Governments often fear Christians because they have a loyalty to God which they put
above their loyalty to government, and this limits their power to control. Jesus started this
by His famous response, "Render onto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the
things that are God's." That was the beginning of the Christian duel loyalty to God and
government, with the duty to God taking first priority. And so when the Apostles were told
by the authorities that they could not preach the Gospel Peter and John said to them in Acts
4, "We must obey God rather than men." This has become a basic Christian value system.
The freedom to obey God is the number one priority of Christians in relationship to their
government.
Whenever a government says that you cannot obey God because it is against our laws,
the Christian church has said, "You have just become an idol demanding a loyalty that
belongs to God alone, and we must resist." This is the principle behind the history of our
nations fight for freedom. It has always been a fight to be free to obey God and be one
nation under God. It has been a fight against those who say we are a nation over God, and
we demand supreme loyalty. Long before the Declaration of Independence and the
Revolutionary War, this was the battle Americans were fighting.
Freedom is the very essence of the Christian life. If you are not free to obey Christ and
live in harmony with His teachings, you cannot truly be a Christian. Therefore, the
Christian is obligated to resist all attempts to limit that freedom. Paul states it clearly in Gal.
5:1, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves
be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Paul was concerned about Christians being limited
by the Old Testament law, but the principle applies to any form of limitation to religious
liberty.
This is how the early Americans felt about the King of England. They had established a
democracy and loved the liberty of self-rule. For them to go back under the bondage of a
monarchy would be like the Israelites going back under the bondage to Egypt after being set
free. The pastors of the early Americans were preaching freedom, and when Charles II of
England heard that he tried to put a stop to it by demanding that only Episcopal clergy be
allowed to form churches, and that only those church members be allowed to vote. The King
was going to get control of the church so that the state could dominate it and use it for its
ends. This is the goal of all governments in lands where the separation of church and state is
not guaranteed by the Constitution, as is the case in the U. S. If the state can control the church
they can eliminate the risks of religious liberty to their power.
When the Colonists refused to obey the King, he demanded that they give up their
charter and submit to the King's authority. The Puritan leader Increase Mather preached
that it would be a sin to relinquish their freedom to the King, for it had been won by the
sacrifice of faithful men. The people voted not to submit, and the King was determined to
force submission by sending troops. He died before he did, but he started a strategy to
undermine the colonies fight for freedom. He sent Sir Edmund Andros to work at making
the Episcopal Church a dominant force in the colonies, for it was state controlled.
He forced all shipping to be done by British ships, and so all trade had to be with England
only. The Americans said that this was an abuse of power, for the King is to serve the people
and oppress them. II Sam. 23:3 says, "He that rules over men must be just, ruling in the
fear of God." The King of England was not just, but had become a tyrant trying to rob
Americans of liberties they had already won. Christians recognized that revolution is a last
resort, and so for decades they resisted such action. The King of England got into other
wars in Europe and let up the pressure, and so it was sort of a stalemate until George III
came to power in 1760. His ego demanded total submission, and so he took it as his cause
to crush the independent spirit of the Colonies. He more than doubled the size of the British
army in the Colonies to 7500 men, and then made the Colonies pay for them by increasing taxes.
The tax collectors paid themselves such high salaries that there was nothing left for the cost of the
troops. All the taxes went to pay for the tax collectors. This was the same problem that
made tax collectors a hated breed in the New Testament. New taxes had to be leveled until
the people developed a very ugly mood. It was becoming pure robbery.
The clergy preached many sermons on the injustice of it all, but King George, like
Pharaoh, had a hardened heart. Americans were being taxed by a government in which they
had no voice. They preached that the King had become a tyrant, and they had no more
obligation to submit to him than to a pirate or highwayman. He forfeited his right to be
obeyed by becoming an enemy of the people. They had the right to resist him as any other
invader. It was a matter of self-defense.
A showdown with the King was inevitable. The persistent spirit of liberty had to be
rooted out and so King George threatened more, and American preachers found more
biblical basis for rejecting his authority. On New Year's Day of 1773 the men of
Marlborough made this public declaration: "Death is more eligible than slavery. A
free-born people are not required by the religion of Jesus Christ to submit to tyranny, but
make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their laws and
liberties. We implore the Ruler above the skies, that He would bare His arm in defense of
His church and people..."
Peter Marshall in The Light And Glory, dealing with the history of this period, says that
even crown-appointed governors, faithful to the King, wrote back to England saying, "If you
ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but
Jesus Christ." The cry was going up and down the link of American, "No King but King
Jesus." I never realized it before, but the fight for liberty in America was a fight for
religious liberty. It was a fight for the freedom to obey God rather than man. This was the
key theme that united the Colonies. You might be thinking that this sounds more like a
history lesson than a sermon, but I am trying to communicate that the history of our fight
for freedom is a sermon. It is a sermon on the providence of God, and a sermon on the
priority of obeying God above all other authority. It is also a sermon on the power of people
who are united to win a victory for God established values.
