerned to protect their certain “unalienable rights” given to man by God. And the Bill of Rights was also created to protect the individual’s rights.
Unless Christian Americans stand together, speak out, educate our children on the Christian history of this great nation, and position Christian men and women in political seats, the words of Dr. Jedediah Morse in 1799 will very soon ring true:
“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoy. In proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief, or the corruption of its doctrines, or the neglect of its institutions; in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom… Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, must fall with them.”
The American Covenant – The Untold Story
Read more about, The American Covenant – The Untold Story:
- Part 1 of 9 – Remember God’s History In America
- Part 2 of 9 – America Acknowledges God’s Providence
- Part 3 of 9 – Our Purpose In America
- Part 4 of 9 – America, Our Liberty Is Through Christ
- Part 5 of 9 – America’s Government Founded On Christian Principles
- Part 6 of 9 – God Has Property Ownership Of America
- Part 8 of 9 – America, Let Us Revive Christian Morals
- Part 9 of 9 – America’s Covenant With God – Lest We Forget
ARE YOU A FOLLOWER OF JESUS?
Have you invited Jesus into your heart? Now is the perfect time. Pray this sinner’s prayer found at Gotquestions.com. Through Jesus you will receive hope that He alone offers.
“God, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. However, I am trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that His death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness. I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen!”
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Agreed, Christianity was a major cultural influene back then. And yet, Thomas Jeffersson cut out from his Bible all the bits about the supernatural and Thomas Payne was an atheist. The USA is the first secular nation in the world with the constitution strictly separating religion from political power based on plenty of poor experiences of the opposite and her success as a citizen society is very much a result of that. Is it not?
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Thank you for reading this post. I have seen Thomas Jefferson’s personal Bible. And I believe Thomas Payne was a deist.
For your reference to separation of church and state, please read my post from June 22, 2022, American Christians, 7 Verses Encouraging Boldness For Christ.
Nothing is written in any of our founding documents stating religion must be kept out of government. The intent is that America would never be forced to follow a religion dictated by government, as was the case in European countries.
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Thank you for the recommendation. I will try to find time to look into your other post. It is impossible to divorce the elected politicians from their faith based values and beliefs. However, it is possible to set secular laws over such values and beliefs, as in the case of prohibition over supernatural wittness in courts. This is what the constitution of the USA is trying to establish in being a secular law.
Payne had a very negative view of religion and even his public view of gods was not better, but in his time and age declaring open atheism would have meant social and political suicide. He was treading dangerous terrain and this should be remembered in interpreting his disposition. There are still societies today, centuries later, where to be revealed an atheist is a death centence and even in liberal western societies, an atheist stands a great chance of losing their job, if their religious employer finds out about it. I have personal experience on the matter.
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If you lost your job because of your religious beliefs in America…that should not happen.
The only circumstance I can think of that that should happen is if someone is hired by an organization, company, with forthright religious beliefs, standards, that they publicly and privately uphold, expecting their employees to be a representation of the company, and the new hired was not honest or abundantly clear on their beliefs which would contradict all that their employer stands for.
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Well, it was not in America, but where it happened there are laws against such discrimination. Yet it happens and propably in America too, as it is very difficult to prove in any court of law and people, bosses among others, feel their identity challenged by people who – on a fundamental level – disagree about the base of their values, and their reactions are comparable to their anxiety. I guess, we agree, that the employer has the right to fire an employee, who has managed to get a job at false pretenses, but that was not the case in my example. Anyway, I did not mean to go on a tangent from your topic, just to demonstrate how the atheists have had to and still often do need to hide their conviction, as I think was the case with Thomas Paine. In any case, my point about him and Jefferson in relation to your topic post was, that at least two very significant “founding fathers” were not creating the USA from nor to Christian thinking, even though it was in their cultural heritage. Quite the opposite. They were forging the first secular nation in the world and held a distinct disdain to Christian doctrine and churches.
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I agree not all of America’s founders were devout Christians. However, in my July 28, 2021 post titled, Pray For America, I have more details on the history of America’s founding as a Judeo-Christian nation. In our Mayflower Compact is where it begins in 1620.
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