The Strength Of A Nation

• John Quincy Adams, in his speech on July 4th, 1837, at Newburyport, asked the crowd: "Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on the fourth of July. Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer’ mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."

• READ. Romans 13:1-7

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1. Government is ordained by God!

o We are to be in subjection to the ruling authorities as long as they are fulfilling their mission from God. The mission is to punish the evil doers and protect the righteous.

o We need to remember that when Romans 13 was written, the government was not too friendly to Christians.

o Our founding fathers had a good understanding of what Governments role was to be.

o Government is not to be the giver of liberty, but the protector of liberty. Since Government receives its authority from God, it should govern within the framework God establishes.

o It used to be that public officials had to take and oath before they took political office which said, ”I do profess faith in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the Holy Ghost…one God blessed forevermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration” Delaware Constitution, 1776

o George Mason, the father of the Bill of Rights explained in reference to a nations accountability to God: "As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects. Providence punishes national sins by national calamities." Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787.

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2. Our system of laws is built on the Bible.

o Supreme Court 1892: "Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. In this sense and to this extent, our civilizations and our institutions are emphatically Christian."

o Supreme Court 1811: "Whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government." From David Barton’s Video America’s Godly Heritage we find the following information.

o Blackstone’s Commentary on the Law, introduced in 1758, became the law textbook for lawyers for 160 years, and the Supreme Court quoted from it to settle cases. It gave Bible verse references to the law. For instance the three branches of government are based on Isaiah 33:22, the separation of powers is based on Jeremiah 17, and the tax exemption for Churches on Ezra 7:24.

o Political Science professors at the University of Houston wondered if there was something unique about the government of the U.S. They gathered 15,000 quotes from the Founders and located where all of them came from. They then boiled that down to 3,154 quotes that had significant impact on the founding of America. It took them 10 years to finish the project, but they found that the three men most quoted by the Founding fathers were Blackstone, Montesquieu, and John Locke. They also found that the Bible was quoted: 4 times more often than Montesquieu, 12 times more often than Blackstone, and 16 times more often than Locke. Additionally, 34% of all quotes were from the Bible, and another 60% of the quotes were from men who were using the Bible to arrive at their conclusions. Added together, 94% of all the quotes of the Founders had their origin in the Bible, which shows the importance of God’s word in their lives and of this Nation’s founding. David Barton.