History is His-story, and so it is full of sermons. History shows us how injustice cuts its
own throat. The British tax laws were forcing many American tea companies into
bankruptcy, and so you had the famous Boston Tea Party with Americans tossing tea into the
bay. The King demanded that the culprits be prosecuted, but none could be found. So he
punished all of Boston by closing her ports to all commerce in 1774. This was to be a
warning to all of the colonies that said, "Don't mess with us!" This act of tyranny had the
opposite effect. It united the Colonies as nothing before. This act ruined Boston financially,
for it was the most prosperous port in America. Out rage swept across the Colonies and
every city began to send provisions to Boston. George Washington himself sent 50 pounds,
which would be near 5000 dollars in value today. William Prescott sent a message to Boston
along with supplies and he used our text in his message. He wrote, "We heartily sympathize
with you, and are always ready to do all in our power for your support, comfort and relief, knowing that Providence has placed you where you must stand the first shock. We consider that we are all embarked in the same boat and must sink or swim together.....Let us all be of one heart, and stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free."
This was the sentiment that King George had provoked in the Colonies. Jesus said that
a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, and this was the major problem in the
Colonies. They were not united states, but they were divided by endless varieties of opinions.
But the Boston Tea Party and its consequences united them and made them realize they had
to swim together or sink. Patrick Henry at the dawn of 1775 said in the Virginia House,
"There is no longer room for hope. If we wish to be free, we must fight! An appeal to arms
and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us.....We shall fight alone. God presides over the
destinies of nations, and will raise up friends for us. The battle is not for the strong alone; it
is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.....Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased
at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, almighty God! I know not what course others
might take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
The love of God-given liberty united the people, and that alone made them adequate for
the battle ahead. If they had lack this unity, they never would have had a chance, for all the
odds were against them. King George had a well- trained army of 50 thousand men, and the
best navy in the world. The Americans had no navy at all, and they could only muster a little
over 10 thousand for the army, and they were poorly trained. It was a David and Goliath
conflict, but with a David who was nowhere near as good with a sling as the David of the
Bible. The British were disciplined and well organized. The Americans were not, for they
often just walked away from the battle and went home when they felt like it.
The war would have been over by lunchtime had the Americans fought by the British
rules of war. Had they lined up across from the line of red coats they would have been
demolished in no time. But the Americans had learned from the Indians the way to fight a
superior force. They would hide behind trees and rocks and fire as individuals at any enemy
fool enough to be out in the open, which was just where the British were. Americans owe a
lot to the Indians who taught them many lessons in survival.
The British won 17 major battles, and the Americans won 22. But it cost many
thousands of lives, and a great deal of money. Freedom is costly and that is why we need to
celebrate the 4th of July. It is a parallel to our celebration to communion. We celebrate
communion to remember the price paid for our freedom from the bondage to sin and its
consequences. We celebrate the 4th of July to remember the cost of our freedom from
bondage to tyranny and unjust rule. Freedom is the foundation for most all of our great
holidays and celebrations. Christmas is our celebration of freedom from isolation from God.
God came into history and made it clear that we are not alone. God is with us in Christ our
Emmanuel. Easter is our celebration of freedom from the power of death. Jesus liberated
us from this bondage and gave us eternal life.
We do not think of the 4th of July as a Christian holiday and celebration. It is more
secular in nature. That is why it is a blessing that is sometimes falls on Sunday, for then we
have the opportunity to point out the Christian impact on the whole history of our fight for
freedom. There is danger in patriotism becoming a form of idolatry, but it is also possible to
go the other way and fail to see the Christian duty to be patriotic. Christians have played a
major role in the patriotism of America, and we need to see it and be grateful for it, and then
carry on that balance of love for God and love of country.
My Country Tis Of Thee was written by the Baptist pastor Samuel Francis
Smith in 1832. The Pledge of Alliance was written by another Baptist pastor, Francis
Bellamy in 1892. John Witherspoon, the Presbyterian pastor, was one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. His Colony of New Jersey had elected him to the Continental
Congress just a few days before they voted on the Declaration. Witherspoon represented the
churches perspective on this momentous decision. He had been the President of Princeton
where many of the leaders of the Colonies were educated, such as James Madison, who
joined Thomas Jefferson in making religious freedom a reality in Virginia, and who went on
to become the 4th President of the United States.
Witherspoon had an impact on the lives of many of the early leaders of America, and
one of them was John Adams the second President of the United States. He was chosen by
Congress to draft the proclamation for days of thanksgiving and other special occasions, for
he would include in them the belief that divine providence was guiding this nation, and that
the preservation of our religious heritage was crucial to success. John Witherspoon wrote
the Proclamation that George Washington gave after his great victory at Yorktown. It went
like this: "Whereas, it hath pleased Almighty God, Father of mercies, remarkably to assist
and support the United States of America in their important struggle for liberty, against the
long continued efforts of a powerful nation: It is the duty of all ranks to observe and
thankfully acknowledge the interpositions of his Providence in their behalf."
Witherspoon had a great impact on Washington, for they spent a lot of time together,
and Washington became a firm believer that our nation could never remain strong and
moral without the religious influence of the churches. Witherspoon led other pastors into
politics, but he was very strong in his conviction that politics had no place in the pulpit. He
never used his sermons to promote political convictions. He felt this would an abuse of his
position. Only once did he break his own rule and bring politics into his message, and that
was in 1776 when he defended the war for independence.
He preached, "At this season it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace
the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which
America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty and of human nature. So far as we
have hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the confederacy of the Colonies has not been the
effect of pride, resentment or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction that our civil
and religious liberties, and consequently in a great measure the temporal and eternal
happiness of us and our posterity, depended on the issue."
It was deep religious conviction that united the Americans in their fight. Without this
unity there would not have been much chance of their succeeding. Christianity and liberty
go hand and hand, and they are an unbeatable pair. The practical lesson for us is to
recognize that unity in Christ and in Christian freedom is still the winning combination that
will lead to victory in any battle we face. Get Christians united and you will have a force that
the gates of hell cannot hold back. Unity is also the key to the good life when the battles are
over. Psa. 133:1 says, "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity."
After the war was over this was a major struggle to achieve. A common enemy had united
them, but when that enemy was gone they began to experience division. They were like the
church of Corinth where they were saying, "I am of Paul; I am of Apollos; I am of Cephus,
or I am of Christ." The Americans were saying, "I am of Virginia; I am of New Jersey, or I
am of Rhode Island, etc." Every colony wanted to be independent and not united.
North Carolina and Tennessee declared themselves a separate state and called
themselves Frankland, and then Franklin in honor of Benjamin Franklin. The government
of North Carolina sent troops to force them to cease this rebellion. Then Ethan Allen and
his Green Mountain Boys settled in parts of three states: Vermont, New Hampshire and
Massachusetts, and they set themselves up as a separate country, and they did not join the
U.S. until 1792.
Virginia and Maryland took steps to divide the whole country into 3 or 4 different
countries. But fortunately men like James Madison got that plan derailed, and a national
convention was called to deal with forming the United States. James Madison was a scrawny
little bookworm and not a leader type, and so he backed Washington to be the President of
the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Washington was one of the biggest men of that time.
The average American man was short and fat. He was about 5 feet tall, but Washington was
a towering 6-foot. He would not have been impressive today, but then he was a giant of a
man. He did not know much about government, but Madison knew almost everything, and
so this potent pair of brains and brawn led the fight for unity.
The divisions of states were unbelievable. Everybody thought the best idea was
different from everybody else's. Two were even convinced that the best hope for America
was to have a king. Five delegates thought the rich people should run the country. It seemed
like a hopeless chaotic mess that could not be unraveled. Some delegates just walked out,
and others threatened to do so if they did not get their way. To make a long story short, the
only way to satisfy everyone enough to get a national government started was to make it
extremely complicated. The United States has one of the most complicated governments in
the world. The reason it had to be formed with so many checks and balances was so that it
could never rob people of the freedom that had been so dearly won.
It had to have a Senate where every state got equal representation to satisfy the little
states. It had to have a House of Representatives where every state got represented
according to population in order to satisfy the larger states. It had to have a system of
electors of equal number to the Senators and Representatives to elect the President.
Benjamin Franklin came up with this crazy idea, and because it was terribly complicated the
Convention accepted it. We can't look at all the complex issues that had to be solved to form
a national government. Even when it was all done most did not like it. It was just the best
they could do and they were united in this.
Unity called for complexity so that no group could dominate other groups. The weak and the
minorities had to be protected from the strong and the majorities. Our nation and
our Constitution are great because built into them is the basic value that all people are
created equal, and all have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This
conviction about freedom is the unifying principle that makes an American an American.
Any one who feels there are people who do not have an equal right to freedom is
un-American. They are also un-Christian in that it was Christian conviction that led to this
kind of freedom being guaranteed by our Constitution. Christian leaders made sure the Bill
of Rights would forever prevent our government from interference in the religious liberty of
its citizens.
Christians can celebrate the 4the of July as a sacred day of thanksgiving, for it was the
Declaration of Independence that led to the Constitution and the forming of the United
States with all of its freedoms and religious liberty. Every Christian who knows the way God
providently led this nation needs to say often, "Thank God for America."
